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the Wise Old Adage "SHIT HAPPENS" is a vulgar saying for sure, but if it fits.......

No one wants to think about things like this, but if you're ever in an aviation mishap, you had better be in a Mooney!

Things can happen in any area of life, but one of the areas that applies to; aviation, is one place we all wish it wouldn't happen; BUT IT DOES! People run out of gas in their airplanes even today, and while engine problems are relatively rare, they do happen. I personally have had six complete engine failures in my 6,000 hour flying career, but I have always been able to make an airport each time thus far knock on wood, as another wonderful feature of the Mooney airplane is the superb glide ratio, more than double that of some brands.

Here's the point of this article: Murphy's Law states that if it can happen, it will happen, which is why for the past 21 years in this business, I have touted the Mooney airplane because there is NOTHING ELSE in its class that has the "Crash Worthiness" of the Mooney airplane. NOTHING!

Having had hundreds of customers over the years, a few have crash landed their Mooney's for one reason or another, and to date I am blessed in that I have not lost a single customer to a crash even though we've lost a few planes. We won't go into why the crashes so let's just put them in the category of "Shit Happens".

So, with that in mind, all of us are susceptible to a mishap now and then and should that happen, it is always what I tell my potential Mooneylander's that they had better be in a Mooney! I have seen pictures of some of the most horrendous looking crashes where the pilot and passengers come out relatively unscathed. Don't get me wrong because when we all decide to defy the laws of gravity, there are some accidents that wouldn't be survivable in any kind of craft, but to load the odds in your direction, again, you'd be better off in an airplane that is designed to help protect the occupants and again, there is nothing out there as good as the Mooney in this area. Why?

THIS IS WHY!

If you're not flying a Mooney, you don't have this super-strong super-structure to protect the "fragile eggs" inside of the airplane. Flying in an all aluminum or composite airplane should it meet the ground in less than ideal conditions, the aluminum will fold up like a beer can and the composite airplanes like a tattered shirt. Have you ever seen a Corvette for instance after an accident? The composite of that car simply explodes into small pieces upon impact and usually just the steel under-frame is somewhat in tact.

Many a pilot have crashed airplanes where they land inverted. Pretty much instant death unless you've got that Chromalloy Steel Roll Cage Structure to protect our "egg" heads. I am even aware of fatal accidents where the airplane appeared in tact, but the hard landing brought down the ceiling enough to break necks inside the cabin and the ceiling went right back up to its original shape, yet the occupants were killed. That just won't happen in the Mooney structure. If you fly a high winged airplane, then be especially aware that the weight of the wing especially with heavy fuel in it has nowhere to go except down on your head because it does not have a steel super-structure in place, but if virtually any other aircraft lands inverted, those occupants are pretty much history.

I have been preaching the crashworthiness of the Mooney airplane for at least two decades and I encourage every private plane owner to consider the Mooney for just in case SHIT does HAPPEN! It happened to Jolie Lucas who wrote an article about her experience with their old family friend; "Maggie". Maggie is an early Mooney that one day at takeoff could not get enough engine power to clear the very tall trees that were below her trusted old Mooney.

In the words of Jolie Lucas, a dyed-in-the-wool Mooney Enthusiast with her permission;

A Mooney Girl Is Born

Posted by Jolie Lucas

Maggie I was a part of our family life for nearly as long as I can remember.

Before the Mooney, we had a tail-dragger 1946 Bellanca, N86789. Dad purchased our Mooney Airplane N6619U from the Perris [California] School District. In the mid-seventies, they started a mechanic shop for their high school kids. Maggie was their project. Dad went and picked her up; she was silver, yet to be painted.

Our 1963 M20 C/D was an integral part of our lives for decades. Her faithful performance took us annually across the country, to weddings, graduations and birthday celebrations. We may have driven a modest car, but we always had a Mooney.

Fast Forward to August 2003: My mother and father had flown up the day before from Jackson/Westover Field (O70). The flight was delayed a full day because of thunderstorm activities and massive TFRs due to President Bush’s arrival in Oregon. I called on Thursday to tell them to wait until Saturday. I spoke with my Dad giving him the weather, winds aloft and TFRs. I said I was nervous about the trip. He asked me why. “Because my Mother and Father are in an airplane,” I said, to which he replied, “we are not in an airplane, we are in a Mooney.”

Since early in the morning I was working at the Hood River Airport Fly-In. I was in charge of the silent auction to benefit the scholarship program of the Columbia Gorge Aviation Association. As well, I was helping with the steak and salmon dinner, and the big band [White Salmon Jazz Band], of which I was a member, was slated to play that evening.

Therefore, I did not even have time to be nervous about my parents’ trip to Hood River. Before I knew it, my three-year-old son was saying “Grandpa Jim, Grandpa Jim.” As I turned to tell him that it was not Grandpa yet, I saw the familiar 6619U taxing in. We unloaded and like most pilots, Dad headed to the facilities. We enjoyed the dinner and folks danced on the ramp under the stars

A Mooney Girl Is Born, Part 2

Posted by Jolie Lucas

Previously my parents and Maggie, our beloved Mooney had arrived from California.  We spent the first night of the Hood River Fly-In enjoying a steak dinner and dancing to the sounds of the White Salmon Jazz Band. (See A Mooney Girl Is Born, Part 1.)

Later that night I completed the planning for our trip to Eugene. Dad and I were ferrying my daughter and her boyfriend back to University of Oregon. Although the flight was only a little over an hour, I did extensive planning. I use AOPA’s website and accessed the flight planning tool, DUATS. I plotted the course from Hood River (4S2) to Eugene Malon Sweet [KEUG]. The weather was severe clear.

Flying the Mooney was new to me. I had only received my ticket in October 2002. I began my complex training, but needed one more “trip around the patch” to get my endorsement. Therefore, as I calculated the weight and balance, I paid particular attention. We were a good two hundred pounds under gross.  I reformatted the emergency procedures checklist for the Mooney, changing the black ink to red.  As I manually changed the color, I read every item again.  I printed out the checklist and put it in my knee board. I also filed a flight plan to be activated in the air.

I called McMinnville FSS [flight service station]  to double-check the weather I had received on the web. Early in the morning of Aug. 23, I called FSS again. I told the briefer he should come up to Hood River for the Fly-In. We left for the Hood River Eye-Opener Lions pancake breakfast. We ate watching various planes come and go.  My AOPA mentor, Jan Dabrowski was coming to Hood River with his wife to enjoy the fly-in festivities.  We have always made it a point to connect up an AOPA Town Hall Meeting (Portland, Or 2002] or an Air Safety Foundation Wings seminar [Take offs/Landings 2003].

We loaded the plane and taxied to the run up area. I had the checklist in my hand. Although there were several planes behind us, including my instructor Dave with a scenic flight, we took our time with the items on the checklist.

The only item that I noted was the trim seemed to be tracking slowly, but it was adjusted for take-off and we began our roll. I said, “Pull at 65 right?” Dad said, “Yep, give it all she’s got.” The roll seemed long, I looked at the ASI and it said 45. I glanced at my toes to see if they had slid up on the brakes. In retrospect, this would have been a good time to pull power and call it a day.

When the ASI read 65 mph, I pulled, and tried to nose her into ground effect. But she settled onto the runway. At the end of the runway were spectators, cars and a hay wagon taking folks to the flight museum. Dad took the controls and pulled again. We lumbered into the air, barely missing the drive-in restaurant at the end of the runway.

A Mooney Girl Is Born, Part 3

Posted by Jolie Lucas

Previously, in A Mooney Girl Is Born, Part 2, we had departed Hood River Airport on airport day. The field was crowded with visitors, scenic flights were buzzing around, my flight instructor Dave was a few planes behind me, and the hay wagon was taking attendees over to the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum [WAAAM ].

As we lumbered into the air thoughts raced through my mind:  “This can’t be happening to us.  There are people at the end of the runway.  Don’t stall! Don’t panic! Don’t stall!” A stall in an airplane is when the wings stop flying and fail to produce lift.  Many times at landing, a stall is a welcome event to help you meet the ground with a gentle kiss.  But at departure a stall can be a deadly event.

We were in the air about a minute when it became clear that our options had narrowed, and were going down.The terrain was rising, and we were not.  We were going to hit in the thick of the forest.  I made the decision to cut the power. I was trained that when crash is inevitable, cut the engine and pitch slightly upward like a landing flare.  I did just that.

I called to my daughter and her friend to “brace yourselves, we are going to land in the trees.”   Candace braced herself on the seat in front of her.  Ryan put his head between his legs and placed his arms over his head.  They were silent as Dad and I worked.  Candace told me later she kept thinking “This is going to hurt. This is going to hurt!”

Flair established we began to settle into the trees, the ASI [air speed indicator] fell through 55 mph. I began to hear the sound of the tree tops scratching at Maggie’s belly.  We topped five or six cottonwood trees. We continued to slow down, with every tree we hit. The Mooney’s wings took the impact. It became dark, and then we hit our final tree. The eyewitness said we were going very slowly at this point, and it appeared we were stopped in midair by the large cottonwood.

The plane fell backward and to the right into the darkness.   We landed upside down in a mud pond. The door popped open and my father fell out halfway, dangling by his seat belt. My daughter released my father’s belt and he fell out into the mud. Dad had a large gash on his head from the impact of the windshield. I was hanging upside down from the belt. After my daughter and her boyfriend got out, I released my belt and fell on my face. I had a gash on my face; blood dripped into my mouth.

I could hear the radio transmissions of my friends and fellow pilots who were searching for us.  Intuitively, I knew mother and our three-year-old son watched us go down.  I grabbed my headset and started transmitting, “This is Mooney 6619U, we are down. Mooney 6619U we need medical assistance.” In desperation I said, “Dave, can you hear me?”

The antenna was buried three feet in the mud.

Please stay tuned for the 4th and final part of A Mooney Girl is Born.

A Mooney Girl Is Born, Final Chapter

Posted by Jolie Lucas

Previously, N6619U was down in the mud pond.  I grabbed my headset and started transmitting, “This is Mooney 6619U, we are down. Mooney 6619U we need medical assistance.” And in desperation said, “Dave, can you hear me?” The antenna was buried three feet in the mud. [See A Mooney Girl Is Born, Part 3]

We heard a voice call through the trees “are you okay, do you need help?” and I answered that my father was injured and we needed an ambulance. We were transported to the local hospital, and had CAT scans, x-rays and the like. The local sheriff, who is also a pilot and was in the air at the time, came to see us. He said from the looks of the instruments, we did everything right.

We were treated and released from the hospital with only slight whiplash and lacerations. That night, my father and husband grilled salmon and steak left from the Fly-In dinner. I was very shaken up and felt guilty, to which he replied, “There were no funerals being planned.”  My father also said that this would only be a failure if I never flew again.

The next day, Dave took my father, along with the FAA Investigator to the scene of the accident and me. It was startling. Maggie had major damage to her wings, nose and tail. The trees were in shreds. Four came to rest on top of us. The cabin was unharmed. Dave crawled through the mud to help us retrieve our personal effects. My Garmin III loose in the cabin, powered up. My daughter’s laptop powered up. My father’s Walkman was playing. Not a branch, not a crack in the windshield. Only one instrument’s casing was cracked.

During the next week, there was a front page story in the Hood River news, complete with picture.   I received calls from many Hood River and The Dalles pilots with support and good wishes.  I did hear many of the rumors going around.  I heard that:
1) we flew heavy; 2) we flew with the carb heat on; 3) we flew with the parking brake on; 4) we flew with the prop out.  While none of these are the case, the rumors took a toll on me.  As a new pilot, I wanted to know what I did, or didn’t do that caused this mishap.  A few pilots even went to the crash site, or later the salvage shop, to look inside the plane to test their theories.

I received a call from the FAA investigator; he said that he had gone to The Dalles, where Maggie was taken. He and the FAA mechanic checked the cylinders. Our #1 cylinder was bad. It had gone through annual only a few months before and had 68 pounds of pressure. The best they could get was 35 and the constant reading was 25 pounds. The #2, #3, and #4 cylinders were within normal limits.  With the #1 cylinder out, the FAA calculated we would have only had 75% total power at best. He also said that he had checked my planning twice and three times to find an error. He added five pounds of clothes for each person and fifty pounds of baggage, but found we would have still been within limits. After the accident, he borrowed my knee board with all the planning. He returned it to me a few days later. He said he was impressed by the planning, how conscious we were of the weight and balance, AOPA flight planning, useful load, and weather. He indicated that he was going to send it, along with the newspaper article, into the NTSB. He had not really known of the safety features that Mooney Airplane incorporates, but was very impressed, especially in light of the impact the wings and fuselage took, while no harm came to us in the cabin.

Further, the investigator complimented my Dad and me on what safe pilots we are. In light of the second-guessing and the “what-ifs” I had been doing, this was welcome news. The cause of the accident appears to be the failure of the #1 cylinder.  It was also noted that when the #1 cylinder went down it robbed power from the remaining three cylinders.

I went flying one week after the accident. It was good to be in the air. My instructor, Dave, and I flew a Warrior up to Yakima for a very uneventful flight.  As I landed in Yakima, I realized that the skill and good luck that helped me in Hood River, would follow me in my years of flying. 

My father told me about the safety features of the Mooney that helped him decide to buy it for family use. He said they have a steel cage and roll bar in the cockpit. The POH talked about a special Z-spar design in the wings. Through the combination of providence, skill and the safety features of our Mooney, we all walked out of that mud pond.

Maggie took one for the team. She protected us, as she had done for 27 years, right to the ground. And while she is gone, there was another Mooney in our future. It is the only plane I will own.  Mooney is the only name I will trust.  On November 17th, Maggie II, a 1965 Mooney M20E was delivered to me and is based in The Dalles [KDLS]. My father reserved the number N6619U for me.  I changed the number on the M20E.  We salvaged the avionics and other instruments from Maggie I and they will be installed in my plane.

I chuckle sometimes because if I am not flying, I am thinking about flying, talking about flying or reading about flying.  I suppose once the bug has got you, it is a lifetime obsession.  I also firmly believe that the combination of my instruction, reading, and choice of aircraft  led to the very happy ending of this story.

Well, there you have it. This world would not be as pretty a place without Jolie being a part of it, and yet one more time, the Mooney airplane saved the day.

Jolie has asked me if I would include the mentioning of this website:

http:///www.mooneyambassadors.com

Mooneyland recommends this website to all Mooney Enthusiasts.

One last bit of advice:

In my business I fly a bunch of different Mooney's and I find that only about half or less of early Mooney owners have installed shoulder harnesses. All the crashworthiness in the world will not protect you from banging your head in a sudden stop no matter which type airplane you are in. For Heaven's Sake (and yours) install shoulder harnesses at least in the front seats!

FLY SAFE. FLY A MOONEY!

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