Once upon a time, two buddies, Richard Todd and Mike Mysicka, who were both Mooney drivers, hatched a great idea about other people with Mooneys getting together for lunch.  Richard owned N5758Q, a beautiful polished 1965 M20C.  Mike owned N6843N, a very nice green 1968 M20C.  They defined the 'Vintage Mooney' as any Mooney model before the M20J.  They thought what if they could contact other Vintage Mooney drivers who were within some 300 miles of their Big Bear (L35) location in California, and drum up enough interest to have an organized fly-in to somewhere.  And so it began.  First, they did all of the tedious the research to find hundreds of names and addresses of Vintage Mooney owners in their target geographical area.  Then Richard dug into his own pocket to purchase $500 worth of postcards and stamps, get an interest questionnaire printed on each one, and mail them out.  They included a return email address on the postcard for interested pilots to use.  Then they waited, and they waited.  A few positive responses came back.  Then some more.  Enough response was finally received that they scheduled their first Vintage Mooney Group fly-in via email for Saturday August 23, 2003.  Good or bad, they decided to go for it with gusto.  In retrospect, we're so glad they did.  They picked Jean NV (0L7) as the destination for the first fly-in.  The airport had easy access, no tower, just outside of Las Vegas Class B airspace, plenty of free parking, and it was within a short walk of the Gold Spike Casino.  By the weekend of the intended fly-in, they had a group of 40 positive responses.  And so began the tangible part of their concept of the Vintage Mooney Group. 

>>> Richard Todd <vintagemooneyssw@yahoo.com> 8/16/03 8:45 PM >>>

Hello Vintage Mooney Group, it comes to us with great pleasure to announce that as of this date, FORTY vintage Mooney owners have signed up to be in attendance at Jean Airport on August 23rd. We thank you all for responding and participating in this fly-in. The number of responses were pleasantly higher than we originally expected. This being the situation, we contacted Tom Donaldson (Jean Airport Mgr.) to be certain that they could accommodate such a large group with tie-downs. Tom assured us that they could provide the tie-downs as well as offered assistance in guiding us to our tie-down areas. He also agreed to let us have a spot landing contest for those who wish to participate. Therefore if you wish to participate, you can do so upon your arrival. To participate in the spot landing contest, when turning final approach, simply announce Mooney ### turning final approach for runway ## spot landing. We'll monitor your radio transmissions from the ground and as long as we hear SPOT LANDING, you will be entered into the contest. A first, second & third prize will be awarded to those that land closest to the white line crossing the runway between the 2 orange pylons. Landing short of the white line will disqualify the contestant!

Our lunch: Due to the large size of our group, the restaurants at the Gold Strike Casino will not be able to accommodate us as an organized group. We would therefore recommend that you simply walk over to Gold Strike any time after 11:00 and indulge yourselves in any of their 4 restaurants. Therefore rather than discussing our September fly-in location together over lunch, we will instead hand out suggestion slips at the airport upon your arrival. Please keep in mind that the primary focus on our future locations should be based on less complex and less congested airspace in the interest of high attendance turnouts. We'll also want a restaurant on, or very near the airfield that can accommodate our large group. It would also be a plus if the local community had activities to offer those of us that choose to stay longer or overnight.

In conclusion, it looks like our Vintage Mooney Group is off to a great start. Forty participants at our first gathering is something we should all be proud to be a part of.  We believe we can expect to see these numbers increase in participation at each upcoming fly-in. We're sincerely looking forward to meeting each and every one of you in Jean, NV on Saturday 8/23/03 at or around 10:00 a.m.
We wish you all a great flight and safe arrival!
Mike & Richard

On final to runway 2L with the Gold Strike Hotel and Casino way to the left 

Saturday was a very - very warm but beautiful day at Jean and the Mooneys arrived.  We found it was a nice desert airport with parallel runways and plenty of parking!  We surprised ourselves in a way.  Sure enough, there was a straight line of friendly Mooney tails on the tarmac, but we mostly did not know each other at all!  Most of us didn’t even know Richard, except from his postcard and from our email reply!!  It was getting really warm, and no one wanted to stand around confused on the tarmac with a bunch of strangers!!!.  OK, now what do we do from here?

Mike Mysicka on left of runway judging the Spot Landing contest

Art Turner examining Richard Todd's beautifully polished Mooney with the Gold Strike in the background

Hi, I have a Mooney too - Who are you?

Is anyone else getting warm, or is it just me?

It is even warmer over here, but hey - let's check out these neat Mooneys 

It is hard to imagine the task that Richard had put upon himself on that day.  Maybe a few of you know that he used to work in corporate America, and maybe he picked up some skills along the way that came into play at Jean.  We were a bunch of people he had never met before.  He stepped up to the plate and directed all of us to cooler grounds with his beautiful gruff voice.  He pointed out to us where our destination casino was located.  Everyone went over there, one way or the other.  Some of us walked for about two blocks in the sun, down a paved path through the desert to the Gold Strike Hotel and Casino.  Others waited and rode over in a shuttle.  It really was nice to cool off inside.  The group split up for lunch as there were several places to eat in the casino but none of their eating-places could accommodate our whole group.  After lunch, some took off, some stayed and gambled for a while, and a few stayed overnight.  Most everyone had a good time despite the heat outside and the

Vintage Mooney Group was born!

On a downwind departure - what a great day

Richard Todd wrote this email to all of us a day after the fly-in:
>>> Richard Todd <vintagemooneyssw@yahoo.com> 8/24/03 2:16 PM >>>

Hello all, we would have to consider our first Vintage Mooney fly-in as being highly successful. 32 beautiful vintage Mooneys were in attendance Saturday in Jean Nevada. It truly was a Pre-201 Paradise. We also had the opportunity to meet several great people who shared in the comradeship and pride of Mooney ownership. We'd like to personally thank all attendees that participated, and all of those that volunteered their assistance with this event. We can only expect these fly-ins to become even more successful over time. It has been noted that we should try to better organize as a group and attempt to all gather in a specific location at the chosen airports. We do expect to have this accomplished for our September fly-in.  This too should be a consideration by anyone offering fly-in location suggestions. We also extend our thanks to all that offered suggestions for our September fly-in location.  We will tally the votes this week and make an announcement by next Saturday.  Obviously, the selected location will be chosen from the number of votes first, but the final choice will ultimately be based on how well we can be accommodated at a particular airport.  Being that the Jean fly-in was the very first one that we've ever put together, we're not seasoned professionals at this. We therefore welcome all input offered by each and every one of you.  We were offered some valuable input at Jean by the attendees and plan to act on it accordingly.  We also have several ideas that we expect to implement in the very near future.  Please keep in mind that our main priority is to arrange monthly locations for these gathering in which we can all meet, network, and share such comradeship. Additional or outside entertainment will be at your individual discretion.  We'll look forward to announcing September's fly-in location shortly.  Again a big "thank you" to all that participated and we'll hope to see you again next month. We're also looking forward to meeting those that could not attend Jean, to hopefully be present in September.
Good day,
Mike & Richard

Scott McKelvey sent a very informative email about his memories of the day:

Both John Chandler and I were present at Jean.  In fact, that's when Richard asked us to be board members.  John and I volunteered to help park over 30 Mooneys that day and lost fingerprints as we helped pull and push people out of the dirt-area parking when it was time to depart.  Jean was well over 100 degrees that day, and just putting your hands on any surface of a plane was really hot (I particularly remember one black Mooney that was exceptionally hot).  I remember one B model that had to come back and land rather urgently right after departing.  In his haste to leave and fly with another B model, he neglected to do a mag check and had some fouled plugs.  It was exciting for a bit but easily remedied.  I also remember that was the first (and I think only) time that we had a landing contest.  Mike sat out in a chair and gauged who got the closest to a marked spot on the runway.  The prizes were gifts from Wing Waxers.  We learned a ton from that first fly-in.  We did not have an organized lunch.  We just told people to head inside the casino but had not thought we needed to plan lunch for them.  We thought folks would go on their own but later learned that the preference was for a structured lunch where everyone could sit together, share stories, and become friends.   

At the second fly-in (Big Bear), Richard, Mike, and I sat in front of the group and asked what people wanted.  The answers were that they wanted fly-in destinations where we could all park together and walk the flight line and enjoy the planes.  We also got feedback that it would be great if everyone would introduce themselves who had flown in for the event and give a bit more information about who they were, where they flew from, and the year and model of their Mooney.  I particularly remember Big Bear because we held a BBQ at Richard's Wing Waxers hangar and scrambled to make sure we had enough food.  We ran out of potato salad and received some nasty comments from a few attendees.  From that point on, when Richard and I would talk about an upcoming fly-in we would always end by saying "and don't forget to bring enough potato salad."  For the first few fly-ins, we set the next destination by putting it to a vote.  So, when people attended Jean, they voted to have Big Bear be the next destination.  At Big Bear, they voted for Sedona.  We did it that way for a while but soon realized it was easier if we all shared in the planning and rotated the responsibility to plan the fly-in amongst the board members.
That's a bit more "history" for you.  Have fun!
Scott

The Confirmed Charter Members of the Vintage Mooney Group as of this writing are listed below.  The list is a compilation of replies to my numerous emails, cross matching N numbers visible in pictures taken that day by Art and Jan Turner with the N numbers on our Members' page, and matching the remaining N numbers with the FAA database information via landings.com.  Most of the charter members have their pictures on the VMG Members page that is accessible from the main page of our VMG website.  Please report any additions or corrections to Phil Corman or Ed Shreffler. 

Richard Todd  (Co-Founder), N5758Q, 1965 M20C
Mike Mysicka (Co-Founder), N6843N, 1968 M20C (Now living in Michigan)
Scott McKelvey (Board Member), N6995V, 1976 M20F (Now living in Idaho)
John Chandler (Board Member), N79346, 1965 M20E
Art & Jan Turner (Photos), N757U, 1966 M20E
John & Cindy Deptula, N2660W, 1966 M20E
Carl Swepston & Keith Smothers, N78982, 1962 M20C
Ed Shreffler, N6827V, 1971 M20C
Lori & Jon Elinsky, N74719, 1961 M20B
John & Shirley Church, N5920Q, 1965 M20E
Garland Davis, N2729W, 1966 M20C (Passed away in 2006 at age 78)
Curt Randoll, N9333M, 1966 M20E
David Rubinger, N357W, 1964 M20C
Gordon & Betty Bristol, N4049N, 1968 M20F
Terry & Linda Frazier, N72FG, 1991 M20M
Murray Dolan, N1907Y, 1964 M20D
Harold Hess, N3994N, 1968 M20F
Bob Appleby, N6410Q, 1967 M20F
Mike McGuckin, N6586U, 1962 M20C
Al Sonntag, N9742M, 1967 M20C
Bill Lowe, N5897Q, 1965 M20E (Now living in Michigan)
Paul Pryor, N201TU, 1964 M20E (Now living in Virginia)