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With a number like 79869-er, I go through a lot of 9-ers. "Mooney 79-er869-er, Ontario altimeter 29-er, 9-er 9-er." "29-er 9-er 9-er, 869-er." Sheeesh!

So how did I end up a Mooney driver? Like most of us, I started out my flying life with a normal tail and the wings on the top. I took up flying at the age of 40, in July of 2001, at the Cable Air flight school. Everyone asks me why I suddenly decided to start flying. There was no suddenly to it. I have wanted to fly my whole life. When I was 40, I finally got to where I could pay for it. (Notice, I didn't say afford it, there's a difference) Less than five months later, I got my license. It would have been sooner, but 9-11 happened right after I soloed, and I got grounded for a while.

It was widely acknowledged around CCB that I was insane. I was flying three to four times a week. When I did my check ride, I had almost 90 hours in less than five months. Being a bona fide rocket scientist, it didn't take me long to do the math and figure out I needed to buy my own plane. I knew I wanted to go places at a little better than C-172 speed, so I started some research. Number one criteria was that I had to get a true 150 mph or better. Bonanzas were nice, but I couldn't afford them. I thought about Cessna 210s and 182s, but they were bigger than I needed, and felt like flying a truck. I enjoyed flying the school's Cherokee, but it wasn't nearly fast enough. Then my instructor took me up in the school's Mooney. We hit my 150 leaving the pattern! I was hooked!

I have a background in aerospace engineering, and everything I learned about the design of the Mooney impressed me. Hands-down the most efficient 4-seater out there. And the hydraulic flaps and mechanical gear are almost foolproof. (Unless the fool is in the left seat. Anybody else ever cross their seat belt with the passenger seat and not be able to get the gear up?)

I looked at a couple of Mooneys on my own, and mostly learned that people LIE when selling aircraft. So I enlisted the services of Tony Settember, the broker at foothill aircraft. I told him I was looking for mechanically sound, a good panel adequate for IFR, and I didn't care too much what the interior or paint looked like. We flew up to Gnoss field in Novato to check out 869-er. We flew her, had the mechanics on the field check some things while Tony helped me look at some others, talked to the previous owner and the mechanic who did the last annual, and within a couple hours had made the deal.

Tony felt that he had done so little for his commission; he gave me most of my check-out instruction in the Mooney for free. In fact, when the ferry pilots brought my Mooney down to Cable, my first 7 hours of instruction was Tony and I taking them back to Novato. The first landing I ever made in the Mooney left seat was at Harris Ranch on the way up there.

869-er had a really nice interior already. But I have the second ugliest paint in the group. (When Dale gets his plane painted, I'll be back in first place) One of the first things people notice about my plane is the different color on the lower cowl. There's a story behind that.

I had a real problem with landing lights going out. It turned out that my motor mounts were sagging, and the baffling around the alternator was crushing into the landing light bracket. While the cowl was off to replace the mounts, a friend and I worked at repairing the socket; riveting in sheet metal, bondo-ing and sanding. While the paint was drying in the now "good-as-new" socket on the ground behind my hangar, someone drove up and parked on top of it. I will never forget the feeling when I heard the sound of brakes followed by a distinctive crunch. Fortunately, LoPresti had taken a lower cowl off of a plane that was getting their super-duper 201 cowl, and they sold it to me for $1000. And it already had the LASAR cowl closures that I had wanted to install anyway.

I now have well over 500 hours in the Mooney in less than three years, and have taken it to the east coast in North Carolina. This trip included a religious pilgrimage to Kitty Hawk. And I made the trip back from North Carolina in one day of flying. (15 hours Hobbs time) Some day I'll get a few more mods for her, then I'll get 869-er painted. But what I really care about is flying the plane, not what it looks like. And Mooneys really fly!

Ransom Hicks
September 2005