Roger Barcus sent us this photo with a great subject line in the email: Finally owning and flying again after 23 years. Good instructors are invaluable!
He explains: “I bought a 1970 Mooney M20E Dec. 13, 2017. Jim Schulze was my instructor, who did a first class job using not only his skill and knowledge, but kindness and patience. I was required by the insurance company to have 15 hours, including five ‘under the hood’ with IFR practice added to my over 400 previous hours.
“This picture was taken April 11, 2018, the day I finished over 20 hours in the Mooney and was then qualified to fly it by myself according to the stipulations of my insurance company. I have flown it six times since I finished.”
“The Mooney has modern 201 Mooney cowling, windshield and other mods that allows it to slip through the air faster. It has an autopilot that levels the wings, keeps the altitude, and will follow GPS instruction to the airport it’s set for. It will fly at about 180 mph at 8,000′ using 10-11 gallons per hour, but this depends on the mixture and prop setting.”
“It has soft leather seats and is a pleasure to fly.”
“I got my pilot’s license in 1969 at Texas Bible College in case God called me to be a missionary. He did and I flew from island to island living on Grenada, West Indies. I was a missionary from 1984 to 1988.”
Thanks for sharing, it looks like you are very happy you decided to rejoin the flying type..good luck, & by the way it looks like you did well also by choosing a Mooney..