My flying started 21 years ago when I first got my ticket. I had big dreams of getting a plane and flying around the country. However, kids came along and my disposable income evaporated like dew on a hot summer morning. Always, in the back of my mind, was the desire to give it another try.

In the summer of 2016 my wife and I began looking into Florida beach condo’s. I jokingly said we could buy a nice plane instead and visit all our friends and family more often. This captured her interest and she asked me to look into it. I dove in like a Mexican cliff diver. My research led me to Mooney’s. Not just the looks, or the speed, but this crazy community of folks that just love this aircraft.

It took almost a year, but in late May of this year my dream came true and we had a Mooney M20F.

With 20 years since my last flight and a total of 69 hours of PIC I started over. Boy what a difference from the C-150 I learned in. I took 25 hours of instruction and in July I took my wife on her first cross country from Memphis, TN (M01) to Owensboro, KY (KOWB). This was normally a dreaded 5.5 hour drive and we were excited to be there in an hour and a half. We took off and climbed to 9500ft. It was like glass. The sky was clear and conditions could not have been more perfect. My wife has never liked flying commercially. I was so worried she would feel the same about our plane. When we leveled out she said “This is actually quite lovely.” The millstone instantly dropped from my neck.

I am now coming up on five months with my Mooney and I have almost as many hours in her as I did when I got her. Oh, one more thing about my favorite flight… we had been cruising for about an hour when my wife said “It shame we aren’t moving very fast.” I told her altitude can be a bit deceiving as I looked at my iPad showing a true ground speed of 151 kts. I just smiled from ear to ear.

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