EMPOA News

Hi Mooniacs,

I just want to send out this friendly reminder about the EMPOA Tour 2010. Anyone who is interested to join this tour should sign-up as fast as possible, as we have almost reached our deadline.

We will still accept any registrations until 28.07.2010. To make this registration bindingly, we need payment of your participation fee until 1.08.2010 latest to confirm the bookings. Anything, that happens after this date goes together with a lot of administrationial effort, which we would like to avoid.

I will shortly sum up all necessary details for you as follows:

• - You will find the latest routing including our destinations and the dates at the following URL: http://www.mooney.de/events/19-EMPOA-on-tour/EMPOA-Routing-2010-VFR.pdf
• - To do a registration, please fill out the registration-form at the following URL:
  http://www.mooney.de/limesurvey/index.php?sid=51229&newtest=Y
• - The participation-fee includes all accommodations during the tour, plus some transportations between the hotels and the airport and some touristic tours on various locations. Please note, that the EMPOA will not act as the responsible organisation for these bookings. This will be done by a travel agency and all the EMPOA will do, is to forward the participation fees to the agency to have a confirmed number of participants and ensure a quick payment. The participation fee will be 1.495,-€ per person. Participants, who prefer to have a single-bed-room have to add 595,-€ to the participation fee.The participation fee has to be transferred to the following account of the EMPOA:
  Account-No: 24639551
  Clearing-No: 69050001
  IBAN: DE45 6905 0001 0024 6395 51
  BIC: SOLADES1KNZ
  Account-Holder: European Mooney Pilots and Owners Association

  You will also have the chance to pay via PayPal to paypal@empoa.eu, but please keep in mind to add 3% to cover the paypal-fees.

• - We will have a Briefing in advance to the tour, to give anybody the chance to share their flight-preparations and answer any questions concerning this tour. This Briefing will take place on Sunday 08.08.2010 directly at the airport of Bremen (EDDW). As the Briefing will only take place between 11h-15h, it will give you the chance to fly-in and out for this Briefing on one day.
• - Please keep in mind, that the whole flight-preparation is in each pilot´s responsibility. We will try to help and assist anybody in the group and as this tour is meant to by flyable VFR the whole time, we will also care for pilots, who are not that experienced, but you will not get any flight-preparation from us ready-to-go.

If you have any questions about this tour, please don´t hesitate to ask at any time (tower@mooney.de).
We hope, that some of you will decide to join us and are looking forward to a wonderful time and a great experience, as this is probably the first Mooney-Tour of this kind with a lot of highlights.

I´m looking forward hearing from you.

All the best
Thomas

Mooney Flight Training 2010 - Notes on an extraordinary event
by Bernd Hamacher

Returning home from this year’s Mooney Flight Training in Donaueschingen I´m still impressed with what we have experienced during these days. This event was really a benchmark in EMPOA´s history and probably a milestone for an ambitious community. When Thomas and I initiated this Mooney Community in 2002, we soon realized that Fly-Ins and get-together of Mooniac´s are enjoyable events to attract Mooniac’s in Europe, but on the long run there is a need to organize events that challenge Mooniac’s to a higher level of airmanship. How to achieve this was not clear to us initially, but when we joined the MAPA-Convention in 2006 and heard the presentation of Bruce Jaeger on the MAPA Safety Foundation, we immediately felt that this would be a cornerstone for us European Mooniac’s. In the following summer Thomas could convince the MAPA Safety Foundation to organize a first seminar in Germany and 16 Mooniacs took the chance to improve their proficiency. As I described on a former Pilot-Report, which you will find on the Mooney-website, I felt that this first training event was of great benefit to our community, but as Thomas told me last fall that he was planning another training seminar for this year together with Bud Johnson and the Safety Foundation, I frankly admit that I simultaneously felt happy and hesitating. Happy as the Safety Foundation obviously enjoyed their stay last time and felt that their work has beenappreciated by the European Moonics - and hesitating whether a sufficient number of Mooniacs would sign up to repeat the event. Fortunately, we underestimated the European Mooniacs willingness to invest in their proficiency and Thomas could tell me already in march that there was a long waiting list of Mooniacs who would like to attend. But this immediately leads to the question, what is Mooniacs driving to spend time and money to attend such a training seminar? Of course additional knowledge and skills are reasons to attract people. But this won´t be the full answer. According to my impression the dignity and seriousity of the personalities who came together was the key for the attraction. As an experienced Mooney pilot, it makes a huge difference, whether there is an instructor sitting next to you having thousands of hours experiences on a Mooney, rather than sitting next to a checker, who is just formally entitled to perform a check ride with you, but has personally no substantial experiences with Mooneys. And we all know, that our birds are very special animals and that we are eager to master these airplanes. Thus, getting advice rooted in long experiences is somewhat, Mooniacs are obviously looking for and this has something to do with personality, responsibility and airmanship. Isn´t that alone impressive in these days?

But let me come back now to the details of the last weekend: When we arrived thursday afternoon in Donaueschingen, our American friends have already arrived and Bruce Jaeger together with Jack Napoli welcomed each arriving crew. It was a hot summer day and soon after, relaxed Mooniacs were sitting on the hotel’s terrace at the airfield, observing the arriving Mooneys. In the evening an impressive line of 24 Mooneys from 6 European countries were sitting on the apron. Later that evening, the group moved into the hotel´s restaurant to have a get-together in form of a social dinner. It was this exciting mixture of Mooniacs, who first attended an EMPOA event and Mooniacs knowing each other from former events within the community. It is really fascinating to me, that all our events always attract new Mooniacs and this shows, there is the special atmosphere of an open minded community, welcoming new participants every time with a lot of interests, rather than behaving as a conceited and narrow-minded group.

For the next day ground school was scheduled and Bud Johnson opened the course in the conference room of the Concorde Hotel. During the day, the participants learned in different sessions the benefits to ”fly by numbers”, refreshed the knowledge on airport signs and marking and discussed emergency procedures and accident prevention. In the afternoon participants were assigned to their instructors, who perfomed the briefing concerning the flight training sessions for the next day. During this first day, my job was, to conduct a pinch-hitter course for a small class of three ladies. In the morning we did a theory session on flying and emergency procedures and in the afternoon we practiced that in a Mooney. Believe me - this was pure fun to me. I never welcomed so talented and focused student pilots like these three ladies before onboard of a plane. They all were so enthusiastic and eager to learn flying, that within two hours, they already succeeded in performing a safe landing on their own. And this on a plane, which is mostly very famous to be very hard to land. Congratulations! I was really impressed how smooth and quickly these three ladies learned not only the basics of flying, but also how to apply “pitch and power” to perform a straight approach for landing. Wow!

In the evening we went to the lovely town of Donaueschingen, where we had a guided tour through the Fürstenberg brewery, one of the oldest breweries in Germany followed by a dinner at the restaurant of the brewery. Here the group relaxed from the learning exercises of the day and again stories about Mooneys and Mooniacs were told among the tables. Later in the evening, some participants continued their conversation at the hotel bar, but as the flight training was scheduled for the early morning of the next day, the majority of participants decided to have an early night. I was scheduled for the first block at 8:00 o´clock on the following morning and John Pallante was my instructor. It was a beautiful summer day when we entered our Mooney at exactly 8:00h, but very soon our American friends should learn, that departing from an airfield on an early morning in Germany is not that easy. The tower was not yet occupied at this time and we had to explain to our surprised instructors that in Germany it is not allowed to take-off from an airfield until this airfield has been formally opened by a representative of the airport owner. Our instructors were baffled that infringements are not just treated as a minor breach of the law, but as a crime. These laws go back to World War 2 and for someone, who is used to the total freedom of flying like in the US, it is really hard to understand, that these laws are still valid in our modern times. Fortunately, Thomas managed to get hold of one of these representatives, so that the airfield could be opened and John and I climbed out high above the mountains of the Black-Forest to perform some exercises along the limits of the flight-envelope of my Mooney. There was a lot to learn from an experienced instructor like John, with such a great repertoire of tricks and proven procedures from his thousands of hours of Mooney experience and we also had a lot of fun during this session. After my lessons I handed the plane over to my son Thomas to continue with Bruce Jaeger and for the rest of the day I observed the continuous stream of incoming and outgoing Mooneys from the terrace, accompanied by very excited faces of Mooney pilots. I talked to returning pilots, who were completely enthusiastic about what they had experienced during their training session. This is astonishing enough, as the scope of the participants reached from complete beginners to experienced pilots. Mooniacs, which just transitioned to a Mooney to pilots who already have hundreds of hours on this type. But literally everyone I spoke to, was satisfied and even enthusiastic about what they learned and experienced. This wonderful day has been finalized with an excellent Gala Dinner at a Golf Hotel nearby and a content group returned to our hotel later that evening, eager for the second block of training sessions on Sunday.

But the next day started different as expected. Opposite to the forecast, which promised a warm and sunny day like the day before, the sunday presented solid IMC-conditions in the morning. It was really a pity, as the evaluation of weather reports turned out, that the bad weather was just in the vicinity of Donaueschingen, whereas most of the airports in the region showed pure VMC. But the disaster of the situation was, that we could not return to Donaueschingen as the weather there was below minimum. Therefore we had to arrange an alternative schedule. But even in this situation our American friends showed an impressive flexibility. Bruce Jaeger instantly held a presentation on accident prevention, John Pallante presented how to exploit the functionality of a Garmin 430/530 for IFR flight and our Dutch friend Robert Jongen gave a presentation about his ideas concerning formation-flying with Mooneys. After lunch the weather improved a bit, so that some crews could continue with their IFR-training, but due to lost time and weather it became impossible to finish the training for all participants. Especially for those, who had to go VFR. But surprisingly for me, there were no complains at all among the participants. None at all! Even on of our Swiss friends, who donated his own session the day before to another participant and was now faced with the situation that he could not fly at all within the training weekend, showed no grudge. What an attitude! Would you expect this from a any other plane-owner? Probably not. I emphasis this, as exactly these experiences of personality and sovereignity within our community have impressed me in the last years. This attitude of Mooniacs shows, that these are very special pilots and people and empowers us to bring the community forward and makes the effort worth..

Again opposite to the weather forecast, monday morning showed good VFR-conditions. So the small group of remaining participants, who stayed until monday, were able to do some further training. But at lunch time everyone had to leave. So Thomas and I and my old friend (and new Mooniac) Manfred checked out and prepared for our flight home and after slightly more than two hours flight, we returned happy and satisfied to our homebase. An all in all very successful event was finished and now already history.

Finally, I would like to give great thanks to the following people: First of all to the directors and instructors of the Mooney Safety Foundation for coming over with 6 instructors to teach us how to fly our Mooneys better and to provide us with their knowledge, experience and skills. It was a pleasure to have you had here in Germany and we would be happy and willing to do it again. Further I thank my son Thomas for all his effort to organize this event and all the trouble-shooting during these days. Without his effort, we wouldn’t have had these opportunities and would have missed a wonderful experience. I also thank the participants for the patience and supportive attitude on any inconvenience they encountered. Finally I thank my pinch-hitter students for their trust in me and the enthusiasm to learn how to land a Mooney. This was a lot of fun and encouraged me to continue as I found this most rewarding.
I am looking forward for the next event!

Bernd Hamacher

Some comments from the participants:

“I didn’t get the chance to say good bye as I didn’t want to disturb the ongoing workshop when I left. As far as I am concerned the meeting was very successful and I enjoyed every minute of it. As a new Mooniac, I was pleased to note that aside from being experienced pilots, Mooniacs are also good company and I wished I had spent more time with people that I only met briefly. Maybe I’ll get another chance?
With regards to the flight training I was very impressed by the ease with which John Pallante managed to improve my knowledge and understanding of the Acclaim and Garmin 1000. Both VFR and IFR sessions were extremely valuable and pleasant. Thanks to you for the flawless organization of all this
Best regards”

“Thank you so much for the weekend and the excellent organization at the Donaueschingen Airport. I really enjoyed it, although my VFR-Flying went down the toilet on Sunday morning (…but instead of VFR I made some exciting experiences [a future option maybe….] in IFR-Flying with Hermann on our way back to Zurich Kloten, LSZH).
Please say “thank you” to all people (pilots, instructors, pilot girl friends,  pilot wives and so on) I had the pleasure to meet in Donaueschingen and let them know my home- and my email address.
So, thank you very much for the wonderful days and I hope to see you folks soon”

“Nochmals besten Dank für die Organisation des PPP sowie Deiner Bemühungen um meine Teilnahme daran!
Das Airwork mit Bud und dessen flight by numbers Ansatz hat mich voll überzeugt und fliegerisch einen großen Schritt weiter gebracht.
Auch der Theoriepart am Freitag und der Blick unter die 231 Cowling am Samstag zusammen mit Bruce waren für mich sehr aufschlußreich und richtungsweisend (bei mir steht alsbald ein Engine OH an).
Ebenfalls sehr eindrucksvoll war für mich die Tatsache, daß wohl alle Moonicas (weltweit) irgendwie gleich ticken - man versteht sich sofort, man spricht eben dieselbe Sprache.
Viele Grüße und bis bald”

Please have a look at our gallery to find some more pictures of this event.

Die Westflug Aachen (http://www.westflug.de/) veranstaltet am 03. und 04. Juli 2010 am Flughafen Aachen im Rahmen des Flugtages eine kleine Sonderveranstaltung für Mooney-Piloten. Zu diesem Zwecke sind sie mit der EMPOA in Kontakt getreten und haben uns gebeten, die folgende Einladung an die EMPOA-Mitglieder weiterzuleiten.
Dies möchten wir natürlich gerne tun, da wir dieses Engangement für die Mooniacs unterstützen möchten. Nachfolgend die Einladung der Westflug.

Dürfen wir uns vorstellen?
Die Firma Westflug Aachen betreibt schon seit Jahren mehrere Mooneys. Die Flugzeuge werden zur IR, CPL und ATPL Schulung eingesetzt, stehen aber auch unseren Kunden für die Ancharterung zur Verfügung. Ergänzt wird unser Angebot durch einen auf die Mooney M20J abgestimmten und zugelassenen FNPT II.
Regelmäßig nehmen unsere Piloten mit diesen Flugzeugen an den von uns organisierten Touren teil. Bis nach Israel, Marokko, Ägypten, Russland, Norwegen und in die Vereinigten Staaten führten uns die Reisen. Die Begeisterung für diese Flugzeuge ist nach wie vor ungebrochen - nicht nur in fliegerischer sondern auch in technischer Hinsicht. In unserem eigenen Werftbetrieb konnten wir in den letzten 20 Jahren viel Erfahrung auf diesem Muster sammeln. Diese Erfahrung hat sich auch bei vielen Mooney Besitzern herumgesprochen die ihre Flugzeuge teilweise über weite Entfernungen nach Aachen in die Hände unseres erfahrenen Werftteams geben. Unsere Prüfer kennen sich nicht nur in den üblichen Wartungsmaßnahmen an den Flugzeugen aus, sondern haben durch arbeiten an sämtlichen Mustern der Mooney Baureihen neuralgische Punkte kennen gelernt, bei denen es sich lohnt genauer hinzuschauen um den Wert und die Zuverlässigkeit seiner Maschine zu erhalten.

Im Rahmen dieses Flugtages bieten wir eine „Mooney Clinic“ an, bei der Mooney besitzer sein Maschine zu einem Pauschalpreis von 200,00 € durchchecken lassen kann. Während der Eigner sich das interessante Flugprogramm anschaut, werden an seinem Flugzeug die Punkte kontrolliert, die unseren erfahrenen Prüfern im Rahmen von Wartungsmaßnahmen an anderen Mooneys aufgefallen sind.

Ein Flyer mit der vollständigen Einladung und weiteren Details kann auf unserer Webseite heruntergeladen werden (http://www.mooney.de/events/Westflug-Fly-In.pdf).

On April 23 -25 we had our first EMPOA Fly-In in 2010 and the weather could not have been better – even all the volcano ashes had disappeared from Europe and planes could fly again. On Friday afternoon 10 Mooneys came to Colmar Houssen airport in the Alsace in France. We stayed in the hotel at the airport and sat outside on the terrace of the hotel restaurant in the sun to watch the incoming planes.
In the evening we went to the old city of Colmar to the restaurant Le Comptoir de Georges. We sat outside at the river and enjoyed the Alsacian food.
On Saturday morning more Mooneys arrived. Most of us went to Colmar city to see the nice old town of Colmar. In the afternoon we had our annual meeting, the first annual meeting since the foundation of the EMPOA in April 2009. Within one year the EMPOA had increased up to 140 members. We reviewed the past year and looked at the upcoming events and the plans for 2011. In June we will have a Mooney safety training with MAPA instructors and end of August a tour around the South-eastern part of Europe.
After our meeting we had an aperitif with white wine from the Alsace and dinner afterwards. On Sunday we went on a bus tour through the wine route of the Alsace and saw nice old villages such as Ribeauville, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg. As we all flew back home in the afternoon we could not do any wine tasting.

Birgit Vogelbruch

Dear Mooniacs,

after thinking a lot about what would be the next highlight for EMPOA members and talking with a lot of people und pilots, what would be interesting for them, we finally decided to do something totally new, which has not yet been done in the EMPOA history. The EMPOA already brought you a lot of very interesting events besides our very attractive Fly-Ins to many different places through Europe. Starting with bringing Jerry Manthey´s maintenance class to Europe, we also established a Mooney Flight Training together with the MAPA Safety Foundation, which will also be held this year again and brought you many advantages, which are special to EMPOA members, such as the group-insurance!

Now we decided not to fly to one place for a weekend, but use the Mooney for what it is build: travelling far distances to interesting places. We decided to offer every interested EMPOA member the chance to join a a tour together with other Mooniacs & friends. As this is the very first tour of this kind we had to decide how this tour should look like and whom we wanted to attract. We had some very interesting discussions concerning this topic and it´s not an easy question, as the different Mooneys can be used for a very wide range of flying. Some Mooniacs are already very experienced and use their plane in every weather and already flew across the north atlantic and others are VFR-pilots, who are sometimes very new to this complex aircraft and might have the feeling, that they are not yet experienced enought to fly those big distances to other countries. Bringing those demands together in one tour would probably not be a good idea, as it would be very hard to satisfy everybody´s ideas, whishes and challenges. As the EMPOA should be interesting to every Mooniac, we decided to offer tours for both profiles. But we also would like to transfer the experience and the knowledge of the very skillfull pilots to the more novice pilot, because everyone started at some time without having this big bag of experience he has nowadays. So this first tour should be a chance to bring the differently experienced pilots together to help each other and to give everyone a possibility to learn and to further one´s personal development and flying skills. But the level of this trip should be doable for every VFR-rated pilot, so that pilot´s who wouldn´t do this kind of a tour alone without any help also join this trip without shame or having the feeling of being overstrained. We will offer an extended version of this tour in a shorter period for IFR pilots as well later this year. But let us now stay with this first VFR tour.

This is also the reason, why we decided to do this tour in a very tolerant amount of time. This gives us the chance to react on weather or any unexpected incidents without getting in trouble. So let me give you a brief description of what we thought about so far. We would like to meet on Saturday, 21th August, in the lovely town of Salzburg (LOWS). Salzburg is very attractive for every aviator, as Red Bull installed their famous Hangar-7 on this airfield, which is a kind of living museum, where planes of different ages are restored to fly again. Our further routing towards Istanbul will take us over Hungary and Slovania to Serbia. The first leg to the airfield of Nic (LYNI) will satisfy our hunger for flying and give us some chance to refuel and getting an idea about this country. The next day we will take-off for the next highlight of this tour: The cosmopolitan city of Istanbul will be our home for a couple of days. This city is so impressive that you can easily spend weeks there without having seen everyhing. As this tour should give us a chance to relax and enjoy the different places we will go to, we will have enough time for visiting this city. After leaving Istanbul we will have the chance to fly along the Aegean towards the island of Mykonos (LGMK). Our first destination in Greece - and also the southernmost point of our journey - will welcome us with the warm sea to relax on the beach and the wonderful countryside after the troubles of the big city. We will also stay in Greece for our next leg, as we cross the many islands towards the Adriatic sea, where Corfu (LGKR) will be our next destination. From Corfu we will head north again and fly over Albania and Montenegro to the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Sarajevo (LQSA). After beeing in war for many years, this city should be an insider tip now, as it should have recovered very well until today and should have become a very interesting and impressive town. From Sarajevo we will turn towards the coast again, as we will spent some time at the very beautiful shoreline of Croatia, where we will be invited and guided by some of our EMPOA members. Our final destination for this tour will take us to Hungary, where we will also be invited by one of our EMPOA members to accomodate at a very romantic hungarian castle near Fertõszentmiklós (LHFM). This castle will also be the place for having our final farewell dinner, after everyone has to leave for their homebase the next day.

Have a look at the route on the following chart:

So as you can see there are a lot of highlights in this journey and it will provide many very different impressions, which you will hopefully like. You can also download our complete routing including the schedule as a PDF-file.

What should be clear to everyone is, that this tour will definately not be a professionally guided tour where everybody can expect that everything will be done by the EMPOA or the organizers. All we will do is, to present you a routing and a touristic program and everybody, who is interested should feel free to join this tour. Of course we will also do some kind of briefing and will help everyone to reach their destinations, but everything concerning flight-preparation and trip-planning has to be done by every crew independantly. This declaration does not only have a lawful background, but should prevent, that all the work has to be done by the organizers (which will definately not be doable) and make everyone aware of the fact, that he also has to care for his own responsibility. We will be open to every questions and provide help, wherever we can, but please also respect our limits.

We will provide you with some further information as soon as possible. What would be interesting to us now is, who is interested in joining this tour. We cannot make a real forecast about the total costs of this tour right now, but of course we will try to keep the costs low. For a first estimate you should add around 100,-€ each night for accomodation to the flying costs and of course an adequate fee for the touristic program. But what you have right now is a time-schedule and a routing, so that you can check if this tour is suitable for you. Probably we have to limit the number of participants, so that we can still handle the administrative work, be flexible enough and still have the chance to help someone. Everybody who would like to join this tour, should sign-up through our registration-form as soon as possible.

If there is someone who would like to join the orga-team and contribute some ideas or recommendations for any destination, or might maybe be interested in planning the touristic program for one location, please feel free to contact us (tour-2010@empoa.eu) at any time. We are open to any input at any time. Of course any questions can also be asked through the given email.

We are very excited about this trip and hope to see some of you guys on this tour! Stay tuned for further details…

Fly safe!

Matthias Rode
Thomas Hamacher

Dear Mooniacs,

it is almost one year, since we founded the EMPOA in Donaueschingen last year. And I´m very proud to tell all of you, that our community grew steadily through this year. The EMPOA has members from 13 european countries - so it is already today a really european Mooney community. Of course we hope to get more members in future, but for now we would like to look at the last year and think about what we want to do in the next year. Therefore we will held our first “Annual general meeting” in Colmar (LFGA) in France and would like to invite all members and prospective Mooniacs to come and join us. The AGM does not only give you the possibility to see, what activities are going on in the EMPOA, but it is also your chance to share your ideas, tell us, what you expect from an organisation like EMPOA and of course meet other Mooniacs and get in touch with all of us.

We will meet from 23.-25. April at the lovely airfield of Colmar (LFGA) in France. Please have a look at our agenda to see, what´s going on. We would like to ask every participant, to fill out our registration-form, so that we have an overview, who is going to come. Concerning accomodation we have talked to the Novotel-Hotel directly at the airport. As everybody has their very individual preferences concerning their stay, we would like to ask you to contact the hotel directly and do your reservation. Please book your rooms under the keyword “Mooney” at

Novotel Airport Hotel
49 route de Strasbourg
68000 Colmar, France
Tel (+33)3/89414914
Fax (+33)3/89412256
E-mail H0416@accor.com

We hope to see a lot of you guys in Colmar. If you have any further questions, please don´t hesitate to ask our host an vice-president Egon Steiner (egon.steiner@mooney.de) or myself at tower@mooney.de. We are glad to help you whereever we can.

We already wish you a wonderful flight and we are looking forward to the first Mooniac-Weekend for 2010.

The EMPOA board of directors
Thomas Hamacher

Hallo Mooniacs,ich möchte Euch gerne darauf hinweisen, daß in der aktuellen Ausgabe des Aerokuriers 12/2009 auf Seite 36/37 ein Bericht über die EMPOA abgedruckt ist. Dank der Initiative aus eigenen Reihen - unserem EMPOA-Mitglied David Kromka - ist ein sehr netter Artikel über die Hintergründe, Aktivitäten und Zielen von Mooney.de und EMPOA entstanden, der wirklich sehr lesenswert ist.

Für alle, die keinen Aerokurier mehr bekommen haben, gibt es den Artikel auch zum Download.

Mit fliegerischem Gruß

Thomas Hamacher

Hallo Mooniacs,

wir haben es lange angekündigt, doch es hat sich aus vielerlei Gründen deutlich länger hingezogen, als es ursprünglich angedacht war. Auch wenn viele Ihre Entscheidung hinsichtlich der ELT 406 Einrüstung vielleicht schon hinter sich haben, so möchten wir es doch allen anderen noch anbieten, die solche Entscheidungen gerne ein bißchen länger abwarten und auch einmal wieder demonstrieren, was eine Gemeinschaft wie die EMPOA bewirken kann.

Wir haben uns im Interesse aller Mooniacs genauer mit der neuen ELT 406 Regelung auseinander gesetzt und da wir alle gezwungen sind, diese Geräte in unsere Flugzeuge einzubauen, haben wir versucht, eine möglichst optimale Lösung für alle Mooniacs hinsichtlich dieser Problemstellung zu finden. Unser erster Schritt war es, zusammen mit der Air Touring in Siegerland ein möglichst attraktives Angebot für eine vollständige ELT Einrüstung anzubieten. Von diesem Angebot haben auch eine Reihe Mooniacs Gebrauch gemacht - erstaunlicher Weise gab es übrigens auch ein paar nicht-Mooniacs, die unsere Initiative genutzt haben und ebenfalls über unser Angebotsformular bei Air Touring angefragt haben. Man sieht also, es besuchen nicht nur Mooney Besitzer unsere Webseite.

Unser nächster Schritt ist es nun, auch die Hersteller mit ins Boot zu holen und ihnen unser Anliegen vorzutragen. Hintergrund dieser Anfragen war es, daß nur der Hersteller maßgeblich an der Preisschraube für die Einkaufspreise drehen kann und natürlich hochgradig daran interessiert ist, in diesem heiß umstrittenen Markt einen möglichst hohen Anteil zu erreichen. Die Firma KANNAD hat sich dabei als die engagiertesten und interessiertesten erwiesen und haben dabei mit dem KANNAD 406 AF auch ein sehr attraktives Produkt am Markt. Die Nähe innerhalb Europas tat sein übriges hinzu. Wir haben uns deswegen mit KANNAD auf ein Angebot geeinigt, daß sowohl die Ersteinrüster, als auch die Umrüster von alten ELTs berücksichtigt. Das KANNAD 406 AF ELT kann somit als Retrofit-Kit für nahezu alle 121,5 Mhz ELTs verwendet werden und die bereits im Flugzeug verlegten Kabel wieder verwenden. Lediglich der Remote-Switch muss ausgewechselt werden, wobei sogar die Bohrungen für die Aufnahme des ELT über einen so genannte “Universal Mounting Bracket” wiederverwendet werden kann. Dies minimiert natürlich den Einbauaufwand erheblich und reduziert die Kosten für eine Umrüstung dementsprechend.

Vom Ablauf her wollen wir versuchen, die einzelnen Bestellungen ein wenig zu bündeln und in gewissen Abständen die Bestellungen “en-gros” an den Großhändler weiterzuleiten. Dabei wird das ELT bereits mit den entsprechenden Informationen programmiert und einzeln an jeden individuellen Besteller ausgeliefert - wer möchte auch inkl. der entsprechenden Minor Change Modification. Wir haben uns bei diesem Projekt mit einem unserer Schwestervereine zusammengetan, um die Abläufe zu optimieren und mehr potentielle Interessenten zu generieren. Aus diesem Grund arbeiten wir diesmal mit der “European Bonanza Society” (EBS) zusammen, die für uns vor allem auch die finanzielle Abwicklung übernimmt. Wir freuen uns deswegen sehr, diese Aktion auch als Anlass nehmen zu können, zu ähnlich ausgerichteten Interessensgemeinschaften Kontakte zu knüpfen und im gemeinschaftlichen Interesse die General Aviation zu unterstützen. Vom Prozedere haben wir uns darauf festgelegt, daß eine Bestellung erst weitergeleitet werden kann, wenn der vollständige Betrag per Vorauskasse an die EBS überwiesen wurde. In Sachen Garantieabwicklung, Kulanz etc. ist jedoch der Großhändler unser direkter Ansprechpartner.

Dies zunächst einmal als groben Überblick: Wir haben detailliertere Informationen auf einer gemeinsamen Webseite zusammengestellt. Der Englische Teil ist noch nicht ganz fertig, aber der deutsche Teil und auch die Bestellformulare in englischer Sprache sind jedoch bereits vollständig einsatzbereit. Wir möchten Euch deswegen einladen, auf unserer speziellen ELT 406 Webseite http://www.elt-406.info vorbeizuschauen und Euch über unsere Aktion zu informieren. Natürlich freuen wir uns, wenn möglichst viele an dieser Aktion teilnehmen. Doch wir möchten damit auch schauen, wie hoch das Potential und das Interesse an derartigen Aktionen ist.

In Sachen Einbau der ELT´s haben wir Euch die volle Freiheit überlassen, wo Ihr dies machen lassen wollt. Die Problematik liegt vor allen Dingen darin, daß es für viele keinen Sinn machen würde, 2 Stunden zu einer speziellen Werft zu fliegen, um dort den Einbau für 200,-€ günstiger zu erhalten. Nichts desto trotz steht die Air Touring in Siegerland weiterhin mit einem Spezialangebot für EMPOA Mitglieder in Sachen Einbau zu Verfügung. Nähere Details dazu können ebenfalls auf der Webseite www.elt-406.info abgerufen oder direkt bei Air Touring angefragt werden.

Dieses Angebot ist im Übrigen nicht auf Mooneys oder EMPOA Mitglieder beschränkt. Ihr seid deswegen herzlich aufgerufen, auch andere Flugzeugbesitzer über diese Aktion zu informieren und diese dazu zu animieren, ebenfalls an dieser Aktion teilzunehmen. Eine hohe Teilnehmerzahl ist auch in Zukunft ein gutes Argument für Interessensgemeinschaften der Allgemeinen Luftfahrt, wenn wir wieder einmal Kooperationen mit Herstellern oder Großhändlern aufbauen möchten oder auf Grund neuer Überraschungen der europäischen Luftfahrtbehörden sogar müssen.

Sollten noch weitere Fragen bestehen, so stehen wir Euch gerne jederzeit mit weiteren Details und Informationen zur Verfügung. Ansonsten hoffen wir auf eine zahlreiche Teilnahme.

Mit fliegerischem Gruß

Thomas Hamacher

Hallo Mooniacs,

anbei die Route von EDVM nach LEGE und LEGE bzw Vor BGR nach LEMU. Diese Route bin ich sehr oft geflogen - hin und her in Frankreich bitte ueber 10000ft VFR dann habt Ihr keine Probleme mit den ATC´s. Leider müsst Ihr in Girona und Barcelona runter um die GROSSEN nicht zu belästigen.

Wenn Ihr in NE El Campello angekommen seid, ATC bitten, auf Freq. 123,50 wechseln zu dürfen. Bitte 1200 bis 1500ft dann MUTXAMEL rufen. Ich denke, ich werde am Funk sein, so daß wir keine Probleme haben. Die normale Landerichtung ist 12. Das bedeutet, von NE auf das große Autobahnkreuz zu, dort die Autobahn kreuzen und südliche Platzrunde - MIT DER PISTE RIGHT DOWNWIND und dann kurz vor dem Berg rechtskurve für Base und Rechtskurve für long final. Alles mit 1000ft in final. Die zweite HOCHSPANNUNGSLEITUNG mit 1000ft überfliegen. Dann noch auf die Straßenlaternen achten - threshold 480ft (wenn die 30 aktiv ist von NE direktanflug final 700ft über der grossen blauen Halle ). Im kurzen Endteil auf die Kabel achten!

Dieses Foto ist vom right downwind.

Und der long final über 1. Hochspannungsleitung

Danach: Happy landing!

Noch eine Info: auch AVGAS 100 LL ist verfügbar und wer noch weitere Fragen hat, bitte bei mir melden.

Abschließend noch eine Anmerkung zu den Reservierungen bei dem Hotel, weil dort nur eine (!!!) Reservierung angekommen ist. Ich glaube deswegen, mit dem Hotel gibt es einige Verwirrung. Wer noch keine Reservierungsbestätigung erhalten hat, bitte folgenden Satz kopieren und nochmal an die nachfolgende Adresse schicken.

“Estimada Erika,

para el Mooney Fly In de los Dias 1.- 5.10.2009, <bitte Anzahl der Nächte angeben> noches, nesecito una habitacion para <Anzahl der Personen angeben> persona(s), porfavor envie confirmacion al la siguiente direccion <eure email>.

<eure Daten Namen etc.>”

Erika Sánchez
Hotel AC Alicante
Jefe de Recepción
Avda. de Elche nº3
03008 Alicante
Tel.965120178
Fax.965135360
www.hotelacalicante.com
acalicante@ac-hotels.com
Ansonsten wünsche ich allen einen guten Flug und bis nächste Woche!

Gruß

Martin Algermissen

Ihr habt es im MAPA Log gelesen, Jerry Manthey geht es gar nicht gut. Das Timing fuer seine weiteren Maintenance Classes ist zunaechst ausgesetzt. Er hatte sich vor seinem offiziellen Retirement vorgenommen, in diesem Jahr die letzten Kurse in den USA zu geben und den Allerletzten dann fuer uns hier in Deutschland im April, Mai oder Juni 2010, die 2nd Mooney Maintenance Class in Europe fuer EMPOA. Der Krebs hat seine Plaene zunaechst aufgeschoben. Wir hoffen alle, dass er wieder voll recovered, so wie seine Aerzte das ausdruecken.

Trey Hughes bat die MAPA Members to “keep Jerry in our thoughts and prayers”. Das wollen wir auch tun.
Alles Gute fuer Euch und so long………

Mit freundlichen Gruessen

Pit aus Berlin