The European Mooney Pilots and Owners Association Pilots Proficiency Program

By Winslow “Bud” Johnson
Director, MAPA Safety Foundation, Inc.

The second official European Mooney Pilots and Owners Association (EMPOA) Pilot Proficiency Program (PPP) will be conducted from June 11-13, 2010 in Donaueschingen Germany.  Mooney owners and pilots from all over Europe are invited to attend.  The program will be hosted by Thomas Hamacher of the EMPOA.  Further news about this program can be obtained on the official EMPOA website at http://www.mooney.de/.  Registration for the program should also be done through this website.  As there will be an international attendance at the EMPOA-PPP the entire program will be held in English.

A Mooney is a sophisticated aircraft that takes specific skills to fly safely.  For example, to maximize the performance and life of your Mooney you have to use the proper power settings.  To fly safe approaches and landings you have to use the proper speeds.  Five knots too fast and a Mooney will float halfway down the runway, which can be quite dangerous in situations such as a strong crosswind or a short runway.  The EMPOA Pilot Proficiency Program will provide a Mooney-specific recurrent training program to European Mooney pilots.

Mooney Specific Training
The 2010 EMPOA Pilots Proficiency Program is being organized
to bring the very best in Mooney specific training to European Mooney pilots.  The program will be organized by highly experienced Mooney-specific flight instructors with many years of Mooney pilot training.  Many of the Mooney owners attending the last European Mooney Pilot Proficiency Program were delighted to learn new things about the Mooney aircraft they had been flying for many years.

The Program Outline
The EMPOA Pilots Proficiency Program will begin with eight hours of ground school instruction on subjects such as Flying the Mooney by the Numbers, High Performance Engine Management and Weight and Balance for your Mooney.  Comprehensive flight training will then be undertaken in your Mooney.  This program is appropriate for instrument-rated pilots as well as VFR-only pilots. The flight training will include VFR maneuvers such as normal, soft field and short field takeoffs and landings, slow flight, spiral demonstrations, go-around procedures, stalls, steep turns, slips and emergency procedures.  For IFR pilots maneuvers will be included such as instrument approaches, missed approaches, holding patterns, partial panel navigation, and recovery from unusual attitudes.  This is a full immersion Mooney learning course.

The curriculum of the European Mooney Pilots Proficiency Program will be based on that developed by the MAPA Safety Foundation in the United States.   For the past two decades this program has been used to help U.S. Mooney pilots maintain a high level of proficiency in flying their Mooneys.  Although this will officially be a European Mooney Pilots and Owners Association program, several members of the American staff of the MAPA Safety Foundation have agreed to participate in the program.

In addition to informative lectures and stimulating flying there will be many other things going on during the EMPOA Pilots Proficiency Program.  One of the highlights of the weekend will be the Saturday night banquet.  The banquet will enable Mooney pilots to share their experiences with each other.  There will also be a Speaker with a diversity of experience in Mooney flying to enhance learning and provide an entertaining backdrop to aviation safety.

Donaueschingen
Donaueschingen is a small German village located between Stuttgart, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland.  This is one of the most beautiful settings in which to hold this type of a program.  The Donaueschingen airport is located just outside of this small German village very near the famous Black Forest.  It is the kind of an airport where you can have fun by just relaxing and sitting around watching airplanes.  An immaculately maintained hotel is located right on the field.  This is where the ground school classes will be held.  You can see the Mooney airplanes from most of the hotel rooms.  There is also a great restaurant in the hotel that also looks out on the ramp.  The view from the ramp is so peaceful with miles and miles of green rolling hills.

2007 Program
As indicated in the opening paragraph of this article this will be the second official European Mooney Pilots Proficiency Program.  The first program was held in Donaueschingen Germany on June 1-5, 2007.  All of the pictures included in this article were taken during that program.

As with this upcoming Pilot Proficiency Program, the mission of the 2007 program was to bring all of the attending pilots up to a high level of proficiency in flying their Mooneys.  Because the autopilot was not used very much during the flight training portion of the program, the improved proficiency of hand flying the Mooney was obvious to all of the participants by the end of the program.  The participants were successfully hand flying steep turns, spirals, slow flight, different IFR approaches and many other maneuvers by the end of the program.

Another successful outcome of the 2007 program was the noticeable improvement in IFR flying by program participants.  A variety of different types of approaches were done at the Donaueschingen, Zurich, Baden- Baden, and Friedrichshafen airports.  Holding patterns (often in the clouds) were typically entered as published in the missed approach procedures.  In the holding pattern many participants practiced unusual attitudes and partial panel flying (naturally without the autopilot).  Needless to say, it was quite a workout.

In some cases the sharing of experiences during the 2007 program were as interesting as the flight training. Many participants in the 2007 program shared with the group stories about the interesting places they had flown.  There were many interesting European trips described as well as trips to quite exotic destinations such as Iceland and Eastern Europe.  One of the pilots from Switzerland, Egon Steiner, showed slides of a trip he took with Ivo Vogeli from Switzerland all the way to the Mooney factory in Texas.

Program Cost
The financial goal is to do this training at a cost that will be affordable to as many Mooney pilots as possible.  Therefore, the price of the full EMPOA Pilots Proficiency Program (including 4 hours of flight training) will be 995€.  This fee will cover all of the ground instruction and the VFR and IFR flight training. For VFR-only pilots there will be an abbreviated program with 2 hours of flight training for 795€.

Productive Weekend
The 2010 EMPOA Pilots Proficiency Program should prove to be a great place to spend a productive weekend if you are a Mooney pilot.  Whether the Mooney pilots attending this program are from England, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Budapest, The Netherlands or any other country throughout Europe they will all have a common bond.  They will all be interested in the Mooney aircraft and everyone will be attending because he or she is highly motivated to be the best Mooney pilot they can be.  If you fit this profile please join us.

Because the training staff for this program is limited the number of training slots for this program is also limited.  Please sign up for this program as soon as possible to make sure you are included.  Although the official deadline for registration for this program is March 31, 2010, attendance confirmations will be on a first come – first serve basis.  Just click on the EMPOA website at http://www.mooney.de/limesurvey/index.php?sid=43335&lang=en/ to complete your registration.

Safety Is No Accident

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