Good video lesson. If we see we will not touchdown slowly and softly in the beginning of the landing zone, this is the time to go around. The 180 could see the same thing you saw, missing the spot. Notice that the rate of closure appears to speed up as he closes with the camera. Trying to make it work, he gave up his formerly too much zoom reserve until he found out it would have aided the now very necessary go around. The long winged Mooney rudder turned, nose down no problem, around the higher tree rather than put a wing down into the trees.

Rudder turns while holding the wing level, either in ground effect or nose down, are not dangerous and can be very helpful with crooked departure or crooked approach. Even the 180, on go around, saw that letting the nose back down a bit made the turn away from higher trees possible.

With too much airspeed, we cannot get down. Without enough airspeed, we cannot get up.

Great video! Was fun to watch.

Mooney looked good, dumping the flaps settles them down nicely. Quite a capable machine when flown right

I enjoy your vids Moto, and I like your thoughts and comments Contact, good advice

+1. Very good video and excellent comments. The material on this and other threads is what makes this forum my ‘go to’ favorite on the web.

Don't know if it's the same airplane, but one of our regulars here some years ago had a red C model Mooney, and he could get it in and out of some pretty tight places--which proves that it's often the pilot, not the airplane, that makes the difference. Mooneys, probably much more than most Cessnas, demand precise airspeed for successful landings of any kind, but especially short field landings. Too slow, and they fly like bricks with a very sharp stall if way too slow, and too fast, they float and float and float. Nail the airspeed, and they're easy to land. In reality, that's the key to landing any airplane well.

Cary

Nice. Loved it

My Gestalt says I am not ready for runways quite that short yet! Got my hands all sweaty just watching!
Gyspsy

Cary wrote:Don't know if it's the same airplane, but one of our regulars here some years ago had a red C model Mooney, and he could get it in and out of some pretty tight places--which proves that it's often the pilot, not the airplane, that makes the difference. Mooneys, probably much more than most Cessnas, demand precise airspeed for successful landings of any kind, but especially short field landings. Too slow, and they fly like bricks with a very sharp stall if way too slow, and too fast, they float and float and float. Nail the airspeed, and they're easy to land. In reality, that's the key to landing any airplane well.

Cary

That is Piper Painter, he has a 206 now.