Flying a Mooney M20R Ovation over the Rocky Mountains

One of my favorite cross country birds to date. Incredible power, amazing efficiency. And an incredible range.
Join along as I fly from KBJC to KHDN.
#mooney #aircraft #pilot

[@MyAviationDose]

Awesome content ! truly inspirational for PPL pilot like us :) thanks !

[@SirDrifto]

Thanks for watching!

[@steveeppy5596]

As someone who knows virtually nothing about aviation, these videos are enjoyable to watch!

[@SirDrifto]

That's wonderful to hear. Thank you for watching 👍

[@hoveycorbin5712]

Aloha. In 1972 when my father retired from working 20 years at Sandia National Laboratories, he purchased a Mooney Mark 20 to be able to fly around the country doing missions for the Methodist Church. He invited me to fly to Midland/Odessa with him and my step-mother, and I so went along on that ride. What a very nice airplane that was. It also had autopilot and spring-assisted retractable landing gear. My father said that when it was at altitude and trimmed out, it got better gas mileage than his Nash Rambler. I was scheduled to sing in a gospel quartet that Sunday evening, and I did not make it back to Albuquerque in time to sing. There was a huge thunderstorm that formed over Midland/Odessa, complete with rain and hail. The ground crew rolled the Mooney into the hangar to protect it from hail damage. It was a very pleasant flight, and he let me fly it some when he didn't have it on autppilot. This video brought back some very pleasant memories of my father and that flight in the Mooney that Sunday afternoon. Thank you for taking us along on this ride with you. The electronics has improved dramatically with all the very nice color displays and other instrument displays. Thank you again for taking us along with you...

[@SirDrifto]

Thanks for watching! 👍

[@Nick-ip6fc]

Absolutely love the channel Sir Drifto. Please keep the aviation content coming!

[@SirDrifto]

@@Nick-ip6fc love hearing that. Will do!

[@drfinneman]

Beautiful plane, beautiful flight over the mountains and a talented pilot.

[@SirDrifto]

Many thanks!

[@RusscanFLY]

Definitely some beautiful flying for sure. I’m hoping to get out that way myself, since my wife is originally from Colorado. My friend just bought a money about a month ago, and flew from California back to Pennsylvania. That baby was cooking! I can’t remember which one he has, but I think he has the Lycoming 03 60, and was still, doing some pretty respectable knots over the ground. Thank you for sharing his flight, and I can’t wait to hear more about that specific airplay. Fly well!

[@SirDrifto]

Definitely come visit. Colorado is incredible to fly. Your journey from cali to Pennsylvania sounds epic, thanks for watching

[@Highaltituderc24]

That is a beautiful Mooney! You flew just to the north of where I live. K20V (Kremmling, Grand county). I really enjoyed the flight.

[@SirDrifto]

@@Highaltituderc24 I love kremmling its beautiful. Thanks for watching

[@hawkhunter8180]

Great video. I love the Mooney, but have never flew one in real life. Now I'm an avid flight sim pilot flying the Lancair Legacy cross country just about everywhere. My next stop is Yellowknife. Keep the airspeed up.

[@SirDrifto]

@@hawkhunter8180 I'm a sucker for a Lancair too

[@jaggedmountain]

Drifto over the continental divide. Continental drift in action.

[@SirDrifto]

@@jaggedmountain keeping things in the continental U.S 🤣

[@billbristow1768]

I enjoy your flying videos!

[@SirDrifto]

Thanks for watching them!

[@stephenc6955]

Greased the landing 👍

[@SirDrifto]

I try my best! But credit due to the airplane making landings quite nice.

[@auhs70]

I really like Mooney's.

[@SirDrifto]

Likewise my friend.

[@aldohattonduran5227]

Brooooo love the video 📷 I even remember your last Mooney video with your friend a while back 🔙! Excellent 👌🏼 please do make a more indepth video when you can and if you ever get a hold of a Quest as well 💫 ty 🛩️🛬🛫✈️🇺🇸💪🏼

[@SirDrifto]

@@aldohattonduran5227 love hearing that. Absolutely will!

[@jmann06]

Would love to see more about the ovation. Been doing a lot of research into them. Looking into purchasing a M20R next year. Is yours a GX model ? Or did you upgrade the avionics? And how well do adults fit into the back seats? I have kids but my teenager is as tall as I am.

[@SirDrifto]

I'll do a much more in depth video on the ovation. What I love about it and what I dislike about it.

[@travispower2683]

G1000 is the only way to go. Love BJC I do a lot of work there.

[@SirDrifto]

It was definitely an odd transition for me going from steam gauges. But it truly is an amazing system.

[@FlyingNDriving]

No tips for those line guys making you pull your own chocks!

[@FlyingNDriving]

I'll take a Mooney Bravo with a Lycoming and a turbo normalizer system over a Continental 550 ovation. I don't think those are fiki but you can find them with tks. Id also see you didn't lean (or for t/o at 5k+?) on the ground with you getting all the weather information, very very important in those big displacement six bangers

[@FlyingNDriving]

Also forgot your flaps looks like bud on climb out. Come out east and I'll give you a free hour of instruction!

[@thedoctor4690]

Hello from Germany! Sorry for the strange question, but how tall are you? It seems you fit well in a mooney, do you find it comfortable? I am not sure if it would be the right fit length wise for me. Thanks and Best regards!

[@SirDrifto]

@@thedoctor4690 I'm 175.26 centimeters. It definitely isn't a super tall person plane but it has an incredible more room than a M20C

[@thedoctor4690]

@@SirDrifto Sounds good, Thanks a Lot!

[@SirDrifto]

@@thedoctor4690 ask any questions you like!

[@thedoctor4690]

@@SirDrifto will definitely do that! Looking forward to more mooney vids hopefully in the future 👍

[@2Phast4Rocket]

I just can't get over the fact Mooney didn't cover the rest of the plane with flush rivets. At this price point, that is what I expected. There is so much Mooney can do but it's no longer in business.

[@SirDrifto]

Agreed, and increasing weight capacity similar to a bonanza would be the cherry on top of the sundae.

[@SirDrifto]

Fun fact. They just custom built an Aclaim Ultra for a customer maybe 4 months ago.