Mooney M20 K on Grass ?

(vfr2003) wrote:

Do you think that Grass is ok with a M20K or it's dangerous ?

Well ... it's not dangerous, but it might be expensive :-)

You can operate a Mooney off grass. Lots of people do. However
you really want the smoothest possible grass, which is fussed over
and rolled by the operators to billiard-table smooth. Also, some
grass runways get a lot of rain and are frequently soggy and soft,
which is not what you want either.

A Mooney doesn't have much in the way of suspension - really just
3 hockey pucks at each corner. It doesn't have much in the way
of prop clearance, either - expect to budget extra for blade tip
erosion. Not the best for non-paved surfaces.

I'd be more concerned with the length of the runway. I'd recommend
absolute minimum 3000 feet. I'm sure you can find someone here who
is ready to brag about flying his Mooney off a 1200 foot grass strip
with 50 foot obstacles on both ends, but you simply don't want to go
there as a beginner Mooney driver.

Any extra speed on final - low-time pilots love to carry too much
speed on final because it "feels good" - will translate into thousands
of extra feet of runway consumed due to the ground effect of those
low, long wings.

A Mooney is happiest when flying from one 3000+ foot paved runway
to another. You can operate off grass, but you will have to be
careful doing so.

P.S. I've only got about 400 hours in Mooneys (mostly M20J) so
please take the above with a grain of salt. There are lots of
guys here each with thousands of hours of Mooney time who will
probably have useful comments, too.

--
ATP www.pittspecials.com