The Beginning

Today is the beginning of this blog. I read about it in Smart Computing (October, 2009) and decided to try it!

Yesterday, I went to Ryan airport for an Expo there. Ryan Field is about 40 miles west of Tucson and has an interesting history.

During WW II, the need to train many more military pilots than was possible with the limited airports of California led to the use of Ryan Field for that purpose. The weather was excellent and was close to the west coast.

The airport is larger than many small regionals, with two parallel runways, many enclosed hangars and a very nice restaurant on the field.

The Expo featured six high-performance airplanes from five manufacturers: Cessna, Mooney, Cirrus, Diamond and Beechcraft. Each was priced over $500,000, so the visit was only for interest, not possible purchase.

Here's a picture of the five of us in front of a Mirage, priced at $650,000. Quite a handsome group, huh?

I was interested in seeing what a new Mooney looks like, since another guy and I owned one for 15 years or more. Here's what the model at Ryan looked like - not a lot different in exterior style from ours, but the interior is different, especially the panel.

It was a hot day, one of the last gasps of our hot, dry summer of 2009, but interesting for those of us who fly.