The Mooney 210 - The Cadet

I started flying lessons at Brown Field (south of Chula Vista, California) while still in the navy and as a part time student at Southwestern Jr. College in 1972. The Cadet in this image is not the plane I flew. The Mooney Cadet, as far as I was concerned was a flying rock. Cut the throttle and you had a glide slope that was nearly perpendicular (or it seemed like it to me at the time). In the summer time, flying into Palm Springs, that was considered an "attribute" or "design feature". Crossing over the threshold and catching the thermals caused many small aircraft to do a slip to get them down. Not the Mooney. Slight cross control and boom, you were on the deck.

The school that I flew her out of sold her before I completed my license and I finished learning on the C150. Going from a low wing, no flap a/c to a high wing, flap equipped a/c, was a very challenging change. You basically need to learn to fly all over again.