The Lake Tahoe Fly-In was definitely our largest fly-in EVER!  At the final count, we had 78 Mooneys and approximately 175 people (too many to count).  Mooneys arrived from Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.  It was also one of our most beautiful venues with the jagged Sierra Nevada Mountains topped with snow and the deep blue Lake Tahoe.  Thanks to Top Gun Aviation for taking the lead in supporting this fly-in with most of their staff, lunch, tables, shirts and more, and to Michael Golden of Mountain West for hosting this event and planning the seminars, coordinating great deals with hotels and Hertz, and opening up his FBO to all of us.  Also we'd like to thank Rick Jenkins, airport director who also provided tremendous support to make this possible and enjoyable.

Mooneys started arriving en masse on Friday.  It appeared we had almost 20 Mooneys by late that evening.  About 45-50 people went to dinner at Passaretti's restaurant near the airport on the patio and inside with a private room.

On Saturday, Mooneys started arriving early and often.  The weather cooperated with sunny skies and mild winds.  Some folks encountered a fair amount of smoke from fires all around Northern California.  At 10:45, Pete Wolak and Wayne Fischer of Mooney Airplane Co. gave us a great update from Kerrville and answered our questions.  Shirts and hats were abundant.

Then onto lunch with BBQ ribs and chicken with all the fixins.  It was a challenge to feed 175 people since  we normally feed closer to 50.  Phil gave awards to Paul & Shery Loewen for starting and running the West Coast MAPA group for more than 20 years.  He also gave a well-deserved award to Jerry Manthey for all of those Maintaining our Mooneys seminars and all those "Ask Jerry" feature articles.  We then celebrated two 75th birthdays for Ozzie Kaufmann and Tom Rouch of Top Gun Aviation.

After lunch, Tom Meadows conducted a Mountain Flying Seminar which was both informative, very useful, and entertaining.  It is very exciting to have a knowledgeable and enjoyable speaker at the same time.  After a brief break to take the group shot, we then went into the "Maintaining & Modifying our Mooneys" panel.  And what a great panel that was with Tom & Mark Rouch of Top Gun Aviation, Paul Loewen of LASAR, Don Maxwell of Maxwell Aviation, and Jerry Manthey.  These guys answered all of our questions and stayed until we just plain ran out of questions.  Probably the most knowledgeable panel on this topic anywhere.  Thanks to all of them.

Checkout our VMG Music Video at Lake Tahoe.

Safe Flying,
Phil Corman & Larry Palmer

78 Mooneys & 175 People

   
        Hiking on Friday                      Informal Dinner at Passaretti       Wine & Weed Wacker Margaritas
                                                                                              Ask Mike & Pam Whitehead

   
Welcoming the Mooney Arrivals       

        
Dinner on Friday at Passaretti's

   
BBQ Ribs, Chicken, Salads, Rolls and Cake -Provided by Mountain West & Top Gun Aviation

   
                                               Happy Birthday Tom Rouch!!!           Mountain Flying Seminar
                                                                                                 by Tom Meadows

   
The Maintaining & Modifying Our Mooneys Panel
Paul Loewen (LASAR), Tom & Mark Rouch (Top Gun), Don Maxwell (Maxwell), and Jerry Manthey (MAPA)