Mooney Caravan XXVI - July 20, 2024

Each year after landing dozens of airplanes at Oshkosh, all Mooney Caravan pilots gather into our tent on the North 40 and conduct our official debrief. The debrief is the last official step in the mass formation – it's the moment when we collect observations from the flight, feedback, and surface safety issues that come up in moving such a massive amount of aluminum across central Wisconsin. It's the time when we all reflect back on the activities of the day and weigh in on how it went.

“Best Mooney Caravan ever” is how it was summed up this year. That, as an opening line to the debrief, is actually a bit of a cliché now – “best Caravan ever” has been true for many years in a row now. And, every time it's said, it's true.

Mooney Caravan XXVI was great because of the preparation, practice, volunteering, and community of the Caravan community.

2024 started off on the right foot with an enhanced analysis of 2023 flight performance. We took a close look at flight tracks and came up with a number of improvements for 2024: improved documents and practice for wings and leads, a route from MSN to OSH with more turns, clearer procedures, and more. These procedures were trialed at our annual Gunfighters advanced clinic in Yuma. Shortly after that event but early in our practice season, Caravan Lead Robert “Hoser” Davis passed the baton to deputy Dan “Clippy” Driscoll following a ski injury. The support Hoser provided set the stage for a successful 2024 year and he was able to recover and fly in the flight in the end.

During the 2024 season, pilots gathered at local clinics and flew not only formation basics, but also practiced real-world mass formation techniques as part of mock Caravan flights and alternate runway procedures. Our clinics remain a pillar in how the Caravan works, not only to prepare pilots to fly but also to give our members an excuse to meet and fly together in the months prior to Oshkosh.

Congregating at Madison was smooth as ever, with Hans “Goldilocks” Masing organizing volunteers and a few early Wednesday arrivals of Cowboy, Spaz, and Wojo helping to get our Madison arrivals up and running. Weather was minimal this year with most pilots making it in without delays.

Our traditional Friday briefing with Madison ATC went longer than usual with much discussion about normal operations, contingency plans, and how we all can team up to launch the best flight out of Madison – the support we received from Madison ATC was fantastic and we're looking forward to working with them again next year. We also had an opportunity to see Caravaners land and depart Madison from the tower, one such flight launched that day being a welcome wagon sent over to Juneau to overfly the group gathered there.

The forecast remained impeccable with the MOS and TAFs holding true through Saturday morning: calm winds, cool temperatures, and no precipitation. The only difference was sunny skies rather than the broken layer originally predicted.

That sunshine helped keep everyone awake for the 5:30am breakfast in advance of our 6am bus with enough time to get to the airport and pre-flight ahead of the 7:30am planeside lead briefing. There were no anomalies or last-minute changes so we stepped to our planes as briefed and starting at 8:30am 52 airplanes roared to life.

Our flight for 2024 consisted of 51 Mooneys and a lone (but always welcome) PA24-250 Comanche. We had one last-minute cancellation and Steve “Turbo” Flanagan had to toss his gear into another plane the night before after an unsolved CHT issue grounded his plane, but otherwise we had no issues and record low attrition prior to arrival in Madison.

With all 52 airplanes started and checked in, Madison ATC taxied us to Runway 21 for launch, our preferred runway, and we conducted our run-up and line-up as briefed. Once White section lead made the runway, Mooney Lead started takeoff, followed every five seconds until the entire flight is airborne.

Runways 3 and 21 are our best-case launch options owing to their size, proximity to the East ramp, and simple taxi routes. Of the two, runway 21 has the added benefit of letting the Caravan show off by forming up over downtown Madison. That path even has plenty of shallow lake water for ditching in the event that someone loses an engine on takeoff, not that this has ever happened before.

Climb and en route was smooth and we were overflown by a three-ship of T-34s who lit off smoke in unison as they cruised a thousand feet above us. Thanks for the show!

Adherence to procedures and radio etiquette was phenomenal. We had a couple of callouts but the flight proceeded smoothly to POBER where each element lined up for 36L and 36R. Owing to our greater practice this year, we had better performance maintain space between elements and also maintaining altitude on descent. We truly do get better every year.

Taxi in was smooth – well, as smooth as it can be – and many of our Mooneys sported hand-drawn signs from Snapper's daughter June sending a warm “Thank You” to the volunteers helping direct us to parking.

Even though our arrival was a very low-drama affair, plenty of volunteer sweat went into the tent, meals, and festivities on the North 40. After we concluded our debrief, we got down to the important work of being with our big extended family, making even more new friends, and having a great time on the turf at Oshkosh.