Air-to-air photo shoot in Mainz on April 23, 2022

The event for the season opener was announced at the end of 2021 and was quickly booked out. When the time came, 9 crews were there on time for the briefing at 11:00 in Mainz EDFZ. Some Mooniacs had already arrived the evening before to spend a nice evening with Mooney talk.

In the briefing we were instructed by Martin, our photographer: the photo ship, a Cessna 172 should always fly a little bit higher, in front left of the photographed Mooney, in order to ensure a free view for the photographer despite the wrongly placed and strut-braced wing of the C-brand aircraft. We would keep in touch via the "chat frequency" 122.355 and get instructions like "5ft up", "10ft down", 5m ahead", so that the photographer would have the right angle. Always increase throttle for left turns, fly slower for right turns. This was the challenge for the Mooneys, to fly only 90-95 KT, but to have as high a RPM as possible (so that the propeller looks nice).

The whole thing was organized in 3 flights of one hour each, with the first Mooney of the group of three departing together with the Cessna towards the Mäuseturm and flying further along the Rhine. After 20 minutes, the next Mooney was to circle at 3000 feet above the Mäuseturm. Then the first Mooney would leave the formation with a break to the right and fly back to Mainz, and the next one would take over.

By the time everyone was through, the afternoon had progressed and the weather was getting worse. Due to the miserable forecast for the following Sunday, the EMPOA-typical humid-happy get-together in the evening was cancelled.

With us this time were:

D-EIIJ