I live on an airpark and a lot of my neighbors are getting up there. Fortunately, most of us know our limitations. Our Piper Cherokee and Ultralight airplane are both extremely easy to fly, but some of these guys are still flying older complex high powered aircraft.
My neighbor bought a super-fast and powerful modified Mooney. Ten years ago, a few months after he bought it, he took me for a ride. I could tell that flying the plane made him very tense. The take-off was not nerve racking but when we came back to the airport it became obvious why the plane scared him. On final he skimmed the tree tops, used full flaps along with “speed brakes” that came out of the top side of his wings. We were still halfway down the runway before his tires touched the ground and we still were going very fast.
In my Cherokee I was used to plopping the plane on the ground barely past the threshold hitting the brakes and taxiing off on the first or second exit. I realized that I had no interest in a high-performance plane when I reached a ripe old age.
That’s really unfortunate about the Mooney driver!
I think he’d do well to get some time with an instructor experienced in Mooneys.
I was the Safety Officer and check airman in a club that had three different Archers. None of the 25 or so members had any mishaps in my two decades with them.
We all need to stay away from white-knuckle flying.
Best wishes for safe flights—always!