So what's with the Apple n' Worm Livery?

While traveling, probably the number one question regarding this particular Mooney aircraft is "Why the apple tail art?" - well ... there is a story behind that!

N201CN was acquired in Massachusetts in 2017 with its current registration number (CN or Charlie November). As the contract was being finalized, the previous owner revealed that the registration fee was past due and had not been paid ergo, the plane may need to be RE-REGISTERED with a new number after purchase if the FAA reassigns the number. Beyond the sheer cost of re-painting new registration numbers on any plane, that number was CRITICAL to the purchase because we had already settled on the livery concept for the aircraft. That number HAD to come with the plane or no deal.

Needless to say, a few phone calls, notes, and a check later, the matter was resolved and Charlie November was good to go and on its way. Ironically, Teresa was not the one to officially receive the plane but it was DENISE who had flown the Purple Hearts Piper race plane along with Mooney 10,000 hour check-pilot, A&P/IA & instructor extraordinaire, Robert McGuire to fly the beast back home to Connecticut.

The Northeast United States is a beautiful land with great food and friendly folks however as a rule, they are not nearly as accepting of 'gun culture' or references to the subject as a whole as our western U.S. brethren. Therein lies the rub of placing a 'gunsight' logo on the tail of an airplane which was purpose built to wander far from home and sea to sea. Obviously the tail art ties into the phonetic alphabet Charlie November (CN or ... SEEIN') registration number, but if you are Sight Seein' through a gunsight (or the scenery), you will still need to be looking AT something - right?

Logically the idea of sighting a person or politician is not humorous and in bad taste, so what shall we hunt and emblazon on the tail of a red and white cross-country plane? Hunters may appreciate deer, elk, or boar. Target marksmen may love perforating beer cans and tin signs. But for the rest of us we truly care most about 19th century classical Swiss fables (kidding). So taking the lead from William Tell of legend, who could be upset at the thought of focusing our gunsight gaze upon a ripe, ruby red apple? Nobody - except maybe that lowly unfortunate angry worm whose castle is this particular apple. 

So there you have it - the four paragraph 'non-elevator speech' genus of Sight Seein' Mooney's moniker. Now you're in the know and who knows, you may be inclined to brush up on your Swiss folklore, eat an apple, or at the very least deal definitively with any defiant worms in your sights. Do TELL!