Hi Andrew, thanks for your post and I'll return to that in a moment.
I think I gave too much information in the initial post and frankly I was looking for any technical pointers before referring to the engineers, those that may have experienced a similar situation or have a more in-depth knowledge.
For those interested in commenting on my actions perhaps I can put your minds at rest.
When the main breaker tripped in 2012 I was downwind at Liverpool John Lennon when I noticed some smoke on the passenger side panel area and the main breaker had tripped. I declared an emergency, ATC stopped all traffic, deployed the fire tenders and I landed immediately with no further problem. I never attempted to reset the breaker. We had the panel apart and the engineers spent several hours looking for the fault. All they could find was a pen lodged behind the panel but with no evidence it was the culprit. I've flown a few hundred hours since with no further problems until Feb this year when the main breaker tripped shortly after take off following several touch and goes. Again, because it was the main breaker I made no attempt to reset it and landed immediately. When I reset it on the ground it gave no further problems. I had the engineers look for the problem on the 50hr inspection the next week but they could find no evidence of an issue.
Intermittent problems like this are a nightmare, but I know from my automotive experience that all the information you can possibly gather helps to solve the issue in a reasoned and logical manner. I'm not saying these are definitely connected to the last incident when the landing gear breaker tripped, but two of the electrical operations are landing gear and flaps on both downwind and take off, so just maybe there is a connection.
Re the landing gear breaker trip on Thursday. We were after hours at the local airfield so the option of getting someone in the tower or on the ground to check the gear on a low pass didn't exist. The manual indicator showed the gear down but the light showed unsafe, so I had two choices. Carry on and land, but the gear may not be locked and I could suffer a collapse on landing with no emergency facilities, or divert. I decided to climb and try to assess the problem knowing we were right overhead the field and I had the manual gear option. Mindful that there was a slim chance we could end up with an electrical fire I asked my passenger to make ready with the fire extinguisher and in this event resolved to turn off the fuel, vents and masterswitch and get her on the ground post haste, either gear up or down. Resetting the breaker solved the issue thankfully and the gear and warning lights functioned properly through a couple of cycles.
I am comfortable with all my actions and don't think I would do any different if faced with the same set of circumstances. I'd like to keep the comments to technical advice if that's possible so hopefully this reply will put the others to bed.
Andrew. I'll check the worm drive link, thanks. Whilst I learned to fly at Liverpool and based WR there for a few years I live in Shropshire and have her in my hanger at Sleap now. I wasn't being disrespectful to my maintenance facility when I said I doubted a Mooney gear specialist existed in the UK and your comments bear this out. However, they have done a good job of maintaining her over the years so I will refer back to them in the first instance. They know the plane. If I don't feel confident I'll consider trying your recommendation.
BTW, I thought Troyes Aviation were also a MSC, I've contacted them a couple of times for parts but on the whole find Lasar exceptionally helpful.
Regards,
Mike