Ragsf15e

I think my USAF experience isn’t the best model for this because being able to bail out right down to the landing gives you some “room to maneuver”. Like flying to a longer field with crash crews. If the airplane becomes uncontrollable on the way there? No problem, eject. Or doing a controllability check? If the airplane goes out of control, eject. In general, I think the methodical approach you’re talking about is highly desirable. However, I also don’t know how hard he was having to pull or roll. Just to circle down to the field. I guess my thought is that he definitely had that field made, unknown structural damage, and difficulty maintaining control (unusual forces). I think you might not want to try flying far or for long in that condition. I also think structural damage isn’t necessarily fixed. It could get worse. What if he hit some turbulence and the door riding on his elevator Shifted and jammed it? All in all, if he had flown successfully and methodically to a bigger field and gone over little ones, we’d be saying great job. But I think landing soonest has some merit as well.

Depends. None of us felt the controls. Handling was clearly compromised to some extent, but how much? Only RedSky knows what it really felt like. With altitude and time, your approach may be prudent. However, with a missing door and clear structural damage, my last worry would be further damage to the airplane (“bent prop”). At this point, that’s not my concern, its his insurance companies problem. In my USAF fighter and trainer time we planned for structural damage. Checklist called for a controllability check slowing and configuring at a high altitude. Slow either to approach speed or full control deflection, then stay above that airspeed. Then you decide if landing is possible. If not, bail out. It’s that last part that gets complicated in a Mooney... we don’t have a way to bail out if the controllability check goes bad. I’m not sure doing it is all that helpful since there’s no other option than landing anyway. Now a long, wide runway with crash crew ready would be nice, and it’s definitely a consideration, but the outcome is really tough to second guess. If he got it down and collapsed the gear, I’d still say he did fine. If he tumbled off the runway and was trapped inside, I’d guess waiting for a better place to land would be good. Seems like he chose an acceptable place. How much would that door have to have shifted to jam in the elevator hinge and make elevator control impossible?

Boy, that would’ve been a crappy thing to have happened on an LPV approach to mins...

Depends on how much excess panel room you have. I have a Ram ball mount screwed into the panel on the right side. iPad mini fits well. Very secure. Easy to pop out if you want to hold it closer to study an approach or something.

Try the simple first... “lube the control shaft.” I only have a -30A, but setting a good trim before engaging altitude hold and lubing the control shafts help it stay smooth.

I have almost the exact same issue on my title search from the same title search folks. The name is really close but not exact. Mine is from about 1988. It’s changed hands 6 or 7 times since then and I don’t expect it to be an issue when I finish taking care of her.

Drop in part number GI275 .

You could be right about kicking out the windows. Cirrus provides an egress hammer for the windows. We need to have the reaper try kicking one out next time they take one apart.

If you’re in good enough shape to crawl back and egress through the Unlocked baggage door after a crash, you’re in good enough shape to have kicked out any of the windows. I think I’m gonna stick with locking that thing religiously.

I always lock mine. I’m hearing some people don’t? Is that for a possible egress route? Would locking prevent some of the door departures?

YGBSM. You made me look at it. He did just fine. Unknown structural damage, aircraft control questionable, and not a whole lot of altitude. They both walked away from it and they didn’t even cause additional damage to the airplane. What more do you want? Yeah, he landed hot. Luckily he had himself a good field and a tough airplane. We can and should always learn from these kind of things, so I’m sure there’s stuff that could be done better, but the results were pretty good. Kept control, didn’t stall, found good field. Overall, success.

Nice! I think you’ll find the kids need to stay in back until they’re roughly 4 or 5. We have twins and I found carseats small enough to fit next to each other in the back of my F. I didn’t use them for safety reasons, but just to keep them sitting upright until they were 1 or so and they could sit by themselves. I faced them forward so wifey could reach/attend to the kids. It’s tough for wifey to reach back between the seats to help kids, but possible. If she’s a puker, that’s a problem. So your airplane may work for a while. Once they can sit without the carseat, the short body will be fine. Our current MO is wife and one 4 year old in back, other kid copilot. They are happy to look outside and snack for an hour and then it’s ipad movie time. Trips become tough because you’ll need a carseat(s) at destination, but getting one in /out of the Back seat or luggage is a challenge. Once seats are in the backseat, you’d like to leave them. The same carseats i found that fit in the backseat could be Jenga into the luggage. There was even a little room left for overnight bags. None of it is/was easy, but it kept us using the airplane!

This is a real good point, and often overlooked. Definitely think about where your antenna is and where is the person you’re talking to - above or below or masked by your wing? The two antennas are often far apart to prevent conflict (top/bottom is common). So the one that works best on the ground often doesn’t work as well in the air. They can be masked by the fuselage, wings, shoved close to the ground, etc. Thinking about this can help get proper reception (usually on the ground) from challenging locations on an airfield. I guess I might think about this first before I go too far troubleshooting... could be a simple antenna swap between the two radios.

Also, it will feel weird turning back and forth depending on your nose gear position. There is a little bit of rudder/aileron/nose wheel interconnect that will make the airplane feel “wonky” (technical term) depending on where the nose wheel is pointed. Definitely shouldn’t clunk though. Likely what the other guys said, but just be aware...

I did this too. Actually twice now in 3 years. First time was wife plus 2 x 3 year old kids for lunch 1.5 hours flight from Spokane to Arlington, just north of Seattle. Arrived, taxied to fbo for fuel, no wallet. Airplane had about 15 gallons in it. Oh $%!|! Was a quiet Sunday afternoon... talked to the lady working the fbo desk. Apple pay? No. Cash transfer? No? By now the kids are getting hangry and antsy... she says, lemme call the owners. 5 minutes later she says, no worries, give me your address, they’ll send you a bill. Great! Problem 1 solved! I quickly texted my 2 brothers and said, “first one to send me their cc number, expiration, and code gets a case of beer in the mail.” Took about 5 minutes, little brother won the beer. Wouldn’t you know, the cafe on the airport had no issues just taking a cc number off my phone! Problem 2 solved! I now carry a credit card in the back of the pilot seat. I had to use it just last week!