bonal

I completely agree with this point but he was clearly responding to tower on final but failed to go around. Perhaps the warning came too late for him to arrest the descent. Brad is probably right about having to sit a moment to collect his thoughts.

Just a thought on this incident. Did not sound like there was an "emergency" until after the gear up. Seemed like the Mooney was approaching with all things being normal and was responding to the tower as expected. Clearly the controller tried to advise him of the gear being up but there was no response and more importantly no attempt to go around. Also there was no immediate reply to towers attempt to contact the Mooney after he was down. Not till a bit later do you here him reply. Pure speculation here but perhaps he had switched his frequency to ground before landing and never heard the warning. compliments to the controller and also to all the pilots for how well everyone did to stay safe in a busy airspace after things went bad.

Why is this happening so often and I wonder how many of these Mooney pilots are frequent readers of Mooney Space. Seems very rare that we have very many gear ups within our members. Perhaps because its discussed so much it's on the front of all our procedures.

Same here

Very common especially in the summer but was a very different kind of day last Friday. Low ceilings very cold was even snowing on Diablo. I also recall the winds were quite gusty and to be doing it at night VFR in what might have been a new to him airplane. Very very sad.

Joe very happy to see your post as it was said to be based at Lincoln and discovering it wasn't you. Saw the photo and could tell it was a red and white Mooney. Very sad news regardless. Knowing what the weather was like that night I can't imagine making that flight even if IFR. When we fly out of LVK we pass the west side of the summit and even though much closer to mt Diablo are still able to be above the summit by the time we pass by. Flying from Hayward plane should have been well above that altitude unless he was trying to stay under the SFO bravo shelf that is right there on the west side and not much higher than the peak. Can't imagine that this was a VFR trip and if I had to guess was possible icing but as is all too often all we can do is speculate and say a prayer for the family and friends. Very sad news.

Rain and snow like we're getting now used to mean mandatory stand by and being sent away for undetermined amounts of time and working until all power is restored to our customers . Now in retirement I can enjoy the wood stove keeping us nice and warm at home while working on my latest painting.

195 knots @ FL 180 I knew a turbo E would have to be quite the hot rod. Good luck getting back into the sky.

Check with Lake Aero, a couple of annuals ago my oil lines needed replaced and they just pulled them off the shelf. Don't recall what they cost didn't matter it needed it so just got it done. One nice thing about doing my annual there is that there is almost never a delay for needed parts.

A turbocharged E, you do know that pictures are required. Good luck with the airplane and the reconditioning of it and its pilot.

Didn't know about the broken leg I don't recall it being mentioned in the local news story. Hopefully he recovered 100%

Not far off topic at all OP was about checking gear this applies to sea planes as well. Images of what can happen can serve to remind us of what's at stake.

Weather here in NorCal has been very rainy with low ceilings but makes for perfect weather to be doing a different kind of Mooney time. Here are a couple paintings from images my wife and I liked. Sky's are clearing so hopefully we will be getting some flying in soon.

That's what happened to this fellow a couple years ago, departed Lampson and is under one minute from the approach to landing on the lake and forgot to put the gear UP, fortunately no one seriously injured. Flying an amphibious could be confusing.

Still do it this way, I'm 5 10 and just over 200 it really makes it so easy. 32 inch inseam so pretty normal. This is much more subjective than Lop vs Rop or what is best flap setting to use for landing.

He was quite the innovator

I really like the colors the dark green with the gold, very classy. When I was a kid and was first exposed to GA my folks best friends had a Barron then he sold it and had a brand new Bonanza made a 36 I think had the rear seats that faced each other. That was his last airplane before he passed away. I sure wish I could remember it's tail number. First airplane I ever flew in was a V tail Bo.

While I completely agree best to leave all the non aviation subjects to the rest of the Internet. However, I have to say some of the most entertaining threads on MS were the ones that got locked by admin.

2018 has come and gone and a new year has begun. Wishing all many hours of trouble free flights in 2019. Please take a moment to share some with the folks here on Mooney Space.

Such a beautiful day we decided to take our pup for another flight today just a short hop over to VCB really like it when I can pull power to 2400/20 inches and see a ground speed of 185 at 5500 altitude. Course we had to pay for it on the trip home but was in no hurry so an easy 2400/20 which gave us a GS of only 120 but what the heck the flying was nice and not in any hurry to be on the ground for anything. Our pup Magneto seems to be getting more comfortable in the plane he has only been up a few times. only one more day to fly in 2018, see you on the flip side. Thank you to all that posted and visited this thread.

May I suggest you revive the old "time to climb" thread which was a fun thing between Hank and I to discover the difference between his three blade and our two blade in climb. Then you can follow the instructions and post your results.

Seems like the subject has drifted a bit. I think a very low cost aid to preventing a gear up I say aid as nothing is fool proof. But why not install your go pro or what have you camera on the underside of the tail looking forward with a wifi display on the panel or even just atop the glare shield showing the gear up or down. Seems this would be not much different than an AOA device that one can also keep an eye on as part of your sweep.

Bittersweet congrats on the sale, as long as you continue your presence here on MS yours being some of the best posts on this forum.

2018 was a really bad year too many fires TFR's closed airport etc. 2019 to fly more and to go another year without a gear up