Flyler

I think it is beautiful and am a Mooney man through-and-through. I just love keeping the idea in my head that they keep puting the tails on backwards by accident...

Looking great!

I just find it absolutely astonishing after all the different models, and experiences, lessons learned, etc., that on the M22 they still accidentally put the tail on backwards!

I had a gear collapse on landing in September 2024. Prop strike, exhaust squished, lower cowling scratched up, cowl flaps, nose gear doors, nose retract rods, belly damage, right wing skin damage, right retract rod in belly bent, right flap hinge, probably the flap too, wing tip fairing. Landed softly and gear unlocked at about 55mph. Slid down asphalt and then did a little twist off into the grass, I believe due to the difference in drag of the fixed step/wing on the right side, and left main gear remaining down and rolling. Not sure if it matters regarding damaged components, but Dukes electric actuator was fully down and sitting on the limit switch. No visual damage to the gear motor, but not sure. Quote was for about $90k with IRAN only, probably optimistic at that. Of course the engine IRAN and prop is a huge chunk of the cost. There's a lot of labor in reskinning the wing too. I think a "clean" gear up where the wings don't hit is probably repairable. Collateral damage from gear collapse or partial collapse can push it over the line. I'm thinking if just the nosewheel collapses its probably not an insurance total. It's just really sad as if you look at the plane, its all pretty minor looking damage with a huge pricetag.

I know of a certain F model with an STEC20 with altitude hold that may appear on the scrap market soon. I'm sure it'll take a few months though. I wonder if we can tag one of the scrap vultures and follow it around...

I was going to say- shouldnt the gear motor turn back on if that "gear up" lights goes out, and pull it back in? Glad you found the ghost!! That must be a relief. That plane is way too pretty to be slow

Oof... That's a job I am not familiar with. Looks like silicone impregnated cloth? Unfortunately I've not made anything like that before.

If the Cherokee 6 flies like the Warrior II, you are in for a real treat getting into a Mooney. It flies like a tight handling sports car.

Can someone show me which duct part you're referencing? 3D printed parts are no where close to injected or machined parts of the same material. There's voids everywhere. For a little handle it's really no problem, but for other areas... Have to be careful. You can still utilize the printer for molds or fixtures though.

Awesome! This looks like a great option, thanks so much. I need to get out of student pilot mode, I have my PPL now and I guess it still hasn't sunk in

I would like to get some Mooney time, and I will be without a Mooney of my own for a while. Does anyone know of any flight schools or rentals in New England where I could get some PIC time while I wait? If there's another option I'm unaware of, I would be glad to hear about it.

I created a Thingiverse account and added this as a "remix". It looks like I'll need to wait 48 hours for the link to be active as my account is brand new. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6830500 I'll update my original post as well.

When I was a green engineering intern, I had an idea for a 4 bar linkage. Using some cardboard cutouts and simple push pins, I brought my idea up to the Chief Engineer. We could move the push pins around to adjust the linkage length to get it to do what we wanted, and it was 1:1 scale. He was really happy about how stupid yet effective the cardboard method was. After some praise, he looked at me for a while, then looked at the cardboard. Then he looked at me again. His smile turned to a frown. "Tyler, where did you get this cardboard?" I shrugged and said I had found it downstairs in engineering, just a big box laying around. "Tyler, this the triple wall cardboard from GM. I know it sounds stupid, but this is a prototype packaging cardboard that we paid many thousands of dollars for. You cut up that box?!?!" Fortunately they had already made a determination about the cardboard and there wasn't any collateral damage, but I certainly lost some sleep over that

If it helps, this joint has to be a spherical joint. Often called a ball joint, tierod end, or heim joint. It works in the cardboard because, well, it's made out of cardboard

My CAD skills are rusty, and technology is absolutely making things easier. With that said, it is certainly a skill. You can absolutely acquire that skill, but it takes a good amount of time commitment. In my past experience with scanners, they do a good job capturing the geometry but they function by creating a "point cloud" which is just 3d points in space. It doesn't give direct feedback as to things such as curves or flat surfaces. So, generally, it takes some rework in CAD. If anyone wants to send me parts to reverse engineer, I would be happy to do so. I'll see about getting a "thingiverse" account set up too.

Yup! That is another smart part of the design. Not only does it "disconnect" the steering (not really of course) but it also straightens the wheel. I would say that is so the wheel well can be narrower in the cabin, but knowing Al Mooney, it's probably in case there is some slight errant breeze in the wheel well, he would want nice smooth airflow over the wheel Here's a better example of the "self centering" action:

As a "Mechanical Design Engineer" this interests me too, so I made a cardboard model. I know its nutty, but I am a nutty person. This is just a basic simplification of how the steering works in the extended and retracted position. It has the same strength properties as the gear in my Mooney

I understand and appreciate your sentiment, but just to be clear- I'm not placing any blame on the shop that did the work. Its a vintage plane and had been sitting for a while before I bought it. I knew it came with some risks but this was... not what I was expecting!

Thank you, I am too. The future is unclear. Hopefully next week I will know if it is repairable or totaled. It sounds like it may be close enough that I can pick which one. I'm a bit uneasy about it as I'm not sure if I'll be "reasonably" insurable after this. The plane has electric gear. Gear down light was on, and the gear safety horn never sounded. The plane just came out of the shop to have the nosegear leg replaced, and was in annual.

I do recall seeing that one and it looked very much like a 1:1 design of the original part. Looks great and prints well. I just wanted to make a slightly "fancier" version with some rounded edges for my plane I'll take a look at getting things uploaded to thingiverse.

I made this for my 68 M20F as the original handles were cracked. With my interior, the back of the handles were rubbing quite a bit against the kick panel, so I releived the back side a bit and shortened the overall length to keep that from happening. If anyone would like a modification, let me know. The back relief does make it more challenging to print. If you would like the 3d geometry files just let me know, I would post them but the file type isn't allowed. EDIT: here's the STL file on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6830500

The OXC accident was me. Gear was down and had no indications of a problem, landed rather uneventfully until the right main then nose gear collapsed. Left remained down and locked throughout the incident. No injuries, except my pride. I don't want to say anything inaccurate as I don't have solid answers yet (and not sure if I will). Both pins on the nose gear bungees were sheared. Right retract rod in the belly bent. That's really all we have right now. The NTSB had the nose retract rods for a few weeks and sent them back already. I'm fully onboard with learning from incidents and accidents but I completely understand why some pilots would be defensive or go quiet. If I didn't have some witnesses, and an extremely grainy video, it would be hard not to assume it wasn't just a really hard landing. Add to that the tendency to blame myself as a low-time pilot... It's hard! All things considered, if we are calling it a "crash", one of the best crashes to be in as no one was hurt. EDIT: I forgot to mention - landing was on speed, it was a calm wind day. Fourth landing of the day and they had gotten progressively smoother. I'm not a pro like many of you with the buttery roll landings, but I will say that I was in love with how the Mooney landed. I felt way more comfortable and confident in it than the Warrior. That last landing where the gear collapsed, I had about a split second of time to mentally pat myself on the back for a nice touchdown. Just about when I was ready to transition my feet up to be ready to apply the brakes, things started going south! FAA guy says it will most likely be ruled "mechanical error, cause unknown" but we will need to wait for the NTSB's report. I'm happy to answer questions to the best of my ability.

How do we get on this list?

Now that you went through all that effort, you're going to arrive at your plane to see it on your own jacks with your rims stolen They look great to me.