Flyler

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.

Bridgewater, CT

That would be nice, it was a beautiful plane and well equipped. It's sort of sad as there really isn't that much damage, it's just the cost to repair is so dang high on an aircraft. Hopefully someone repairs it instead of chopping up.

Gear collapsed after touch down on roll out on our 4th landing. Right main, then the nose. Slid down the runway for a bit then veered off and came to a stop in the grass. No injuries.

Sold! That went fast. Bought these but did not have the opportunity to install them. They are about 2 months old and I'm not sure if I even opened the bags! I'm not sure which models they fit, but I'm guessing most/all. They were intended for my 68 m20F. I bought some of the yellow adhesive too, I can include that if needed. Make me an offer!

This came with the Mooney I bought. It fires right up and seems to work great when testing. Blower works, igniter works, temp gauge works. The propane tank won't be included as I don't want to find out how to ship it! Seems like it would be easy to buy at Home Depot or the hardware store. I haven't actually used this to warm up the engine on my Mooney, didn't get the chance as the plane only lasted 3 hours Happy to take dimensions or weigh it, make a video, etc. Just ask! Make me an offer!

Give the FSDO a call and ask, it's probably not so hard. Just my opinion, but I would guess its easier to explain the situation and get the ball rolling before the Annual expires. You might not need an A&P to sign anything.

I'm not sure if there was a lot of background noise, or just strange audio layovers, but some of the sounds were comedically incorrect for the equipment. I liked the "spooling up" sounds that the CMM probe was making

What a great buy! It will be like a new plane once you finish up the interior. I love that panel too.

That's a lot of slop in a short period of time. I would suspect the hinge mounts more than wear in the hinge. Shouldn't be hard to tell where it is coming from in the component if its moving that much.

I'm an automotive/machine shop guy and don't have airplane engine experience, so take this with many grains of salt. I wonder if you checked the cylinder bores for roundness?

I hope you get it! I am just happy that the Mooney pictured exists in this world. It is a real beauty.