Ned Gravel

Well.. There was that too. ATP in the left seat and you in the back seat. Such a joy!!! But I am not certain if you understand how grateful I am for the offer to do that for me. I am. Very. Kidding aside, I was watching him (not to be named here without his permission) do exactly what I would do all through the flight home. You ever notice how an instrument rated pilot lowers their eyes to the panel just before entering clouds? We both did it at the same time and I wasn't doing any of the flying. Requesting diversions around buildup to avoid growing CU. exactly as I would do as well. We have all learned many of the same lessons. And I got home 7 days sooner than I originally anticipated. I am probably going to ask @yvesg to fly us both to Waterloo when we pick it up. We have not done a whole pile of formation work this year. So this might be a good opportunity for the trip home. Videos will follow. In the meantime, can you get pictures of the parts for MS when you figure out what happened?

Thanks for this and I will admit to a little self-congratulation on the outcome of the event. Between "Who'da thunk it?" and "Holy Crap" lives the old soldier. You know the guy: "Don't worry son. Ain't nuthin' we can't handle." I am not always that guy. But I would like to be. Occasionally, we all get to rise to our own expectations of ourselves. This time it worked. It has not always done so. Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion of everyday non-life-threatening enjoyment of flying our Mooneys. "Nothing more to see here. Move along."

That's the part I like...

As many of you know, I have owned my '65 E model since 2005 and one of the reasons I bought a J-Bar Mooney was serious lack of confidence in RGs that were operated either electrically or hydraulically. This reticence was caused by a ground loop in a PA-28-180R Arrow that sent the front gear to work for the other team because I chanced to lift off a minus 26 deg Celcius and the nose gear broke something during transition. In the end, the fault was mine because I was operating the aircraft outside its envelope (ie: below -25 deg C) but I was already on the "I gotta own the gear if I fly an RG" rant. Along came J-Bar Mooneys and I was hooked. Loved them ever since. With nearly 900 hours in mine, I feel that I can make mine dance. Yesterday however, an incident occurred that nearly spelled the end of my relationship with C-FSWR. After 1:51 of flying time to deliver C-FSWR for its annual, I was cleared by Toronto Center for the visual approach to runway 26 in Waterloo and told to contact the tower. That done, I started to configure the aircraft for landing. At about 4 miles out on final, I reached for the J Bar, pulled it out of the uplock block on the floor and it came apart in my hands. Off popped the handle for the retraction lever, followed by the spring. Handle in my right hand and the retraction lever too short (without the attached handle) to go into the downlock block and keep the gear safely down for the landing. Options ? First option, the airplane now belongs to my insurance company. Equipment failure will result in a gear up landing. Either I walk away with a totalled aircraft, or it pays for the repairs. My only job at this point is to save my life. This is not really a difficult thing to do looking at 7000' of 150' wide runway at 1000' AGL doing 120 MPH. All the time in the world and all the runway needed to make a safe belly scraping landing. That whole consideration took about 2 seconds of my time. Second option, try to piece it back together during the 3.5 miles or so left to me so the handle will fit into the downlock block and allow me to get it to the shop so it can be repaired during the annual. That cogitation took about one more second. Decision? (Aviate - Navigate - Communicate) 1. Maintain the approach (lotsa time available for option 1) 2. Try to put it back together until about 500' AGL, then abandon this approach and proceed to drop the flaps and put it down at or below 65 MPH for option 1. What happened? I slipped the handle back over the top of the retraction lever and banged it three or four times until it settled over the lever as it is supposed to do - albeit minus its spring. Then I pushed the whole thing forward into the downlock block and pushed the handle up into the block until it clicked into the handle's catch. Pulled down to make sure it was locked - and it was. I was now at 700' AGL and good for a wheels down landing. I still did three GUMPS checks on a no-flaps landing - no flare - just let it settle on a squeaker. Ahhhhhh. C-FSWR lives to fly another day and my new seats (from @Alan Fox) and my new gear handle lock blocks (from @Sabremech) are going to be installed. I don't think I will need a new gear retraction handle, but I have every confidence someone is going to look real close as to why it came apart in the first place. @M20Doc (Clarence) now has C-FSWR in his shop for the annual and new installs. There may be a resulting change in my procedures, but this lesson will not have cost us as much as it might have. Although I have not flown enough since January to feel real comfortable in my proficiency, yesterday's success partly mollified my guilt. Isn't the only excitement we want to experience in flight to be generated from our love of flying? I guess yesterday I was supposed to have more excitement than that. To top it all off, Clarence and his friend flew me back to Ottawa in a Turbonormalized Twink. 1:24 at 18 gph. I paid for the gas - it was only fair. Gratitude - there but for the grace of God go I................I remain in the left hand column - those have have yet to land gear up.

Me too. Annual is next week.

Flew with Bob on more than one Caravan. He will be missed. Prayers for Nancy and the family from Ute and I.

Clarence will know. @M20Doc He will be installing them in my ‘65 E.

Mine are worse than these. So I bought these from Alan. They will be headed to Clarence's shop soon to replace the ones in C-FSWR. And for @Sabremech, not to worry. We will transfer the seat-back adjustment knobs you made to these seats when they are installed. Thank you Alan, Clarence and David.

Phil: Mine is to use when flying in US airspace. I have an ongoing dialogue now with uAvionix to upgrade to the dual band one when it is certified. It will speak to both the Aerion system to be used in Canada (1090 ES) and the UAT system use in the US (978). But for now, all I need is the US one. Because it is not mandated here, all I did (legally and in the logbooks) was change the tail mounted nav light.

So, we all went and spent some AMUs to install ADSB out (albeit for the 978 MHz ground based system). I got a Tail Beacon and did the internal systems check that showed it was working. As COVID 19 restrictions are being lifted, we are doing a little more flying to places (instead of just going, overflying, and coming back to our home drome). Today is the day to check out the ADSB on US ATC screens. So I called our Center Control folks (Montreal for me) and asked them if they got the ADSB data from the US system. Canada is leading the effort for the Aerion 1090 ES satellite based system so any data they get from 978 systems have to come from the US. Well that is not happening and they were reluctant to comment on why that was. OK by me. I will let them sort that out themselves. But Montreal Centre got on the "hot line" to Boston Centre and were told by Boston Centre not to bother, because it is "not turned on yet." So no ADSB confirmation check for me today. We will be forced to just enjoy the flying. For @peevee S'up? Aren't you folks using it yet?

Serge: Well, you did fly in mine. Does that not count?

Mine is a round bar in the vertical position by my right leg. Sorry, couldn't help it. You knew one of the J-bar pilots was going to say something.

HA!! One made just before mine. My 65E is Serial number 831.

I asked them at Oshkosh last year if they had an STC for Mooney's and they said no. If they did, I would install them. Other than an STC with an AML, I cannot install them. We do not have the equivalent of the FAA 337 system in Canada.

ICOM A6 attached to the coax that used to go to the marker beacon and that replaced with a Comant VHF antenna on the belly. Clarence calls them "eye-pokers."

Payment made and message sent.

You might wish to join us this year in Hickory, NC for the east coast formation clinic. Lots of good practice of an enjoyable skill. Good group too.

Mimi: Would be good to see you again this year in Madison for the Caravan. Ute and I are going to be in Hickory for the Caravan Clinic followed by a week in Gaithersburg, MD. Schedule will not permit us time to come and see you and Rob before or between these two, but perhaps when all the toing and froing is done......

David: I am in for a set as well, please. I will pay and if you send them to Clarence, he can install them.

Casey: they may prefer that you are more invested than “when things come up.” I have found that relationship to one of the most important ones for Mooney ownership. Just sayin’.

I didn’t until two years ago.

Two other advantages for the one I accepted. Open pilot was dropped by my previous underwriter and my MAPA PPP course instructors are now fully covered without my asking (and paying) for them to be “named” pilots. Automatically covered now.

Only eight years younger than that.

Got the emoji's from reactions to this post. ( and ) I also chose the $300 more expensive option with an open pilot clause and some other things my renewal had taken out of their policy. Still good with it.

Quote came in today. $1,900 US, versus $1,100 US last year. I can live with that.