wishboneash

We ate (fish & chips) at the RV & Deli store, right next to the airport (June 2016). I have a video of the flight in the videos section. Great flight if the weather is clear. http://www.mariosofsheltercove.com/page21.html

Yes. We had the manual retraction checked as well. It was fine.

Ah-1 Cobra Pilot hit the nail on the head. Hit it right, bang and centre! The linkage was never re-connected after the annual and I had been flying merrily all these months with one door never closing. The manual gear extension handle was unlatched but not obviously so when I did a quick glance at it during the flight. First time in 5 years of Mooney ownership. Learnt a couple of things - (1) my mistaken assumption that the manual gear extension handle would have some sort of mechanical switch that disabled the actuator. No, Cobra Pilot rightly pointed out, the gearing mechanism will trip the breaker due to it getting blocked from doing its job. (2) I had some weird notion that the gear door would interfere with the operation of the nose wheel retraction. Thinking more about it and looking at it carefully, there was no reason why it should. Everything is fine now, the linkage was reconnected and the manual gear extn latch reset. Swung the gear five times and things are back to normal. Thanks everyone for the education! Looks like I may regain a few knots which I had been complaining about recently!

Yesterday, returning from San Luis Obispo, my landing gear failed to retract (something I realized a few minutes after takeoff). Noticed the slow climb and difficulty gaining speed etc once levelled off. So checking the gear down light, it was green! OK. The gear switch was in the up position so surely I had not forgotten. The actuator C/B had tripped. So I thought maybe it was a temporary thing and I cycled the gear switch a couple of times. I continued to trip when in the up position. So I left the gear in the down position and continued the flight at 100-105 knots. How embarrassing! Fortunately, nothing else was wrong. I had to play with the power settings and opened up the cowl flaps to keep the CHTs under 400. Made the flight back 30min later than expected. I told ATC about my problem (before they realized that had found the slowest Mooney in the world). They were very helpful, offering assistance at every change in controller including OAK centre. I thought that was great. At Livermore, before landing I wanted to make sure I didn't have asymmetrical deployment (unlikely since the plane flew level without significant control inputs), I had the tower take a look on a low approach. Everything looked good. Circled the pattern and landed uneventfully. On the ground, I saw that one of the nose gear linkages (left nose gear door) was dangling and disconnected from the door. So it is clear that while retracting, the nose wheel could not retract and it was contacting the door and stopping the motor. Now, I have to get that linkage re-connected for sure and the gear swing checked etc. What else could go wrong - damage to the actuator motor, misalignment in the linkages? I will probably have it fixed on the field and tested, but any advice on what else to look for would be appreciated from the experts on this group... And of course, a more careful preflight looking at the linkages in the gear doors for all wheels would be on my checklist! Thanks.

I got a better picture of our indefatigable organizer.. Thanks Mitch!

Paul, please add me to the list and I would like to request the link. Thanks.

Back on the likely list. I will be a passenger this time with another Mooney pilot.

You brought up a good point if connections are involved when it comes to airline travel! Plus all the inconveniences and dealing with luggage/other passengers is no fun.

To me, with the Mooney (typical J numbers), it is a 3 - 3 rule. On average, driving is 3 times slower than a Mooney which is 3 times slower than commercial. Going into remote spots, GA is even more attractive. The threshold to switch depends on how long I plan to spend at destination, or total length of trip, availability of destination transportation/facilities, weather etc.

I am in for Watsonville, but not for the 2nd Harris Ranch fly-in on May 20th. Hope the turnout is even larger for both.

A gaggle of 3 Mooneys - long, short and medium body. Ceilings at 5,000 ft in Northern California with a bumpy ride but good flying nevertheless. Thank-you Mitch and FlyDave! Sorry, the mid-day sun ruined the pictures.

I'll try to make it if everything looks good. Last time I flew was in Australia... Been 3 weeks since my Mooney was started.

More likely than not, forgetting to put gear down occurs while in the pattern practicing or some non-standard activity/ATC distractions etc. In normal operations, I come in fast enough that without putting gear down I have no way to slow down to land.

IMHO, the engine monitor is much more valuable than GAMIs. I can achieve 0.1-0.2 gph spread with stock injectors in the J. As some have pointed out, I am more concerned with CHT differences (cyl #3 tends to be hottest in my case). I have discovered morning sickness with an engine monitor which might have prevented an engine failure in the future. Also, I see no reason to go excessive LOP since power drops off sharply beyond a certain point. At low altitudes, I maintain 65% power or lower using prop/throttle then lean as needed (economy/power).

I flew into John Wayne (KSNA) recently and I thought the price I paid at Atlantic was reasonable. 15gal at $6.00 with 0.50c AOPA discount. However, there is competition at KSNA with Signature there. I landed 20L and did try to avoid landing on the taxiway ;-). A visit to Thermal was interesting. 4 ladies all nicely dressed stood in a line with a black carpet rolled out as I taxied in. Incredible service at the Desert Jet centre. Fuel was slightly more expensive but they had a lot of food/drinks for free at the FBO. They are new and there is a lot of competition at Thermal with Palm Springs gouging everyone... Competition is the key to good service and prices.

I must be the exception here. On longer flights and where terrain is issue which is usually the case in California, I will descend between 800-1000fpm, and airspeed depends on turbulence.

That would be dangerously hot for oil T (approx 250-300F).

Marauder, are you listening? Too heavy to depart?

Thanks for the info. I have an Icom 706 MK II gathering dust :-)

Here it comes... http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Trump-calls-for-privatizing-air-traffic-control-11005826.php

Sad to see this happening. Livermore was under assault for a long time. Things have been quiet recently. Palo Alto is a mess with its short runway and congestion on the field. Too many people want to live here and don't want to deal with the "noise" yet want access at their doorsteps! What about Moffett? According to wikipedia... "Strong community opposition to the use of the airfield by FedEx Express and UPS Airlines blocked the transition of the airfield to public use in the 1990s". So, GA is being hit from all sides.

I have been issued ODPs in Southern California (I think I got one at San Luis Obispo recently). I always look that up for any airport especially if I am going IFR and more so if taking off from an uncontrolled airfield. Re: Mammoth Lakes, I think you might have me confused with someone else. I have never trekked in that area. Still, good to get acquainted on MS!

Sorry, I didn't read the original report that carefully. Yes, I am instrument rated and know the difference between an IFR clearance and the departure procedure (DP). So did the pilot read back the DP? It can also apply for VFR operations at many busy airports near class C or class B airspace. Thanks for clarifying :-)

So the controller read the clearance out one final time even after multiple attempts by the pilot to read back the clearance? I guess the controller was trying to make sure he really got it! That's very strange. It almost seems like the controller isn't sure he got the clearance down and is washing his hands off this guy.

Got one too. I'll pretend it's a J :-) Thanks.