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I heard Mooney may increase the recommended 1000 hour replacement on no back spring clutch in the landing gear motor assemblies to 2000 hours but add an inspection at 1000 hours. Does anyone have any info on this?

Mooniacs, was doing a lil air work this morning and had a few items pop up that I plan on taking to the shop tomorrow. I always like to do my homework on issues so that I do not get the shaft and doing an engine overhaul because my gear wouldn’t come up lol. I know someone who fell for a easy inexpensive fix to overhauling his engine. I degress.. first takeoff positive rate gear up, electric gear, gear handle out and up, no retraction! Recycle no luck, third time gear came up. Went and did some air work cane back abeam touchdown gear down, sound and action perfect. Taxi back for takeoff rotate positive rate gear up nothing... needless to say I did 5 T/O and Landing all with same result if had to cycle gear multiple times before gear cam up. No issues on gear down. Gear up when coming real quiet and slower than normal in my opinion. Squawk switch? What say y’all? Thoughts? BTW I wouldn’t have done so many T/O and Landings if it was vice versus. Usually took 3-4 cycling of the gear handle to get the gear up. Separate issue was Manifold pressure on last takeoff went to 13 inches on climb out 2500 rpms still climbing strong. Leveled off pulled power to 2400 went to 11 inches, on landing 1800 rpms went to 13 inches. Shut down up to 30 inches. Bad gauge, dirt in line, ??

Thinking about some recent Facebook post, What are all y'all's thoughts on configuration warnings, for example: "Takeoff Warning" - flaps in the wrong position, speed brakes out, etc? "Landing Gear Warning" - Based on throttle position (some say manifold pressure, but it is really throttle position), flap position (full (landing) flaps without the gear down), etc? Different stall warning? Different landing gear warning? Etc? (you name it. Just getting some ideas to look at why (fatal) accidents happen … from a total aviation geek's perspective Pull!

Nice day, took the Moonship for a spin. First landing the J-bar didn’t feel right, but it was solidly in place and withstood solid tugs on downwind, base and final. Still hear bit chin’ Betty on landing, and the gear unsafe light was on. Damn, I’ve danced this dance! Flew to my second destination, this time decided to do it right, get the gear safe light. Couldn’t do it with one hand. Hit the autopilot, got both hands on the top of the bar and pulled up with all I had. Got a nice click and a gear safe light. Flew home with the gear hanging out. What really honks me off is the panel mount Johnson bar holder (still sounds risqué) is the newest part on this aircraft. Thanks Mooney! Oh well, I suppose I’m lucky to have a part at all. Might not be an option in the near future. Hopefully soon I’ll take the Lucky Strike aloft and spray some lube up in that thing.

I recently traded my M20K 262 for a Mooney Ovation3 with a G1000 system and an s-tec 55x autopilot. I am doing the waas upgrade in a couple of weeks. I have some questions for other Ovation pilots out there. I am now doing the transition training with my instructor. We spent about 5 hours working on landings, crosswind landings and some G1000 work. A couple of things I am wondering about what other Ovation pilots are doing. My instructor recommends trimming the rudder to the right on take off. I have tried this and it does seem better for takeoffs, especially on crosswind take offs and landings with the wind coming from the right side of the plane. Do other Ovation pilots do this with their ovations as a regular routine? I never used any rudder trim on takeoffs or landings in my M20K, I just applied right rudder on take off. On my first landing with the Ovation, while I was on final, a plane got stuck on the runway and we needed to do a go around. I leveled off, increased the throttle and began to climb out. I then retracted the landing gear. The gear went halfway up and stopped. My instructor noticed the landing light at the top of the panel come on. After taking the plane out of the pattern we found the gear circuit breaker had popped. He pushed the breaker back in and moved the gear knob to the gear down position. The gear locked down. Apparently, when I leveled off and increased the throttle I had the airspeed above 106 knots and you cannot retract the gear in the Ovation 3 above 106 knots. I understand the gear motor cannot take the force of retracting the gear above 106 knots. I never experienced this in my K model and retracted the gear a couple of times above 106 knots. I then made sure I was below 106 knots and the gear retracted normally. We did another 7 or 8 landings and I had no trouble with retracting the gear but I also was sure the airspeed was well below 106 knots. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them where they had gear stop in transit due to the airspeed being to high when the retraction started. I was surprised because I never had this issue on my K model. Any help or insights to the above questions would be appreciated. Thanks.

The dohicky that holds the Johnson bar in the panel is getting really sticky. It was all I could do to get the J-bar seated flying last night. The whoodanger (really, I don't know what to call it other than the Johnson bar holder, which sounds more like a lady of rentable virtue) is quite new, it was replaced last year. I'm getting concerned, its getting harder and harder to seat the J-bar and lock the gear down. Any ideas?

On Saturday, my partner noticed that the inner gear door on the pilot side had a rip in the sheet-metal. I have attached pictures. While it is near the rivets, it does not appear to have been a failure of the rivets but rather a jagged tear. I am not sure how a tear like this could occur. Two questions, (1) can this be repaired with some type of metal adhesive or is a weld (or even new gear door) necessary. The pieces do overlap where an adhesion could be made. Second, has anyone had this occur before and what was the cause. Thanks.

Going through my annual and AP says its time to replace the shocks! Says there is about .25" of up play with the plane on the jacks. But...... he did this as soon as the plane was in the air. Is there a reasonable time period to allow for decompression for the rubber, OR should there be NO PLAY as soon as the wheel leaves the ground. Is .25" of play acceptable? They look good, meaning no cracking or brittle in appearance. I've also had a Go-pro on the gear and you can visually see the weight transfer and shock absorption but I know that means nothing if they are out of specification! Thanks for any input advice is appreciated. Rick

I just had the donuts replaced on my gear, but of course that caused other issues. After just purchasing the aircraft we have found that they hadn't been replaced since 1970. With a long time of bad wear on nose gear she now has a lot of slip and slop in the nose gear, and isn't ideal when I am taxing, flying, and landing in a lot of crosswind. I have heard that LASAR is the place to send in the gear for an overhaul, what do y'all think and recommend?

Does anyone know if the laser gear set is all you need for rigging the gear on the 20C? It has one tool for the nose and one for the mains. My mechanic seems to think that I need two main gear tools to rig the gear. Can anyone shed some light one this?

Hi all, My father’s 1983 M20J has a problem that’s been dogging the mechanics. The gear does not retract if the airspeed is above 80 KT. The pressure switch has been replaced, and the gear will swing all day long on the jacks. Any Thoughts. Jim

Good morning, you experienced Mooney drivers probably already heard of the very expensive and infamous no back clutch spring as part of the electric gear assembly. According to M20-282A, it shall be replaced every 1000hrs. I am wondering, if anybody of you has such a used, old or even broken spring of which I could get a hold of for analysis?! Of course I'd cover shipping + any expenses, come by, ... For reference see the picture attached (found at in the "spring thread") and here: http://www.donkaye.com/donkaye.com/Infamous_Back_Clutch_Spring.html PS: Sorry, this topic has been x-posted at the EMPOA-Forums.

but usually doesn't. http://www.avgeekery.com/air-india-a320neo-crew-forgets-to-raise-the-gear-lands-safely-short-of-destination/ Anyone else have an after takeoff checklist to cover gear, flaps, boost pump?

Any good (CB) solutions to jacking gear to replace tires? There has to be a simpler, cheaper way to do it than AC jacks. There is an L-shaped bracket for Piper gear that allows a small hydro jack to work, anything like that in the Mooneyspace?

Hi all, I am a proud new owner of a 1980 M20K 231. A bit more than I need, but I hope to grow into it. I have been reading this forum as a guest for a while and have just signed up to hopefully get some answers from some experienced and willing people. Keep in mind, I am very green. This is my first airplane and although I started flying over 10 years ago I have only been licensed for a couple years. So still learning lots, and trying to read as much as I can. Just a quick run through: I have the TSIO-LB360. It is at about 1000 hours SMOH and was taken apart in 2013 due to a prop strike but I don't believe anything was replaced. It has the Merlyn Wastegate, an intercooler, an EDM700 engine monitor and GAMI injectors. I also have a Shadin Fuel Flow indicator. First question should be a fairly quick and easy one. I flew with some passengers for a couple of hours. Arriving at my destination I had to overshoot the first approach and when I selected the gear up, it wouldn't go up. After cycling it a couple of times with no response I checked the circuit breakers and noticed the "Gear Act" breaker popped. I tried resetting it, and it popped again immediately. Luckily I am old enough to know not to keep trying like I would have in my younger days :-P My rear passenger noticed that the safety latch (metal cover) was open on the emergency gear release so the handle was exposed. I guess one of the rear passengers knocked it with their foot. I closed it, then reset the breaker and everything was back to normal. I assume that they are interlocked? I have done a couple flights since and there have been no issues. Everything functions normally. I can only assume that was the only cause and I don't have anything to be concerned about? Input? Next question should be reasonably simple as well. When I bought the plane the gear warning horn did not work. We had the manifold pressure all the way back (at altitude) and were not getting anything. Before we finalized the deal, the mechanic adjusted it based on some throttle position/manifold pressure readings which we took during the flight and he fixed it perfectly. It would come on at exactly 14.9" of MP. Except that later in the flight it came on slightly less than normal cruise power settings. It would go off eventually if the throttle was moved in and out, and sometimes if I wiggled it side to side gently or twisted the knob (it is not a vernier) it would also go away, but not always. This is somewhere in the 20-26" range so just below normal cruise I guess. I notice it on descents or in the circuit more than anything. Is this an easy fix? I was told that a Mooney expert from Tri City Aero in Kitchener Ontario frequents this forum and may be able to give me some input. I am just in Burlington and plan to give him a call soon to start our potentially long and expensive relationship The last question I have relating to LOP operations may spark more debate (given all that seems to be out there on the topic which has been beaten to death) and probably has no simple answer but I am just looking for a bit of input, not something complicated and I will do some more research myself. Just trying to figure out where to start. My instructor told me to run ROP with TIT up to 1500. I have seen lots in favour of running LOP so I have experimented a bit running LOP. A couple days ago during cruise at 28" I pulled the mixture back to just under 9GPH. That's where it starts to run a bit rough. I bring it back up to about 9.5 with a TIT of around 1450-1500 or so. I have been told, and gotten into the habit of monitoring TIT closely, but have recently read an article that swears by leaning according to CHT. I do know that CHT's are even more important and have a very close relationship with ICP. Here is what happened. After only a few seconds... maybe 15-30 (I wasn't paying super close attention), my #4 cylinder CHT skyrocketed quickly. On the JPI the middle bar that separates the CHT and EGT appeared to be flashing or basically just started going up and up. Then I got the flashing indicator for that cylinder and the display stayed there and I think the temperature was in the 420 range. I panicked and enriched the mixture quickly and everything went back to normal. I thought maybe I was too lean, and tried it again paying closer attention to things, and the same thing happened. It seemed to happen in less than 10 seconds. What I am looking for from some of you experienced guys is the answers to some of these questions... Is this a sign of pre-ignition or detonation? Is this a bad fuel injector? Do you think I caused any damage in those few seconds that it ran like that? Could it be a bad sensor? Is this a result of running LOP? I can only assume so since it doesn't happen when I run ROP (about 1400-1450 TIT and 11.5-12GPH) Any input on this would be greatly appreciated since this is worrying me quite a bit. I know there is likely more to it than a simple explanation but I appreciate any information that anyone is willing to give. Thanks in advance and I hope to be able to post here and look forward to being part of this community. I just love my plane!

Mooney Parts for sale wings, fuses, instruments, gear, and etc. 1964-1967 E and F models. John 815-210-2675 or 386-467-0095

I have been looking around here, and I'm not finding a specific answer to this, so if I'm missing something sorry! I have a 1968 M20C and I'm coming up on my next annual. My gear biscuits still look good, but I'm seeing signs/reports here that they should be replaced after __ years, or other similar bits of feedback. But i"m having trouble finding that guidance, as well as I'm having trouble with what exactly kind of biscuits are there? It appears that Lord makes them, but it appears that they are actually for E+ models, not the C. Thoughts? Links/Advice?

This morning I had a scary moment on the ILS approach. Everything was working out just fine until I put the gear down...After the usual noise the electrical gear motor just did not stop working and I did not get an indication that the gear was down. So I pulled the breaker and started to lower the gear by hand. But not indication (green light) only the visual one... Tower confirmed that gear was down. So I decided to continue the approach and land. I guess the switch that identifies that the gear is down died... any other possibilities. And if that were to be the case does somebody know who carries one that I could buy... Nothing major, just a scary moment. Oscar

Does anyone out there know where one can rent/borough some gear swing tools for C-model, electric gear? ('69 M-20C). In my first annual, and we think the up limit tab has moved a little (<1/16"). The issue is that when the gear come up, I feel a little push in my right butt cheek that seems to indicate that the gear is over rotating just a hair when it comes up. Everything is opened up, and it is not on jacks yet to see the gear swing, gut there are marks on the tube where the tab that hits the limit switch that might indicate that it is not in the right place, or has moved a bit. There are no cracks, rub marks to indicate a problem otherwise.

I had the video camera going in the cockpit for last evenings flight. I noticed that I pointed at the gear switch 3 times prior to landing. I started the camera on the downwind. I was flying commercial this week and found myself on final wondering if the gear was down.

I have a 1975 F model and believe I have a squat switch and a gear safety bypass switch which I think was added after original manufacture. I also have a manifold pressure indicator switch which turns off the gear warnings over 13" pressure. I don't believe I have an airspeed activated switch. Here is the problem: 2 days ago, at a visiting airport, after being tied down in a heavy cross wind all day, I started up and after idling a while, the gear unsafe light and audible alarm went off. It continued until I pressed the bypass switch. I then taxied and it went off again and I did the same thing and it went off again. After figuring it was just a problem with the warning system and not the gear, I took off. Looking back at it, it was probably a bad decision, not knowing what was really wrong. At the time, I thought the turbulence on the ground might have temporarily disturbed something as well as some moderate turbulence on the way there. The gear retracted normally, I flew for 2 hours, no warning lights, sounds and landed at my home airport with no malfunctions. I then taxied back to my hangar and no warnings occurred. I plan on having it looked at ASAP. I am wondering if it is a gear down position (over center) sensor switch malfunction. I should of let the warning continue and see if it went off during the run up when the manifold pressure was raised. I was wondering if anyone knew what could of caused it. Thanks in advance. Larry

Hi All, I have a problem, I think, with my right wheel/gear hanging down a bit while in flight. Now, I have shown this to my maintenance organisation who said that this is normal and that it doesn't look nearly as bad from the front (see Before picture, without snow). The plane was in for some maintenance shortly after this picture was taken and they worked on the rigging and said that nothing more can be done (see After picture, with snow)! Unfortunately I could not see what it was like when it was on the ground and on the stand to see what it looked like from the front. Surely though this is not as good as it gets? What effect if any will this have on performance? Any advice on how to get this sorted out, bearing in mind that I am in South Africa. Thanks Tony

NEED ASSISTANCE. I am at Stinson field San Antonio. Took off this morning and gear won't retract. Gear actuator fuse kept popping. Back on the ground and need A&P who might help today.

Hello again folks, Another issue we are facing on our 81 M20J during a very painful annual inspection is an aging gear actuator. Our AME did a closer inspection after hearing a rachetting sound coming from the actuator during the gear swing. Upon closer inspection they found that the jackscrew has play in it, part of the emergency system is damaged and other integral parts are showing wear. There was an instance about 4 years ago that passengers of mine had accidentally dislodged the safety on the emergency gear handle. No one touched the handle itself but when I went to retract the gear on takeoff, the actuator circuit breaker popped ie) the motor wouldn't run because the emergency gear safety was dislodged. Not knowing what had caused this at the time, I returned to land and we had our then AME inspect it. He just reset the system, swung the gear and said we were good to go. Since the circuit breaker popped right away, I am hoping it did it's job to protect the actuator by keeping the motor from running (this appeared to be the case). Is dislodging the safety on the emergency gear handle then selecting gear up, causing the circuit breaker to pop enough to have caused damage to this system or is it likely that 30-some years of operation has just taken it's toll? I believe it's the original unit actuator which would be about 33 yrs old with about 2500 hrs on it. You can't see a whole lot except for some metal filings but I have attached a few photos from this inspection. Thanks again guys! Looking forward to your input. Brenden Calgary, AB

I called Lasar and was told that the torque setting on the nose gear is set by measuring the front bungee. Was also told I could find details in the maintenance manual. Does anyone have a copy of these instructions? Thanks