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Hey. Recently a good friend purchased a gorgeous 1963 Mooney M20C. Brand new paint job, 500 hours left on the engine, brand new prop. After picking it up, after an exhausting flight across the country in turbulent weather he wrecked it in a gear-up landing. For a gear-up landing it's in relatively good shape but the mechanic he talked to thinks his insurance will probably just total it, and he is, understandably, very overwhelmed and distraught at the thought that the plane he's been pursuing for months and saving up for for years might be done after just getting it home. Does anyone have any insight as to how to help lower costs and save his plane? As far as we can tell, he needs the belly panels replaced, definitely needs a new prop (2 or 3 blade is fine), and potentially will need to overhaul the engine. Everything else seems to be okay, and neither wing was damaged.

August 2016 I was delivering my Mooney M20c to my mechanic, Bobby Norman, at the Parr airport (42I) in Zanesville Ohio. I had interaction with Bobby years ago, and he came highly recommended by a number of local Mooney owners. I had thought the field was about 2300 feet (wrong, more on that later) so coming in over the trees I pulled the power to idle, put it in a forward slip and came down. 75mph over the numbers, flared and BANG!. Hardest landing I'd ever done in anything. At the top of the bounce I had a choice, and decided to ride it out. I was uncomfortable trying to go around at a short strip in that predicament. The aircraft bounced a couple more times and stopped, and I taxied back. I had struck the prop in that landing, quite badly. The prop was bent asymmetrically, and the craskshaft busted. I hit hard enough that the force went through the gear into the Johnson bar, wrecking the mechanism that holds it in place (Bobby only figured that part out when he started taxiing. He said it was quite exciting). It took 9 months for the tear down, prop repair, and everything else. The engine repairs were done by a very reputable shop, and the aircraft is now back in service. I just did the first oil change after the teardown. I would have overhauled the engine at this juncture, but it only had 700 hours, and I didn't have the money. What I did wrong: The first thing is entirely insidious. I should have checked the length of the field, since it is now a very comfortable 3k feet. Why didn't I? Because the last time I was there it was 2300 feet! Hardest thing in the world is to override personal experience, but sometimes we really have to. Of course, the other big thing was pulling the power over the trees. Once I got into the runway environment the aircraft didn't have the energy to overcome the sink. Why pull power? Normally in this situation I maintain 12-13" manifold pressure, and use a forward slip. Indeed, most of my landings done this way are well within 2K feet. So why did I change? Worry about a field that I thought (incorrectly) was short. Even if it was 2300, I could have landed the Mooney in it just following my normal procedures. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. What I did right: riding it out and letting it settle turned out to be the perfect move. I had an asymmetric prop, a badly damaged engine, and I was at a somewhat short and very narrow strip surrounded by hills and mountains. I don't know what would have happened had I put in the power, but it wouldn't have been good. Sometimes its just better not to add extra energy to a bad situation. Perhaps if you don't you'll prang the airplane, but if you do you get to be the one pranged. I recall a fatal TBM accident nearly identical to mine, the aircraft landed hard and struck the prop. The only difference is that guy put in the power at the top of the bounce, and now he's dead. I can't put into words what this did to me. If you noticed me gone for an extended period, its because I couldn't show my face after this. I think one thing might give you an idea, today is the first day I'm thinking I'll actually stick with this aviation thing. I've sort of been on the fence thinking about bailing for the last year. With any luck this will help someone not make the mistake I did. At least it had one silver lining. Hopefully I'll never say I landed worse.

There's another thread on this accident, but the lesson to be learned wasn't really brought out. For anyone not familiar here's a link to the NTSB accident report. http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20160926X05905&key=1 Its a one page read, but for those who want to get right to the point - Here's the readers digest version. Low time in type pilot attempting to landing a Mooney on a "relatively" short runway. The pilot doesn't appreciate that flying 20 knots fast won't work, esp when the runway is short. Goes around and tries again - but this time attempts to force the plane down. For anyone who's been around the Mooney community for any time at all understands this is an all too common accident narrative within our community. When I help a low time in type pilot transition into a Mooney I tell them there are two things that they must do to fly the plane safely. (1) You must land on the mains first, never the nose wheel. Never force the plane on the ground. (2). Airspeed control and discipline on final approach is critical. On final approach, for every knot fast above target airspeed, add 100 feet to your landing distance. But we continue to see pilots make the same mistake time and time again. With very little transition training, pilots coming out of common cessna and piper trainers to fly a Mooney need to know not all airplanes fly the same. Cessna & Piper aircraft allow for so much sloppiness in airspeed control, these good trainers teach some really bad habits. When these bad habits translate over into a new aircraft, like a Mooney, often times pilots don't realize the sloppiness they've been able to get away with in other planes is setting them up for disaster. Here's a good article on the subject by Donald E. Kaye, Master CFI. Anyone giving transition training to new-to- pilots should understand this and teach to it. George

Looks like a gear up with a prop strike; the right main was extended ever so slightly at about 10 degrees. (It's hard to see the prop strike from the photos, but it was clearly present.) Anyone know what happened? Hopefully everyone is ok.

This was preventable. It was a beautiful landing except that last part...then it got expensive. Where: San Antonio, Texas (KSAT). Runway 31L (The 8000 ft. one...) When: Saturday February 23, 2013, 11:15 a.m. What: Pilot Induced Gear Collapse. (beyond embarrassing) How: This is the interesting part and why I felt I should share the details of this event. The winds were calm so I decided that I would use full flaps. With 630 hours of flight time, 602 being in Mooneys flown on the coast of Texas, I have the partial flap landing pretty much figured out. (I seldom, if ever use runways less than 3000 ft.) Nonetheless, I developed the practice of moving the flaps on roll out to place more weight on the wheels and reduce float. On this unfortunate day, due to the perceived excessive float, as soon as I felt the tires touch the runway, I reached over to pull the flaps up...only..I didn't hit the flap switch...I pulled the gear switch out sufficient to unlock the gear, then apparently let it go---but too late. The 2004 Ovation2 set its belly on the runway gently and slid a couple hundred feet in a long arc to the right edge of 31L. The 3 blade scimitar prop came to a stop with one curled blade sticking straight up. I heard tower calmly request the aircraft holding short at 31L to turn 180 degrees, taxi via Alpha to Runway 4 and hold short. The plane came to rest pointing directly at the emergency response vehicles garage so when I saw the big green emergency vehicles coming at us, I snapped out of my 'oh crap' mode, turned to my wife and told her we needed to exit the plane so that they's know we we alright. Now, Iv'e told my daughter, as she has grown up, that the best thing to bring to a bad situation is a good attitude. I saw nothing but the best from KSAT airport operations from the moment they showed up to the point where we moved to plane to Cutter Aviation via a helicopter dolly and a large crane. The FAA investigator (FSDO), Mr. Richard Tarwater was the picture of thoroughness, courtesy and professionalism as I chewed up the lion's share of his afternoon.(He did his due diligence, as required, by checking all required pilot and plane certifications.) Because the gear was in the down position when the plane came to rest, I really wasn't sure that I had hit it or the flap switch. When Mr. Tarwater and I went back out to the plane (there was a 1.5 hr wait for the crane) to get some certification documentation, I noticed that the flap switch was still in the full down position and pointed that out to him. He noted that the gear breaker switch was out, even though the gear lever was down. Keeping an open mind, he said, "well, the FAA mechanics will sort it out." Nice guy, but I pretty much had it figured out: I pulled the gear switch out, but not up, at the point where the tires were barely touching (still in the full-flap float) but there was still enough airspeed going into the pito tube and insufficient weight on the mains to trigger these gear safety interlocks. In other words, there was a very narrow window of opportunity to screw things up, but I managed to do it with perfect timing. Hard lesson: I've seen other Mooney drivers comment on this site that taking flaps up reduces float and increases control. Unless your Johnson-bar equipped, I offer my unsolicited advice: don't touch any thing but power and radios until you come to a stop. Make landing practice to a full stop (rather than touch and go's). For reasons that even neuroscientists probably don't fully understand, my take-off sequence of gear-up-flaps-up crossed into my landing sequence. Maybe it won't happen to you. Maybe you can make a very strong argument that I made a boneheaded mistake and you won't, even with your similar practices. And you may be right to all of the above. I offer this only to those who can appreciate that my mistake caused serious property damage and it was entirely preventable. Phoenix Insurance and Dugosh will take it from here. ...now I've got to make some phone calls to engine rebuilders. Any suggestions?