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Had occasional nose shimmy. Appeared fixed after 2020 annual. Shimmy came back and fixed at 2021 annual (with new shop). At 2022 annual, gear made an odd noise when plane lifted and actuated. Got a second opinion with an MSC: push pull rods are bent and the spring tension is beyond limits. Can send pics. As you know, things are intricately connected, so likely more to discover/fix. The shop has seen this issue only once before, which was another long-body Mooney (a '98 O?). That led to a left gear collapse, damaging the wing and tail. That was my likely fate, which was thankfully avoided. Have we bounced before? Sure, a couple of mild ones. Teeth rattling landings or any skidding? No. Had a flat tire once in 2019. Otherwise, no issues. No over-weight landings. I fly final at 80kts, and often lower when light. Routinely land softly and short. I would think a shop would see bent rods more often if this were a landing issue. I know of no prior damage. I heard a motor actuate once before when turning on batt. That was odd. It occurred after the annual that discovered the gear noise, however. If it was the gear motor at some point, which should be inspected at 1,000 hours, could the jack screw bend the rods while the plane is on ground? Has anyone else, especially you MX folks, seen bent push pull rods and a cause? Is it rare and could it be a manufacturing defect? Commentary, thoughts, or experience welcome... She'll be down for a while. ==== Other stuff. 2006 Ovation 3. G1000 WAAS, GFC 700, TKS. Purchased 2019. Thorough Pre-buy that turned into an Annual. We have been meticulous with mx, preventive care, and upgrades. Made a number of repairs/upgrades on purchase, including latest G1000 update, ADSB in/out, fixed a minor hangar rash, serviced AmSafe belts. Happy with that work. MX since included TKS repair, new starter, baffles, GAMIjectors, landing height system. Cylinder #5 heat solved! All this may not be relevant. Other gremlins: Recently, elec up trim stopped working after the G1000 booted, or was inconsistent, starting in 2021. Auto pilot was fine. Down trim was fine. After latest database update, trim started working again.

The aileron push-pull control tube is a great example to look at the tradeoffs in materials, tolerances, costs, weights, certification, manufacturing, etc. and how each of these is related to each other. I probably won't think of everything but here's a conversation starter. 1) weight - aluminum, composite then steel, but I think that they would all be fairly close. 2) cost - steel, aluminum then composite. 3) manufacturing - steel/aluminum then composite 4) Stiffness - composite, steel then aluminum The problem is they all relate to each other and all have very strong positives and negatives. Here's some random thoughts. Steel produces the smallest diameter. Flexibility (buckling) is both good and bad. For metallic tubes, it allows less binding (and resulting lower control force); for composite (very stiff), alignment has to be perfect or it won't move. To back this, the 3 hinges on the aileron are rarely in perfect alignment, but when installed they move easily because the aluminum aileron flexes slightly to allow for it. A composite aileron does not (an M10 learning experience). Certification would be a large expense for composite as the material and processes would need to be qualified and tested. BUT (and this is where OEMs today are missing it) if one could find an off-the-shelf, commercially-produced tube that would work, end pieces could be designed to mate with the tube and the current attach points. Each tube assembly would need to be strength tested, but that is A LOT less work than certifying an original design. The match has been lit. Go!