Rookie Mistakes

[dfgreene61]

I thought I'd share a couple mistakes I've made so far during my Mooney education. If you want to add to the list I'm sure it would be very helpful to all us rookies.

1) If you accidentally unlatch the emergency gear lever the gear will not go up. I repeat, the gear will not go up! I was all set to take my wife down to Vegas, it was her first flight in the new plane. Everything was going great until I tried to put the gear up and the gear down light stayed on. Turned out that I must have accidentally unlatched it when grabbing my seat belt. We went back home where I researched the problem on mooney space. Now checking the latch is part of my pre-take off procedure.

2) Up until this weekend I've been getting a little cocky when it comes to landing the Mooney. I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. Over the fence at 70, no problems. Well, this weekend was beautiful, sunny and warm (as far as the Wasatch in March goes). The ground around the airport was much cooler than the sun warmed runway, not much wind. Once I got close to the runway the airplane refused to decend, this is my fourth plane and I've never experienced that kind of float. So I tried to help it down just a little, BIG mistake. I bounced what felt like 10 feet, luckily I was quick enough to get the throttle back in and go around. Do not try to force these planes down, even a little!

[kevinw]

I've had my J for almost a year now. The emergency gear latch isn't a part of my checklist but I check it every time I reach for my seatbelt. I was warned of this when I purchased the airplane. As far as the bounce...been there too. It's happened to me twice and both times I was low on fuel so the airplane was light. The first time I came in at 70 kts, main gear touched, I relaxed the elevator (big mistake) and the nose gear hit, we bounced back up and then we were flying again. We came back down, bounced again and this time even higher. Now I'm worried. I gave it some power to arrest the bounce and was able to make a normal landing. Wife was not impressed. This happened one more time under similar circumstances and I immediatly gave it power after the first bounce and again made a safe landing. I emailed Don Kaye and bought his landing DVD for $25. He explained to me the only way a Mooney will bounce is if there is too much airspeed. Mooneys are "precision" airplanes and must be flown accordingly. He told me in a Cessna or Piper a pilot can make a sloppy landing and everything usually works out. Not so in a Mooney. Along with the DVD is a landing speed chart and on there it says to subtract 5 knots when well below gross weight. Now it's 65 Kts when very light and more importantly, never let the elevator come forward on landing again. My biggest regret was not getting instruction from a Mooney specific instructor. Don Kaye told me he won't sign off on someone until a bounce is demonstrated and successfully handled. Now I know why. 

[bnicolette]

You know Doug you need to call Nick and yell at him.  When I picked him up at PIT before he started on his adventure to deliver the plane that is one of the specific things I told him to relay to you.  It catches just about very new Mooney owner unless they have been warned about it.  

 

And the bounced landing..............good, now you've got it out of the way and it probably won't happen to you again.

[philipneeper]

I've had my J for almost a year now. The emergency gear latch isn't a part of my checklist but I check it every time I reach for my seatbelt. I was warned of this when I purchased the airplane. As far as the bounce...been there too. It's happened to me twice and both times I was low on fuel so the airplane was light. The first time I came in at 70 kts, main gear touched, I relaxed the elevator (big mistake) and the nose gear hit, we bounced back up and then we were flying again. We came back down, bounced again and this time even higher. Now I'm worried. I gave it some power to arrest the bounce and was able to make a normal landing. Wife was not impressed. This happened one more time under similar circumstances and I immediatly gave it power after the first bounce and again made a safe landing. I emailed Don Kaye and bought his landing DVD for $25. He explained to me the only way a Mooney will bounce is if there is too much airspeed. Mooneys are "precision" airplanes and must be flown accordingly. He told me in a Cessna or Piper a pilot can make a sloppy landing and everything usually works out. Not so in a Mooney. Along with the DVD is a landing speed chart and on there it says to subtract 5 knots when well below gross weight. Now it's 65 Kts when very light and more importantly, never let the elevator come forward on landing again. My biggest regret was not getting instruction from a Mooney specific instructor. Don Kaye told me he won't sign off on someone until a bounce is demonstrated and successfully handled. Now I know why. 

Do you still have the DVD or his contact info? Wouldn't mind seeing that DVD

[DAVIDWH]

If she floats and trees are getting closer, flap retraction will settle  her on down to the runway, or if speed brake equipped, about the same effect.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the emergency gear latch. It is high on my check list, but I wasn't sure of the repercussions. I thought it might be a boon-doggle  on landing.

 

Can't say enough about Don Kay's video or his new panel.

[philipneeper]

Let me know if anyone has the DVD or knows contact info thanks

[takair]

A few years ago I was test flying an M20F after some extensive avionics and gear work. Had plenty of time in Johnson bar planes, but limited electric gear time. Put the gear up and the breaker popped. As I recall, I finally realized the emergency handle was not latched when I was about to use it for an emergency extension. The mechanic doing the gear rigging had not latched it and I did not look prior to takeoff. Not sure if this would happen on all variations of electric gear Mooneys.

[aviatoreb]

Thumbs up for the Don Kaye video.  I watched it every day for my first month of Mooney ownership - I figured I wanted to sear that sight picture of a proper landing flare of the Mooney into my head.

[gsxrpilot]

I just ordered the Don Kaye DVD.

[201er]

Thats cause 70 over the fence is wrong. 70 is meaningless, it's the angle of attack that matters. The aoa will be the same every time but the speed will vary with weight, cg, bank, flaps, etc.

As for gear latch, had that happen twice. Once at night and once from short field. Ever since I heard of the guy who had his fuel shut off cause fuel selector wasnt in the notch, prior to take off during "fuel selector on the right tank" check, I feel the fuel selector in place and reach back and make sure the emergency gear extension is locked.

[mooniac15u]

I've only had an M20J for 3 months and the gear latch already got me once.  Fortunately I had already read something about it here on Mooneyspace.

[jetdriven]

Score one for the 1977's.  They don't have a gear latch.  Or back spring.   

[MARZ]

Not specific to a Mooney - but coming home from Wisconsin to Texas on the last part of the flight daytime had turned to dusk and then to night both I and the co pilot were night current so no issues there.  Coming into the home stretch I kept looking for the field couldn't see it for the life of me three miles out.  That's when my buddy looks over at me and mentions that I should probably switch out my sunglasses...

[bnicolette]

Thats cause 70 over the fence is wrong. 70 is meaningless,

 

 

LOL

 

Yep, it could be 70 or 74. 

 

Mike do you fly your AOA all the way till the wheels touch?  At what point do you shift your focus to outside.  Are you still watching that thing bounce around even after you cross the proverbial fence?

[jetdriven]

Last month I did a short field landing around 800' to a full stop (from the first brick)  with a tennis ball over the pitot tube.  No AOA indicator either.

[FlyDave]

Thats cause 70 over the fence is wrong. 70 is meaningless, it's the angle of attack that matters. The aoa will be the same every time but the speed will vary with weight, cg, bank, flaps, etc.

As for gear latch, had that happen twice. Once at night and once from short field. Ever since I heard of the guy who had his fuel shut off cause fuel selector wasnt in the notch, prior to take off during "fuel selector on the right tank" check, I feel the fuel selector in place and reach back and make sure the emergency gear extension is locked.

 

What do you fly by when landing in gusty conditions? AOA or AS?

[kevinw]

To purchase the DVD just go to www.donkaye.com. There's a lot of info there and he's very good about answering questions via email. I find it helpful to periodically go back and watch the DVD. My landings are much better now.

[carusoam]

Funny things I learned in my early days. In the time before MS...

There is no 'both' position on the fuel tank selector... (For high wing transition to Mooney). First pre-purchase taxi ended early...

PIC is responsible to close all doors properly until SIC and BSers become familiar. Best to land and reset when and if this happens early in your tenure.

Warm weather is coming. Be familiar with density altitude calculations. This topic is often left shortly after training. It becomes more important as seats and tanks get filled to capacity.

Best regards,

-a-

[midlifeflyer]

What do you fly by when landing in gusty conditions? AOA or AS?

 

It would be hard to fly AoA in gusty conditions without an AoA indicator. 

 

I fly pitch (my students don't solo without doing a no-ASI landing and I include it as a matter of course on flight reviews) but have no illusions that I am flying AoA.

[PMcClure]

Most embarrassing rookie mistake I made was trying to taxi with the parking brake engaged. After revving the engine and then shutting down to check if the chalks were engaged then trying again with a comical hot start attempt the ramp lizards were having a good laugh. Re-played the event later by forgetting to untie my tail line. At least that one was on a deserted ramp.  

[Marauder]

I thought I'd share a couple mistakes I've made so far during my Mooney education. If you want to add to the list I'm sure it would be very helpful to all us rookies.

2) Up until this weekend I've been getting a little cocky when it comes to landing the Mooney. I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. Over the fence at 70, no problems. Well, this weekend was beautiful, sunny and warm (as far as the Wasatch in March goes). The ground around the airport was much cooler than the sun warmed runway, not much wind. Once I got close to the runway the airplane refused to decend, this is my fourth plane and I've never experienced that kind of float. So I tried to help it down just a little, BIG mistake. I bounced what felt like 10 feet, luckily I was quick enough to get the throttle back in and go around. Do not try to force these planes down, even a little!

 

I have a few videos of Mooneys going through this gyration. I was told by an old time Mooney pilot that if you don't catch it by the 3rd bounce, the 4th one is a prop strike. Not sure that is true, but watching the videos you can definitely see the increased oscillations.

[dfgreene61]

Brett, I couldn't yell at Nick, he's my hero.  Anyway, I was in a hurry to get back to some issues at work so I just shuttled him to the airport, didn't give him time to give me the low down.

 

BTW, that last video you did in 62G was great.  I'm hoping you do some similar videos with the Beech. 

 

I understand the science of AOA however I was trained to use IAS when flying the pattern.  For me at least, experience leads to a feel for what will work, backed up by the IAS.

[201er]

Mike do you fly your AOA all the way till the wheels touch?  At what point do you shift your focus to outside.  Are you still watching that thing bounce around even after you cross the proverbial fence?

Brett, do you fly with one eye when you lose one fan?

Frankly it's hard to recall what exactly I look at when but I would probably best describe it as flying by pitch and feel that is based on AOA experience and AOA cross check. I glance at ASI occasionally as well. Why not use all available information. However, it makes a heck of a lot more sense to reference pitch to AOA than to ASI.

As for gusty conditions, doesn't it make more sense to reference AOA than jumpy ASI? Proper AOA will protect you from stall whereas guestimate airspeed might not.

[scottfromiowa]

-Donating the 7th and 8th quart of oil to my plane's belly...
-Logging hundred's of take-offs over ten years without deployinng take-off flaps...I do now
-Buying a Vintage Mooney with a 3-blade prop...Why listen to the haters...when you don't have to?
-Not muting my wife (during take-off and landing) on intercom...(She is an EXCELLENT co-pilot now)
-Landing sans flaps...ESPECIALLY with four aboard on a hot day...
-NOT immediately buying an audible gear and stall warning kit (Would have prevented a gear up)
-Buying a hanger queen with a tired dried up engine...(Buy one that is FLYING at LEAST 50 Hours a year since overhaul)
-Landing with to much airspeed on a hot day...chirp...CHIIIRRRP....POWER!!!!.....all is well.
-Not getting Johnson bar cleared before taking active runway...Honey, is that your Good Housekeeping there?
-Not getting a co-owner from day 1...Ownership of a vintage Mooney can be a joy with the right guy along for the ride

Have fun Rookies...I consider myself "one of ya" to this day...

[N601RX]

Letting the nose get too high on a takeoff that was both short and soft field.  It will get airborn before your expecting it and it will take a lot of control input to keep it straight.  Recognizing the situation and lowering the nose and all is fine.  It can also happen on a last second go around with full flaps.