Working Manual Gear - What I Learned...

[urbanti]

After 2 months of flying a '65 E with manual gear, here is a breakdown of what I learned that wasn't completely clear to me in the other primers that are out there:

1. If you are new to manual gear, don't rush! Trying to accomplish too many unfamiliar actions while climbing out can result in the Johnson bar handle flopping around in the cockpit, and/or the a/c bobbing around on climbout as you wrestle with the bar.

2. To raise the gear: Take your time to establish an trimmed out climb before touching the bar. When you're ready to release the bar from the socket, depress the button with your thumb and twist the JBar sleeve counterclockwise while pulling the sleeve down out of the socket. Once free of the socket let the JBar rotate aft/downward a bit but don't try to rush it towards the floor. Pitch the a/c nose down toward level flight and the bar will fall towards the floor with only minor urging. Here's an important part, especially for short-armed pilots: take your time to trap the bar against the floor with the JBar sleeve at least partially forward (towards the firewall) using your splayed open hand (ie don't hold the bar with your fingers closed around the bar and thus trapped against the floor)...then methodically slide/rotate the JBar sleeve aft until it engages the receptacle in the floor. This last action is a "feel thing" and if you rush there's a chance you won't fully engage the sleeve in the receptacle and as you release pressure on the bar it will pop back up.

3. To lower the gear: Decrease airspeed to below max gear deployment speed, enter a very shallow banked descent, and twist the JBar sleeve while sliding it forward (towards the firewall) until the JBar pops loose from the floor. Let it rotate itself up on its own momentum until the sleeve is only inches away from the receptacle on the bottom of the panel. As the JBar runs out of momentum rotating upward, grasp the JBar sleeve firmly and push it into the receptacle until the button pops out to the left. Check the green light is lit and then physically test the sleeve's retention in the receptacle and tug on the bar to ensure that it's not going to somehow pop back out.

Using the above method, I never have to use brute muscular exertion to either raise or lower the gear. After dozens of repetitions you get faster and faster while still making very positive engagement into the receptacles.

very best regards,

Tim

[DrBill]

Well done Tim. Good advice and before you know it you can raise the gear quickly as at the end of this video (8:00 min point).

Bill

 

[Bob_Belville]

Gear down @ 7:45, (you might have to replay to see it)

Re-buckle seat belt @ 7:55.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKBNWcXxpuM

 

Gear up @ :33 (1 second?)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuG8dtRBPgQ

[yvesg]

One thing to add in your preflight... you might have it already on your checklist. Ensure there is nothing in the way. When I acquired my iPad 2 years ago, I wanted to keep it connected to the lighter adapter to keep it charged. The first time I realized that the wire was in the way. From then on, I would keep the iPAD disconnected until after I am levelled.

Yves

[N201MKTurbo]

When I was a young pilot with my new to me M20F. I bought a Sporty's E6B aviation calculator. I laid it on the floor, after departure I noticed it had a curve just like the new IPhone6.

So what have you smashed with your Johnson bar?

[xcrmckenna]

What stage of flight do you drop the landing gear? As you are descending to traffic pattern altitude, shortly after you reached TPA, or in the pattern?

[wombat]

I was out and about the other day and shortly after take-off I suddenly got a lot of static on the intercom, bad enough I would have trouble hearing anyone on the radio.   I noticed that it was affected by me moving around sometimes.   It took about 3 minutes of fidgeting before I identified that the end of my cable to connect the phone to the intercom so I can listen to music was under the Johnson bar.   Was worried I was looking at an expensive electrical problem.

[1964-M20E]

What stage of flight do you drop the landing gear? As you are descending to traffic pattern altitude, shortly after you reached TPA, or in the pattern?

Downwind leg or final approach fix and I try to do a GUMPS check 3 times downwind, base and final.  If on an instrument approach at the FAF, GUMPS when I break out and or MDA.

 

My biggest fear is becoming complacent the more I fly my Mooney.

[63C]

So what have you smashed with your Johnson bar?

 

ICOM handheld...on my Bi Annual of all times...LOL

[gsxrpilot]

Wheels up at 0:26  My C was blessed with retractable gear, but only 180 hp.  So I like to put the gear away ASAP to help the little engine climb.

 

[gsxrpilot]

Don't blink.  This is time-lapse so the wheels are gone at 0:02.

 

[Marauder]

Don't blink. This is time-lapse so the wheels are gone at 0:02.

http://vimeo.com/101811661

Marked private

[gsxrpilot]

Marked private

Hmmm... thought I fixed that.  Should be working now.

[adamsboomer]

Interesting techniques.  I leave them hang and pitch for airspeed until no useable runway remains.  Although ot be true I have never chopped power and simulated an engine loss on climbout to see how much ground would go by in the descent so it is just a guess.

[cliffy]

GSX- How come you weren't on the runway center line when you touched down? :-) :-) :-)

[gsxrpilot]

GSX- How come you weren't on the runway center line when you touched down? :-) :-) :-)

Damn!  I've got to fix that.  :-)

[Seanhoya]

Someone asked an important question - what have you smashed with your Johnson bar?  My thumb, repeatedly...  So I wear flight gloves.... That is my only complaint about the system - that if you get rushed, there is a chance you are going to bleed.  Somebody else mentioned the passenger seatbelt releasing - I laughed and laughed!  Yes - this happens all the time!

 

Sean

1968 Mooney M20G

[markm20b]

I just wait until I have positive climb and try and raise my gear around 85mph.  From time to time I will forget and realize it when climbing out at 120mph - not often but it happens a few times  per year.  Then I pitch up until I'm at 100mph and then bring it up.  I've also learned to brief my passenger not to let something fall between the seats (like cords) and to be ready to refasten their seatbelt if I happen to undo it while landing. 

[Alan Fox]

I smashed a Motorola razr phone...

[pinerunner]

My instructor has this fancy radiophone that he laid on the floor when I wasn't looking the first time we flew together. I hit it a few times with the J-bar before I sorted it out and handed it to him with a few extra scratches.

[Bob_Belville]

I have 3 items at the end of my check list before I take the active: mixture in, electric fuel pump on, clear the floor area for the JBar.

[Wildhorsesracing]

I smashed my sunglasses once, they fell off the shelf above the nose wheel housing and when lowering the gear I pinned them to the housing.

 

Gear up: Positive rate of climb ~85mph - I have found that if I wait too long and let the speed build the gear is harder to raise

Gear down: abeam the runway #'s at the end of the downwind leg ~100 mph.

 

Here's an interesting view of my gear going up at 0:54

http://youtu.be/PNwfGtToeEA

[ryoder]

One more tip. Please make sure the green locked light comes on. Mine sometimes doesn't come on when I put the gear down and I don't always notice it until the second gumps check. I know that is bad so I need to be more careful with that. I do the gear part of the gumps check three times with the last one being in short final right before the wheels touch down. I have noticed the green light is not in when on downwind after I put it down before overflying the Airpark midfield. To get the light, I have to disengage and re engage quickly.

[Andy95W]

One more tip. Please make sure the green locked light comes on. Mine sometimes doesn't come on when I put the gear down and I don't always notice it until the second gumps check. I know that is bad so I need to be more careful with that. I do the gear part of the gumps check three times with the last one being in short final right before the wheels touch down. I have noticed the green light is not in when on downwind after I put it down before overflying the Airpark midfield. To get the light, I have to disengage and re engage quickly.

You probably have dirty contacts in the switch in the downlock, or it is possibly mis-rigged. Try spraying some contact cleaner up there the next time you go flying and manipulate the switch with your finger. If that doesn't work, then your mechanic can adjust the switch next time the airplane is up on jacks, maybe by just bending the tab on the microswitch.

Regardless, it shouldn't be that much work to just get the green light to come on.

[scottfromiowa]

You probably have dirty contacts in the switch in the downlock, or it is possibly mis-rigged. Try spraying some contact cleaner up there the next time you go flying and manipulate the switch with your finger. If that doesn't work, then your mechanic can adjust the switch next time the airplane is up on jacks, maybe by just bending the tab on the microswitch.

Regardless, it shouldn't be that much work to just get the green light to come on.

Let your wife do that....But seriously, don't ignore that green light. My gear is NOT locked unless that light is on. Possible to have a gear collapse. Could be the switch, but could just "not" be locked. Point/touch that green light as a ritual as well as "Yanking on your johnson".