struggle to get gear locked down on '68 M20C

[DXB]

Dave and his office mate are some incredibly helpful people.

Learn as much as you can while you are there...

Best regards,

-a-

Yeah am impressed-  feels good to have the plane with them.   I know where I'm getting my annuals.

[Marauder]

Yeah am impressed- feels good to have the plane with them. I know where I'm getting my annuals.

Are you part of the NJ Mooney Pilot's Yahoo Group? If not, you should join. Sounds like you are based in the area.

[scottfromiowa]

+1 on not feeling like a bufoon. I just learned (another thread) that I need to be pulling down on the sleeve not back toward me to confirm gear is locked...DOH! Only been doing that wrong for over a decade...Bufoon club? Yup, I am a member. ALWAYS learning. The great about MooneySpace.

[DXB]

Are you part of the NJ Mooney Pilot's Yahoo Group? If not, you should join. Sounds like you are based in the area.

Thanks I just sent a subscribe email to the group

[DXB]

I thought my issue in my original post was solved...but it's not  .      I had the gear looked at by a good Mooney shop- in their hands, locking the gear down worked fine on jacks and in the air.   The next two times I fly it, I agree - no problem - either problem solved itself, or maybe I just got the hang of it.   I flew it this morning to continue transition training and did 5 landings.  The first two times, there was modest difficulty in getting the sleeve to lock up, but it worked ok. The third time, the sleeve seemed to engage but wasn't locked when tugged down, and I couldn't force it up again- it took another attempt of pulling the gear back up and putting it back down.  The last two times, I had essentially the original problem - a huge struggle with both hands to get the sleeve locked up into the receptacle.   I can see no relationship to airspeed or my technique as to when I encounter the problem.  Pushing the bar forward in a continuous motion without slowing down as it approaches the block certainly seems to help, but that's what I did the times that failed.  My instructor had owned an M20C with the Johnson bar for years and is also an A/&P -  he is stumped as well.

 

Other than that, the plane is a delight to fly - I'm rapidly learning the speed control/descent idiosyncrasies, and I dare say it's actually significantly EASIER to control in the roundout/flare than the Warrior I used for my PPL training.   If I could just get the gear issue figured out!

[Mooneymite]

Mysterious!

 

Keep us posted.  We can all learn a thing, or three here.

[Marauder]

DXB -- it really sounds like you have something ajar in the gear system. Dave M at Air Mods knows these planes. Did you by any chance have the belly panels pulled. I am guessing that you may have something not right with the interconnects. Did Dave drop the belly pans?

[DXB]

DXB -- it really sounds like you have something ajar in the gear system. Dave M at Air Mods knows these planes. Did you by any chance have the belly panels pulled. I am guessing that you may have something not right with the interconnects. Did Dave drop the belly pans?

No Dave just worked it on jacks and then flew it, and it seemed fine to him (and me initially after he looked at it).   If this keeps up, I'll have to ask him to dig deeper.  

[Marauder]

No Dave just worked it on jacks and then flew it, and it seemed fine to him (and me initially after he looked at it). If this keeps up, I'll have to ask him to dig deeper.

I'm willing to bet you got something loose underneath and is periodically binding.

[orionflt]

Dev, lets get your plane over to UKT to play with it

 

Brian

[HRM]

No feeling buffoonish needed.

You won't be the first nor the last to learn to master the J-bar. I am new to J-bar too. Not even close to having it mastered.

Good for you to get the inputs of others who know, pilots and mechanics both! Better safe than sorry. If it is you, you'll get the hang of it soon enough ...

 

Grasshoppers, learn the Mooney nod to get it up and the notion of a speed brake to put it down 

[FloridaMan]

I experienced this very thing when I put a new vinyl boot on the Johnson bar.  Check that you do not have too much material forward of the bar when the gear is extended.

 

Also, make sure to not remove the boot. There's an incident report in the NTSB where someone lost a small flashlight down the hole and caused the ailerons to bind. 

[Andy95W]

Carpet or padding on the nose gear tunnel or your J bar boot at the bottom could he bunching up From there you might have too tight uploads.

I experienced this very thing when I put a new vinyl boot on the Johnson bar.  Check that you do not have too much material forward of the bar when the gear is extended.

It's usually something simple. Sometimes the material bunches up, sometimes it doesn't.

Still a good idea to put it up on jacks, remove the belly panels, and check for sure. Then you can check the boot and carpeting, too.

[mike20papa]

With the gear down & locked, crawl under the wing and in the wheel well, find the long linkage actuating rods that connect the overcenter truss at the gear with the bellcrank in the wing.  If the gear is way over preloaded these will be impossible to rotate with your hand back and forth within the limits of the
Heim ball joints.  But really, put the airplane up on jacks and resolve the problem on the ground.