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Mooney M20E Take Off and Landing at 6Y9 Grass Strip, Pricket-Grooms. Sidnaw, Michigan


Oliver

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Take off and landing with our Mooney M20E at the 6Y9, Pricket-Grooms Field. Located in Sidnaw, Michigan's Upper Penninsula.

For reference:
The runway is 2,600 feet long, elevation 1,372 feet. Density altitude on this day was around 3,000 ft.
Single pilot + approx. 30 gal. of fuel.

Take off: Rotate at around 65 - 70 mph, gear up as soon as plane is stable. Flaps up at 90 mph. Continue to accelerate in ground effect, then climb out.

Landing: 
Speed 'over the fence' around 75 mph, full flaps. Flare until she is done flying.

Edited by Oliver
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Thanks for watching and your nice comments.  :)

I thought that it might be of interest for others, as some people (incl. other Mooney pilots) believe that Mooneys cannot be taken into grass strips or that anything shorter than 3,000 ft. is the recipe for certain death. As long as the runway is in a reasonably good condition and the grass not too long, this is however not true.

Edited by Oliver
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Very nice quality video from multiple perspectives. Thanks for sharing.  It looks like you have your soft field technique down pat.   I have never done soft field in my Mooney or anything else, but I would like to learn (with an experienced instructor).   But I tense up just watching those bouncing undulations in the takeoff and landing roll however and fear a prop strike.  Not sure I would fare much better as PIC :blink:

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39 minutes ago, DXB said:

Very nice quality video from multiple perspectives. Thanks for sharing.  It looks like you have your soft field technique down pat.   I have never done soft field in my Mooney or anything else, but I would like to learn (with an experienced instructor).   But I tense up just watching those bouncing undulations in the takeoff and landing roll however and fear a prop strike.  Not sure I would fare much better as PIC :blink:

 

Thank you. :)

The end of the runway, from which I took off, is indeed pretty rough and about the limit for me. Most grass strips are quite a bit smoother.
Particularly on rougher airfields, I always keep the yoke pulled back, to keep the nose light and as far off the ground as possible: While taxiing, during the take off roll and after the landing.

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On September 16, 2016 at 0:07 AM, Oliver said:

Take off and landing with our Mooney M20E at the 6Y9, Pricket-Grooms Field. Located in Sidnaw, Michigan's Upper Penninsula.

For reference:
The runway is 2,600 feet long, elevation 1,372 feet. Density altitude on this day was around 3,000 ft.
Single pilot + approx. 30 gal. of fuel.

Take off: Rotate at around 65 - 70 mph, gear up as soon as plane is stable. Flaps up at 90 mph. Continue to accelerate in ground effect, then climb out.

Landing: 
Speed 'over the fence' around 75 mph, full flaps. Flare until she is done flying.

Why the big hurry in raising the gear?  You're barely off the ground and flying before you retract them. If the engine sputters you're landing gear up.

Clarence

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14 hours ago, M20Doc said:

Why the big hurry in raising the gear?  You're barely off the ground and flying before you retract them. If the engine sputters you're landing gear up.

Clarence

Actually, no big hurry at all. I usually start to gently pull back on the yoke at around 70 mph, what is already plenty fast. By the time I am up and flying, I am at around 80 mph. 80 mph is also Vx with 15° of flaps. Why not retract the gear at Vx? Particularly if it is so draggy as our Mooney's?

Sure, if the engine would fail in this very moment, I would most likely not have the time to lower the gear before I touch down again.
However, leaving it extended for longer would come at a price, which I think would be an unfavorable trade off in this situation: I would give up quite a bit of climb performance, particularly if I would leave it extended the entire time I accelerate in ground effect.
Now, assuming I have an engine failure while climbing out, I would find myself at a much lower altitude than what would have been possible if I would have retracted the gear as early as safely possible. As a result, I would be much less likely able to make it back to the runway or to some other emergency landing field.

I would then have traded the risk of a potential gear up landing with an elevated risk of crashing into the forest, in case of an engine failure. Also, energy (speed) can be treated to a certain degree with altitude. The  faster I manage to get by the time I arrive at obstacles, the more energy I have to play with, for example in case of unexpected turbulence over the trees. Now, if I give up accelerating performance in trade for leaving the gear extended, I also give up speed-margin which might come in handy when flying over obstacles.

Just my 2 cents, obviously everything is a trade off.   

 

6 hours ago, Hoeschen said:

My Mooney likes grass too

Very nice, beautiful pictures.

 

1 hour ago, gsxrpilot said:

Agreed, no need for asphalt or concrete.

My 252 TSE on the playa at Burning Man.

 

Wow, this is amazing. I would also love to land there!
My wife and I are actually planning to fly over the Christmas holidays to the south western states. Black Rock City would be a bit of a detour, but I think that we should look into it. It would probably be cool to land there, even outside the festival.

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Just now, Oliver said:

Sure, if the engine would fail in this very moment, I would most likely not have the time to lower the gear before I touch down again.
However, leaving it extended for longer would come at a price, which I think would be an unfavorable trade off in this situation: I would give up quite a bit of climb performance, particularly if I would leave it extended the entire time I accelerate in ground effect.
Now, assuming I have an engine failure while climbing out, I would find myself at a much lower altitude than what would have been possible if I would have retracted the gear as early as safely possible. As a result, I would be much less likely able to make it back to the runway or to some other emergency landing field.

I would then have traded the risk of a potential gear up landing with an elevated risk of crashing into the forest, in case of an engine failure. Also, energy (speed) can be treated to a certain degree with altitude. The  faster I manage to get by the time I arrive at obstacles, the more energy I have to play with, for example in case of unexpected turbulence over the trees. Now, if I give up accelerating performance in trade for leaving the gear extended, I also give up speed-margin which might come in handy when flying over obstacles.

You are correct here and don't let anyone talk you out of it.  Most Manual Mooney drivers yank the gear as soon as the weight is off the wheels. While that engine is making power, make the most of it and build speed that can be converted to altitude.

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On 9/17/2016 at 0:39 AM, Oliver said:

 

Thank you. :)

The end of the runway, from which I took off, is indeed pretty rough and about the limit for me. Most grass strips are quite a bit smoother.
Particularly on rougher airfields, I always keep the yoke pulled back, to keep the nose light and as far off the ground as possible: While taxiing, during the take off roll and after the landing.

I used a grass strip for the last four years. As long as you used the proper technique it was just fine. Our gear is rugged and takes a lot, as long as the strip is relatively smooth.  Actually some of my nicest landing were on a grass strip.

 

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Paul, 

You are correct Mooney "drivers" yank the gear up, pilots (Transport Canada and FAA issued me a pilot's licence) tend to rotate and retract the gear when positive rate and usefulness of the gear is gone.  

Clarence 

 

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1 hour ago, M20Doc said:

Paul, 

You are correct Mooney "drivers" yank the gear up, pilots (Transport Canada and FAA issued me a pilot's licence) tend to rotate and retract the gear when positive rate and usefulness of the gear is gone.  

Clarence 

 

Must be a Canadian problem then... I hold pilot's licenses from the FAA and CASA (Australia) ;-)

The C and E owners on this forum with manual gear know what I'm talking about.

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