Bad day for Mooney’s on Spruce Creek

[Yooper Rocketman]

We were sitting in the lanai this morning watching the gaggle of planes come back from the Saturday breakfast run and I spotted a really nice Mooney flaring with the gear up.  With no radio I felt totally helpless, watching this beautiful plane float a couple hundred more yards down the runway before hearing the dreaded metal scraping asphalt sound.   Nobody hurt but I imagine some pride was banged up some.  

When we got over near the final resting spot there were a lot of people gathered to see the event.  Every one I overheard or actually talked with was extremely compassionate about what had happened and a few, like me, wished they would have been close enough to a radio to warn the guy about the impending situation.  

It made for an interesting morning as this airport is really busy on Saturday mornings.  A decent sized corporate jet was taxing out and returned to his hangar waiting for the runway to reopen.  Quite a few incoming clearly had to land elsewhere as well. 

About 45 minutes after the event I drove my son and his 3 friends down to Orlando Sanford for their return to Green Bay after a week of sun down here.  My wife said she heard the jet take off within 30-45 minutes of me leaving so they must have cleared the runway pretty quick.  

There’s those that have landed gear up and there’s those that haven’t YET. 

Tom

[steingar]

That’s too bad. Those that have and those that will all right. I imagine it’s easy to get distracted at a big place like Spruce Creek.

What’s worse than gearing up your Mooney? Gearing up your Mooney in front of all your neighbors.

[aviatoreb]

Oh bummer!

i once heard that sound.  About 9 years ago a local c had a gear collapse upon landing and I was right there to hear it.  At our sleepy rural airport.  So I was there all afternoon to help the ininjured pilot to get it off the runway and then back up on its wheels to tow in.  Ugly scraping sound....

Edited March 10, 2018 by aviatoreb

[MIm20c]

Kind of a reinforcer to always have the portable ready to go at a flyin etc to keep a fellow pilot from having to call the insurance company. 

[bradp]

But man - look at the bright side - the airframe takes a gear up like a champ.  Prop and engine inspection / overhaul of choice and the thing will live to see yet another gear up in it's storied future.  

[SAMFOX]

2 hours ago, aviatoreb said:

Oh bummer!

i once heard that sound.  About 9 years ago a local c had a gear collapse upon landing and I was right there to hear it.  At our sleepy rural airport.  So I was there all afternoon to help the ininjured pilot to get it off the runway and then back up on its wheels to tow in.  Ugly scraping sound....

The bigger they get the louder they get...this one was a site to see back in the day as well..

[DualRatedFlyer]

Out of curiosity, what's the best way for the owner of that Mooney to get the aircraft up off the ground and supported by it's own gear without causing additional damage. Have read a few stores of people using cranes and what not that resulted in a wrinkeled fuselage and more damage. 

[Mooneymite]

We just had a gear-up at a field near me.  It was bad enough that it was a gear up, but here are the "other details" I heard:

Owner was bringing a new-to-him $180K airplane home.  First approach was not satisfactory, so he went around, retracting the gear.  Next approach was better, but the gear was up.  As the aircraft entered the flair, the pilot realized the gear was up and cobbed the power to it.  The aircraft rolled onto the left wing and the airplane essentially destroyed itself.

Other details (all hearsay):

No insurance.

Accident occurred while an FAA guy just happened to be watching.

Pilot had no current flight review.

Pilot had no current medical.

The good news:  neither pilot, nor passenger was injured.

[Raptor05121]

2 minutes ago, DualRatedFlyer said:

Out of curiosity, what's the best way for the owner of that Mooney to get the aircraft up off the ground and supported by it's own gear without causing additional damage. Have read a few stores of people using cranes and what not that resulted in a wrinkeled fuselage and more damage. 

 

[DualRatedFlyer]

1 minute ago, Raptor05121 said:

 

A good rule of thumb is that if there are that many people watching --go land somewhere else

[aviatoreb]

14 minutes ago, DualRatedFlyer said:

A good rule of thumb is that if there are that many people watching --go land somewhere else

That's it - it takes a village.

 

[Yooper Rocketman]

I knew about and had seen that video.  I wasn’t going to suggest that as I was pretty sure they would think I was crazy (and there is always the possibility  of more damage being incurred).  I didn’t get to see the removal and should be able to post a update, but I did overhear one of the security people out by the plane talking about “ airbags”.  I’ll post the actual procedure when I can confirm it.  

Tom

[aviatoreb]

1 hour ago, SAMFOX said:

The bigger they get the louder they get...this one was a site to see back in the day as well..

How many Air Force people did it take to lift that thing up by hand?

[PTK]

I was waiting for a clearance one day at my home drome when I heard on the radio a Mooney on final. A couple minutes later as I was busy copying my clearance I saw him right in front of me in ground effect with the gear up! It was a 231 based at the field. Before I could get on the radio it was too late! Belly met the pavement half way down the runway and skidded to rest off to the right of the runway into some grass. I thought I should at least thank him for not closing down the runway as I was departing...but I couldn’t! It just wouldn’t have been right! 

[exM20K]

I once received a radio call on short final: "Mooney: Check your gear."  It was up.  I was so focused on the banner-tow plane doing a pickup parallel to me in the grass that I simply forgot.  I suspect that a lot of gear-ups have in the chain leading up to them, a break in normal flow.  I've no idea if that was the case here.

-dan

 

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, DualRatedFlyer said:

Out of curiosity, what's the best way for the owner of that Mooney to get the aircraft up off the ground and supported by it's own gear without causing additional damage. Have read a few stores of people using cranes and what not that resulted in a wrinkeled fuselage and more damage. 

Airbags or jacks under the wings to lift and shore it progressively, lift straps at engine mount right at the firewall.  Nothing around or under the fuselage sheet metal.

Clarence

[nels]

 That gear up is just another reason I’m trying not to join that club. That’s why I just installed an AV17 voice annunciator to let me know the gear needs to go down. 

[Mark89114]

Are we not hearing the gear warning horn?  Probably something that should get tested once in a while, check to make sure it works and we recognize what it sounds like.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Mark89114 said:

Are we not hearing the gear warning horn?  Probably something that should get tested once in a while, check to make sure it works and we recognize what it sounds like.

Along with a warning horn, Ive heard some people use a check list.

Clarence

[Southernpilot]

I beg to differ on the saying, there are those that have and those that will.
In ‘93 I was flying charter, single pilot in the mighty B100 and doing chart revisions when I heard that terrible scraping sound. There was nothing I could do since I didn’t have a cell phone then and the accident aircraft was half a mile away. It was obvious the pilot was ok since I saw him walking towards us and the FBO. When he got close I noticed a strange, far away look in his eyes and he didn’t respond when I asked him if he was ok. He was in shock. I followed him into the FBO and stood by in case he or the FBO needed anything.
Passengers showed up and we got permission to use the taxiway for takeoff, but man; what a learning experience for me.
So, there by the grace of God go I, and aren’t checklists great! I would rather be lucky than good.
Vince



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Yooper Rocketman]

29 minutes ago, Southernpilot said:

I beg to differ on the saying, there are those that have and those that will.

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that version?  The one I noted was there’s those that have and those that have not YET.   I believe that implies those that haven’t better realize the vulnerability we have to joining the other club!

At my home base a 20,000-25,000 hour ATP / Commercial pilot just had his first gear up on a twin Cessna, not too many hours away from retirement.  I’ve flown with him and he as a VERY GOOD pilot.  

Tom

[nels]

35 minutes ago, Mark89114 said:

Are we not hearing the gear warning horn?  Probably something that should get tested once in a while, check to make sure it works and we recognize what it sounds like.

I think we never hear a gear horn since we most always have the gear down ahead of time. In the rare case when we don’t have it down and do hear the horn the first thing we think of is stall/ airspeed horn. They do sound similar. While we try to digest that sound information sometimes we realize it’s a gear horn and sometimes we think there is just a problem with the stall horn. After all, final is a pretty intense time of flight.

[DAVIDWH]

Not wishing to plagiarize,

So, let me state this method of avoiding gear up incidents was copied some time back from another Mooney driver, (Apologize for not remembering his name), as he posted on Mooney Space in reply to a similar gear up incident.

As I recall he always used some word he called GUMP before landing.

Again as I recall, it went something like this:

G-- Gear down

U--Undercarriage down

M-- That mf gear sure as hell better be down

P--I am going to be so P. O. if that mf gear is not down

As for myself, I now use GUMP for every landing procedure.

 

Best

 

[Alan Fox]

1 hour ago, PTK said:

I was waiting for a clearance one day at my home drome when I heard on the radio a Mooney on final. A couple minutes later as I was busy copying my clearance I saw him right in front of me in ground effect with the gear up! It was a 231 based at the field. Before I could get on the radio it was too late! Belly met the pavement half way down the runway and skidded to rest off to the right of the runway into some grass. I thought I should at least thank him for not closing down the runway as I was departing...but I couldn’t! Besides it just wouldn’t be right! 

That was a Rocket.....( Steves )

[aviatoreb]

5 minutes ago, Alan Fox said:

That was a Rocket.....( Steves )

Noooooo!!!!!