Check for gear down, again and again....

[Marauder]

1 hour ago, Mooneymite said:

Technology is the answer.  

We should be asking the question:  Why isn't anyone interested in developing that low cost technology?

I forgot to mention another technology innovation. A few years ago, my wife and I were cycling and she was hit by a car. I remember back then wishing that there was some kind of warning radar to let us know about traffic around us.

Well, Garmin did produce one and it is on our bikes! Pretty sophisticated. Able to track multiple cars, lots of range (probably close to 500') and even sends out a warning when the closure rate is high. So... it can be done, but unfortunately the consumer market for these kinds of life saving technologies isn't filled with a lot of bureaucratic red tape.

  

[Mr Bill]

Hello Mooney Owners.   There is a unit already certified for about 2.2 AMU's.    A whole lot less expensive than rebuilding the airplane and exposing a pilot to a possible 709 ride.

http://www.p2inc.com/audioadvisory.asp                for a demo click:   "Test Flight"  after the picture shows, click  "Let's Fly" 

This is one option. several more on AC Spruce

Regards, Mr Bill

[kortopates]

1 hour ago, Mr Bill said:

Hello Mooney Owners.   There is a unit already certified for about 2.2 AMU's.    A whole lot less expensive than rebuilding the airplane and exposing a pilot to a possible 709 ride.

http://www.p2inc.com/audioadvisory.asp for a demo click:   "Test Flight"  after the picture shows, click  "Let's Fly" 

This is one option. several more on AC Spruce

Regards, Mr Bill

This is what I have installed as well and love it - for about 15 years now. I do pull the breaker when practicing slow flight and stalls since it pretty loud. But for normal flying its an awesome device! Highly recommend it. As @Mr Bill says above, not only a whole lot cheaper than rebuilding the airplane, but it will save a whole lot of Mooney's from being totaled by insurance. Although some still get fixed, many get relegated to being parted out while the number of flying Mooney's decline. 

[EricJ]

5 hours ago, Mooneymite said:

Technology is the answer.  

We should be asking the question:  Why isn't anyone interested in developing that low cost technology?

I'm still learning my way around my new IFD540, but it has, if I understand everything correctly, a 500ft audio callout that is ostensibly part of the terrain warning.   There is also a user-enabled (via the system configurations) exclusion capability that turns it off around airports so that it doesn't annoy people when landing.   IF I understand how the whole thing works, that's not a bad annunciator that can be enabled by leaving the exclusion capability turned OFF.

All that said, that's just my limited understanding of how the thing is supposed to work.   I got my airplane back before the installation was quite finished (because my annual was expiring and the install had gone way over schedule and they wanted their floor space back while we waited for my autopilot boxes to get repaired...again), and I think one of the current squawks is that the audio annunciation from the Avidyne hasn't been hooked up to the audio panel.  I'm getting some visual alerts, but no audio warnings, so I haven't had a chance to personally play with this and sort out whether it would do the sort of function that you're suggesting, which I think is a good idea.

Maybe other people with IFDs have this working (or not), or have more experience with it and could clarify.

Meanwhile, my new AV-17 is pleasantly telling me all kinds of nice things, mostly that my vacuum regulation is way off now (another squawk for the avionics shop), and my oil runs hot...a lot, in AZ in the summer.   Go figure.   And, once in a while, that my gear alarm is going off.  Anyway, I think some of the current boxes that are becoming more common may have the capability to do this in some form.    IMHO a consistent 500 ft AGL warning on descent would be a good way to train a Pavlovian reflex to check the gear on an approach.

[bradp]

I also love checklists and procedures but understand that I am not infallible with them.  Checklists only work if you avoid all distractions during them, actually do each item and verify that each item was done.  Checklists are better than me as a pilot because I can get distracted. Technology is better than me because it doesn’t get distracted.  I just need to be able to control the technology as PIC.  

[kortopates]

During this last week, the FAA incidents and accidents stats show 4 Mooney involved in 3 gear up landings, (one reported as a gear collapse) and a Mooney Mite involved in an off field landing. None of these involved injuries thankfully.

One involved a recently registered 252 with 3 souls on-board reporting what may be the ultimate distraction. The report says the   "DURING APPROACH, AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED ELECTRICAL FAILURE AND SMOKE IN COCKPIT. AIRCRAFT LANDED GEAR UP. " Perhaps it was the ultimate distraction in missing the gear or maybe smoke in the cockpit caused the pilot to intentionally just plant the Mooney on the field gear up. But the following news article suggest that it wasn't intentional. More of the story could be an interesting lesson for us. Did the pilot realize the gear was up? Did the pilot move the gear switch, but was too distracted by the electrical failure to realize it wasn't coming down? Of course the pilot would have no gear light to see, only the floor board position .....

Some details on the 252 incident: http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2018/07/mooney-m20k-n39252-incident-occurred.html 

I can only relay that my experiences of electrical system induced smoke in the cockpit were limited to a brief puff as a CB popped and much more smell than smoke that quickly dissipated before landing. Others may have experienced worse.  

 

[Bolter]

On 6/27/2018 at 6:10 AM, midlifeflyer said:

I go along with the idea it is based on the early days. Engines were very unreliable and a power change could easily turn into an engine-out. You really needed to ensure you could make the runway at that first power reduction from the pattern.

I think considering the GA statistics in general, we (speaking globally) are more likely to have fuel exhaustion in the pattern than an engine failure.  I expect that the slightly refined group on MS would be better than the average.

[steingar]

Of course, the other advantage to dirtying up the airframe before entering the landing pattern is fewer distractions a couple miles from the airport.  The down side is it takes more time, and we Mooney pilots like to fly fast.

[midlifeflyer]

1 hour ago, Dan at FUL said:

I think considering the GA statistics in general, we (speaking globally) are more likely to have fuel exhaustion in the pattern than an engine failure.  I expect that the slightly refined group on MS would be better than the average.

The GA stats apparently say we are far more likely to have a landing issue by making one of those nice a powerless descents from close in. Hence the FAA's current and highly argued incarnation of the  "stabilized descent," in which power is used as part of maintaining a constant descent profile and airspeed.