Landing Gear Service - SoCal

[chrixxer]

Last week I had what I thought was a landing gear indicator hiccup (it cleared up and stayed normal after not initially indicating gear down), but now^‡ I'm convinced the gear are not actually extending normally. (Retracting the gear works as it always has.) 1969 M20F, electric gear, 40:1 conversion done a couple of years ago, current on all 100/etc hour ADs.

Approach 1 this weekend, they came down on the first try, but in retrospect might have taken a smidge longer than normal (nothing stood out at the time). Approach 2, the first time I toggled them to down, they didn’t extend (>30 seconds later). Put the switch back in the up position, then down, and they finally came down on short final (green light, verified with floor indicator, and felt it - and had tower eyeball it just to be sure). Landed uneventfully. Grounded until I figure this out, obvi.

I'm in Los Angeles (TOA). There are some good A&Ps on the field, but none (AFAIK) are really Mooney specialists. I've reached out to Top Gun and LASAR; just got off the phone with Mark at Top Gun, I'll have to drop it off.; flying all the way up there at <120 mph would suck, but ... (Someone said I'd need a ferry permit, but Mark said no?) Are there any shops more local to Zamperini that would have the expertise necessary to troubleshoot this properly? (Cool, just checked, United has a regional jet service out of Stockton to LAX for $93. That's cheaper than having another Mooniac in trail.)

^‡ I originally planned to have the plane offline starting last week for treatment for lupus, but the A&P (a new A&P, haven't been able to get the plane in front of the guy I'd been using all summer, he was too busy ) didn't get to it in time, so I took her out for one last quick X/C. Now she's offline for a bit getting, e.g., the fuel servo adjusted.

Edited October 3, 2019 by chrixxer

[7.Mooney.Driver.0]

My landing gear started acting like you described. It would work fine and then it would act up till one day it wouldn’t come down at all. I used the emergency system to get it down. I removed the belly panel and began troubleshooting. Long story short the down relay was full of oil. They are very simple to clean just remove the two little nuts holding the cover, onces remove there amor but that holds the contacts but be careful when removing the contacts there spacers and a tiny spring in there make sure not to lose those.. I clean mine with contact cleaner then used scotch Brite on the contacts. Put everything back together and i haven’t had any issues again.. Hope this helps.



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[jaylw314]

1 hour ago, chrixxer said:

I'm in Los Angeles (TOA). There are some good A&Ps on the field, but none (AFAIK) are really Mooney specialists. I've reached out to Top Gun and LASAR; just got off the phone with Mark at Top Gun, I'll have to drop it off.; flying all the way up there at <120 mph would suck, but ... (Someone said I'd need a ferry permit, but Mark said no?) 

AFAIK, the ferry permit is only necessary if the plane is not airworthy by regulation, e.g. out of annual or by AD.  I suppose some might think getting one in this case might partly shield them from liability if something adverse were to happen, but speaking as a non-lawyer, I seriously doubt that...

[chrixxer]

1 hour ago, siu1526 said:

Long story short the down relay was full of oil. 
 

First thing Mark at Top Gun said he suspected was the relay(s)...

[chrixxer]

On 8/26/2019 at 12:23 PM, jaylw314 said:

AFAIK, the ferry permit is only necessary if the plane is not airworthy by regulation

Yeah, I mentioned it to a local crank ("LOP fries engines!" "You're shock cooling!") and he was adamant a ferry permit was needed. I wasn't sure. Both LASAR and Top Gun said I wouldn't need one (I think it was Mark who said, "worst case, you'd just use the crank to extend them normally"), since the gear swing normally. I reached out to the local FSDO to see what they have to say.

Edited October 3, 2019 by chrixxer

[carusoam]

Any chance you can put it up on jacks and review it’s operation on the ground..?

You kinda have two choices...

1) switches, relays and sensors... cleaning electric parts...

2) Something is bent or broken... one in a thousand...or less.

 

With the pics provided by SIU above... you can go through this with your mechanic pretty quickly...

If you can, learn as much as possible about putting the plane up on jacks, and pulling and replacing belly panels...

Better than going all the way to TopGun without knowing what is wrong...

The Yeti has some great video footage of what the gear ops looks like.  One of MS’s top 10 videos...

Best regards,

-a-