Landing gear

[Alfredo]

Hi I just got my Mooney M20C from paint is great.

we’ll I did some upgrades to get more speed, one of those was landed gear covers so I got 5kt I am very happy now the plane is flying 157kt with 7.8 gph.

but I got a problem: the land gear is so hard now, so instead 80 miles I have to do at 70 and I don’t like too much because I have to keep the nose too high on taking off I don’t feel too much safe idem my wife ,lol so I keep flying until 1500 hundred feet with gear down and then pull the throttle back to get 70 miles. Does any one have a better idea? 
thank your 

[Oscar Avalle]

Hi I just got my Mooney M20C from paint is great.
we’ll I did some upgrades to get more speed, one of those was landed gear covers so I got 5kt I am very happy now the plane is flying 157kt with 7.8 gph.
but I got a problem: the land gear is so hard now, so instead 80 miles I have to do at 70 and I don’t like too much because I have to keep the nose too high on taking off I don’t feel too much safe idem my wife ,lol so I keep flying until 1500 hundred feet with gear down and then pull the throttle back to get 70 miles. Does any one have a better idea? 
thank your 

Alfredo, beautiful plane! One question, who has the STC for the landing gear covers?


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[N201MKTurbo]

Most likely, there are aerodynamic loads pulling the gear down, caused by the new gear doors. 

Can you show some close up pictures of the new gear doors?

[201er]

Is that a short body 201?

[1964-M20E]

From what I understand the lower gear doors will make it harder to retract the gear in models with manual gear.  All I know is once you start keep the gear moving in one clean motion.

 

 

[ArtVandelay]

Must have cost a lot of money, your wife can’t afford to buy new pants.
;-)

[skydvrboy]

As for the gear being difficult to stow, have you tried nudging the yoke forward a bit while putting up the gear.  This takes some of the gravitational load off and makes it easier to move the gear at higher speeds.  Not sure if it will help in your situation, as I don't have inner gear doors.  You also might want to double check that it is rigged properly.  BTW, it looks awesome.

[DXB]

30 minutes ago, Alfredo said:

we’ll I did some upgrades to get more speed, one of those was landed gear covers so I got 5kt I am very happy now the plane is flying 157kt with 7.8 gph.

but I got a problem: the land gear is so hard now, so instead 80 miles I have to do at 70 and I don’t like too much because I have to keep the nose too high on taking off I don’t feel too much safe idem my wife ,lol so I keep flying until 1500 hundred feet with gear down and then pull the throttle back to get 70 miles. Does any one have a better idea? 

I've never heard of inner gear doors on a J bar Mooney, and I doubt the manual gear system was designed to have them (Is there an STC for this mod?).   

Assuming no changes were made to the gear rigging, the added inner doors very likely explain why the gear is harder to retract (the wind tends to pull the gear down).  

Holding speed at 70mph during full power initial climb risks a departure stall - little margin for error (clean stall speed 68mph) - pretty scary practice in my view.   I'm not sure I'd keep the inner doors in your situation.

However, if you decide to keep them, get some more speed as quickly as possible after lifting off (maybe 90mph), then bump the nose down briefly but firmly at the exact moment you retract the gear.  Retraction is very easy when the downward G force drops to less than 1 momentarily.  

BTW-do you happen to know which cowl mod you have on your C and who installed it?   There are those of us who covet a J-like cowl for our Cs...

[201er]

9 minutes ago, DXB said:

Holding speed at 70mph during full power initial climb risks a departure stall - little margin for error (clean stall speed 68mph) - pretty scary practice in my view.   I'm not sure I'd keep the inner doors in your situation.

Maybe an electric gear conversion before getting rid of them? 157kts in a C is wicked!

[DXB]

15 minutes ago, 201er said:

Maybe an electric gear conversion before getting rid of them? 157kts in a C is wicked!

Most relevant mods here seem to be that J cowl and maybe the windshield - I've never heard of the inner gear doors adding that much, and I'm not sure I'd give up the J bar (the greatest advantage of the vintage planes) to have them.  BTW that looks like a stock exhaust on that plane - a Powerflow gives the carb'd planes more speed gain (albeit with commensurate fuel consumption increase) than any single airframe mod.

Edited October 12, 2021 by DXB

[carusoam]

Looks great Alfredo!

Have you looked into adding electric gear?

I loved my manual M20C…

But, if the fancy gear doors work… I’d go electric too… 

Or start working out with a Mooney specific physical trainer… to help get the gear stowed.

It’s challenging to use enough force to stow the gear, without accidentally pulling back on the yoke at the same time…

Best regards,

-a-

[Culver LFA]

Alfredo, that's a clean Mooney!  If you are considering the conversion to electric gear, I still have all the electric gear components removed from my M20F when I converted it back to J-bar.

 

[carusoam]

@Alfredo see message from Culver above…

-a-

[philip_g]

On 10/12/2021 at 3:41 AM, 201er said:

Maybe an electric gear conversion before getting rid of them? 157kts in a C is wicked!

I'm not buying it. Not TAS, anyway

[Mooney Dog]

2 hours ago, philip_g said:

I'm not buying it. Not TAS, anyway

I could see it with a few of the J add ons. They already get around 150 stock.