Where in Fl would you gear up?

[A64Pilot]

May sound pessimistic, but I almost always fly with full fuel and have enough to get anywhere in Fl. My concern is one day the gear won’t come down, even manually, so of course your going to gear up, question is where?

Where is the best place to do this as far as a reputable professional shop to do the repairs? Name of shop?

Edited February 17, 2022 by A64Pilot

[Jerry 5TJ]

How about putting her down in the parking lot of your insurance broker?  Hand him the keys and take Uber home.  

[MoonFlyer68]

What about Venice Fl (KVNC). On the field is a certified Mooney service center, Sarasota Avionics and Maintenance. They may not be the most economical place to get the work done but they have always been very professional and high quality for me.

[Hank]

The P.O. of my C did it going into Sun n Fun, after being cut off by a plane on the ground and tower sent him around to "the big runway" with a request to keep his speed up for the P51 coming in behind him.

Lakeland has most everything you need, and at SnF, the people to do it, too.

[MooneyMitch]

1 hour ago, philip_g said:

MCO on the biggest runway. If it's gonna suck I'm gonna spread it around so it sucks for everyone else too lol

You don't need a long runway for a gear up landing...............ask me how I know............

[A64Pilot]

Not Daytona?

Also I had heard there was someone with an Hispanic sounding name that was well thought of, but don’t know who, or where he is.

[ArtVandelay]

Not Daytona?
Also I had heard there was someone with an Hispanic sounding name that was well thought of, but don’t know who, or where he is.

He’s semi retired and not taking new customers.

[RLCarter]

Personally I would care too much about my plane, so I would opt for emergency vehicles in case of fire… let the insurance company figure out how to get it to somewhere for repairs if they don’t total it

[carusoam]

Good news…

Most Mooneys with GU landings…didn’t have a choice to make.

The occurrence is most often a cognitive challenge, or something broke, or became unlocked during the landing….

 

Common discussion around here… if you do have a choice… select the paved runway… over the unpaved… long before a cornfield…

 

Given the choice…

Home airport…

Class D… with fire equipment…

An airport with a mechanic from the known list of Mooney mechanics…

Use your phone to make a reservation with your favorite MSC if you have time to decide….

How about landing on a flat bed trailer, moving down the runway….   

 

Practice your soft field landings, with the prop stopped, for best results….  

 

PP thoughts only, no GU landing experience yet…

Best regards,

-a-

[Will.iam]

I don’t know in Florida but in DFW i would fly to DMax and put it on his runway. Save the cost of transporting it there. 

[1964-M20E]

if you can't get the gear down go to any grass strip and stop engine on final.  Years ago we had a 210 land at our grass strip coming home from fresh paint job.  very little damage

[A64Pilot]

I’ve tried stopping the prop, I have a 500 hr engine with good compression, but it still takes stalling the aircraft to get it stopped, and even then it stops at about 11 and 5 O’clock, not 9 and 3 like you would want it too, so I’m not so sure it’s a valid method, but I guess you could try it, I wonder if bending a prop on a stopped motor is worse than an idling one though? Idling is several small hits, stopped is one big one?

I stopped it playing games to see how to extend the glide as far as possible, and came up with the altitude loss of stopping it exceeded the glide gained from a stopped prop, assuming my normal cruising altitudes.

I’d put it on my home grass strip, but that means someone is going to have to travel to fix it or me fix it I guess, but my motivation would be to get my airplane back as soon as possible, hence the desire to get it to a good, reputable shops field, and I’d just as well have the insurence company pay someone else as pay me.

[PeteMc]

17 hours ago, MoonFlyer68 said:

They may not be the most economical place to get the work done

Ah, but if the plane is repairable, it's not his checkbook!!

[Bravoman]

4 hours ago, 1964-M20E said:

if you can't get the gear down go to any grass strip and stop engine on final.  Years ago we had a 210 land at our grass strip coming home from fresh paint job.  very little damage

Trying to get too fancy can end up with disastrous results in an otherwise totally survivable situation. 

[Guest]

Or spend the insurance deductible on a new checklist.  Most gear up landings are pilot induced, not maintenance induced.

Clarence

[A64Pilot]

1 hour ago, M20Doc said:

Or spend the insurance deductible on a new checklist.  Most gear up landings are pilot induced, not maintenance induced.

Clarence

Assumption here is though that a no back spring or similar is broken, something mechanical is wrong, checklist has been run.

I’m nearly certain my no back spring is original to the airplane, so it’s got a little over 2,000 hours on it. Near as I can determine there are no replacements, it’s either ground or sell the aircraft or hope for the best.

So it would seem prudent to have a plan on what to do if it fails.

I have been told by at least one well respected Mooney tech that they do a retract test and so long as it’s smooth as butter going up and down the spring is fine, that prior to failure the gear will begin to chatter.

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I look for any kind of stutter or jumping during retract tests and in flight I try to listen for anything.

 

[RobertGary1]

21 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

May sound pessimistic, but I almost always fly with full fuel and have enough to get anywhere in Fl. My concern is one day the gear won’t come down, even manually, so of course your going to gear up, question is where?

Ouch. That's like pulling a boat behind a sports car. A short flight with 20 gal of fuel a Mooney is one heck of a racer.

-Robert

[M20F]

KEYW

Edited February 18, 2022 by M20F

[ArtVandelay]

My home airport, where I know everyone and can store the plane in my hangar instead of leaving exposed to the FL environment.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

Assumption here is though that a no back spring or similar is broken, something mechanical is wrong, checklist has been run.

I’m nearly certain my no back spring is original to the airplane, so it’s got a little over 2,000 hours on it. Near as I can determine there are no replacements, it’s either ground or sell the aircraft or hope for the best.

So it would seem prudent to have a plan on what to do if it fails.

I have been told by at least one well respected Mooney tech that they do a retract test and so long as it’s smooth as butter going up and down the spring is fine, that prior to failure the gear will begin to chatter.

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I look for any kind of stutter or jumping during retract tests and in flight I try to listen for anything.

 

The advantage of the Dukes transmission in a Piper Comanche.  In the event of transmission or electrical failure, you disconnect the transmission from the mechanical linkage, extend the Johnson bar and lower the gear.  Just one more thing Piper improved on when the “copied” the Mooney.

Clarence

[A64Pilot]

1 hour ago, M20F said:

KEYW

Why Key West? What’s there

[flyboy0681]

I have a question.. if when informing a tower of the no gear situation, could they ask you to go elsewhere?

[ArtVandelay]

I have a question.. if when informing a tower of the no gear situation, could they ask you to go elsewhere?

Yes, but you can declare an emergency and land anyway…of course FAA may have some questions for you.
I suspect they will have you land on a secondary runway, imagine going from airport to airport being rejected.
I think a competent FBO could clear runway in less than an hour if they have the equipment available.

[flyboy0681]

5 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Yes, but you can declare an emergency and land anyway…of course FAA may have some questions for you.
I suspect they will have you land on a secondary runway, imagine going from airport to airport being rejected.
I think a competent FBO could clear runway in less than an hour if they have the equipment available.

My drome has just one strip.

[A64Pilot]

I’d contact tower and of course tell them what’s going on, I’ve never heard of one telling an aircraft to go somewhere else, and everything has geared up from airliners to Mooney’s. If they ask why here, I’d tell them why, the maintenance facility is there. 

While I’m sure you could get hurt in a gear up, I think it unlikely, but then I’ve not yet performed one. The C-210 tried a couple of times though.