TLS Bravo Bird Strike Leads to Gear Problem

[ZamF16]

I have delayed posting this information while I settled everything with the FAA and my insurance.  But as I am about to get my Bravo back in the air, I thought it was time to relay what occurred back on 14 May 2021, in hopes that everyone can learn something from what happened to me. 

 

BLUF:  A bird strike caused a gear malfunction that forced me to attempt a landing in a misconfigured airplane. 

 

So, there I was...  The flight started at Castroville Municipal (west of San Antonio) where I hangar my Mooney.  I conducted a normal preflight noting no issues with the gear or any other aircraft system.  I taxied uneventfully to the self-serve fuel and added 40 gallons of fuel to the 35 gallons already in the tanks.  While I was only planning about an hour flight, the extra fuel came in handy on this day.  I then taxied to Rwy 16, did a normal runup and departed Runway 16 VFR to the northwest on a beautiful spring day in Texas.  I flew to Hondo, where I conducted a couple practice approaches.  I then flew back to Castroville VFR and entered the pattern for practice pattern work.  I did one uneventful low approach to Runway 16.  However, on the go when I raised the gear, I heard a thump and was aware that the gear movement seamed louder than normal.  I normally don't hear much noise from the gear with my noise cancelling headset on, but this time I did.  On downwind for my second pattern at Castroville, I lowered the gear.  Again, I noticed that the gear movement was making more noise than usual.  At the end of the gear movement, I noticed that the gear unsafe light remained on and the gear actuator circuit breaker had popped.  At this point I notified an aircraft that had just landed at Castroville that I had an unsafe gear indication and asked if he could look at the gear as a flew by.  Additionally, I had a Ag-Tractor who was flying in the area, join to a chase position and look over the gear.  Both pilots reported that the right main and nose gear appeared down, but the left gear was barely out of the gear well and jammed against the inner gear door.  

 

At this point I departed the pattern to the south to attempt to troubleshoot the gear.  So I went to the section in the PoH for nose gear and one main down and one main up.  I am be facetious; there is nothing in the PoH for misconfigured gear.  The way the Bravo is mechanized, with a gear box driving push rods to move the gear, they should all be down or up.  But here I was in a misconfigured Mooney.  I figured I would try the manual extension per the PoH for FAILURE OF LANDING GEAR TO EXTEND ELECTRICALLY.  The gear handle was already down and the circuit breaker already popped, so I attempted to lower the gear by pulling the manual gear T handle.  I had little hope this would do anything, since the gear was already in the down position, but I figured it was worth a try.  As suspected, the T handle would not budge, as the gear was already in the extended position.   At this point I attempted to break the left gear loose by g-ing up the airplane (positive and negative), and yawing the airplane, but nothing helped. 

 

I thought I would rather land gear up in the grass than land with one main up on the runway, so I attempted to raise the gear by putting the gear handle up and pushing the gear actuator circuit breaker in.  However, the circuit breaker would not reset and the gear would not move.  While I was doing all this, the pilots who were assisting me from the ground called the Castroville Fire Department and EMS to respond.  While I awaited their response, I assessed my options.  I decided to land in the grass, since the recent rain had softened the ground a bit, and I felt like this would lessen the chance of a ground loop if I could slowly settle the left wing in the grass.  At this point I also decided to transition over to Kelly Field where I would have an Air Force crash response team to help if things went badly.    

 

I contacted San Antonio Approach, declared an emergency and proceeded to Kelly Field.  Once in the pattern at Kelly Field, I did a couple of low approaches to survey the area and to select an appropriate spot to land.  I communicated with the crash response team via the Tower about where I was going to land and then set up for a right base turn to land abeam Rwy 16 in the grass on the east side of the runway. On final I selected full flaps.  Then as I approached landing, I pulled the fuel mixture to full lean, turned the fuel selector to off, and popped the latch on the door.  I flew the aircraft just above the grass until the stall warning horn came on then eased it down while attempting to keep the left wing from settling.  As I was losing aileron control authority, I started to ease the left wing down into the grass.  It was at this point that I realized the wing stop settling and the left gear must have extended.  The Fire Chief later told me that the left main extend about a second or two before it touched down in the grass.  I can only assume that the bouncing through the grass broke the gear free.  Once stopped, I turned off the main power, ensured the fuel selector was off, then deplaned. 

 

The Crash Response Team and the Airfield Manager met me at the airplane and also notified the FAA of the incident.  Within minutes I was getting called by the FSDO about the incident.  The FSDO requested pictures of the damage and a verbal account.  He also worked with me, the Airfield Manager, and the Crash Response Team to provide clearance to tow the airplane to Atlantic Aviation's ramp.   

 

So what happened?  During inspection of the left main gear, we found small feather fragments up in the gear well.  We determined that during my first pattern at Castroville, a bird impacted the left inner gear door as it was opening/open to allow the main gear to extend/retract.  The impact ripped the inner gear door off its hinge and left it hanging by the actuator and turned sideways.  When I retracted the gear following the low approach, the inner gear door jammed into the left main gear hub cap (dust cover per the parts catalog), which caused the gear to jam about 20 degrees out of the gear well.  When I tried to extend the gear the last time, the gear actuator did its best to force the gear down.  In doing so it stretched and bent every component between the actuator and the left main gear.   It is amazing to me that despite the mangled gear mechanism, the gear still managed to get into the down position once it broke loose.  

 

The lesson to me is reinforcement of what I learned in my F-16 days.  You need to understand how your aircraft systems work if you want to be prepared for the unexpected.  Not everything that can go wrong is in the PoH.  And the Mooney PoH does a poor job of explaining how all the aircraft systems work.  I have learned my systems by owner assisted annuals/maintenance.  And don't forget to use external resources.  I used other aircraft in the area to help me assess the situation.  I also used them to contact emergency services.  Once I decided to transition to Kelly Field, I used San Antonio Approach, Kelly Tower, Kelly Emergency Response Team, and finally the Airfield Manager to help me safely get my Bravo on the ground and to the ramp.  

 

After 8 months of delays getting gear parts for a 33-year-old airplane manufactured, my Bravo should be back in the air next week.  

 

I hope this incident provides one more nugget in your clue bag.  

 

Dave

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by ZamF16

[carusoam]

Yikes!

Great details shared!

Way to go Zam Dave!

Best regards,

-a-

[carusoam]

Spinning the tire…

-a-

 

[ZamF16]

Thanks for spinning the tire picture.  Every time I would attach it, it would rotate. 

Zam

[Boilermonkey]

Thanks for the report.  That turned out about as best as it could because you took time.  Well done 

[LANCECASPER]

Glad everything worked out!! Good job! Sharing the details is very helpful to everyone else on here. I used to base out of CVB(Castroville) and I'm not sure I would have thought about going to Kelly, but it makes sense considering the resources there and the closer proximity even to medical facilities, had things not turned out as well as they did.

Was your insurance company good to work with? Did you have to transport the Bravo to another field for repair?  What all had to be replaced?

[exM20K]

Nicely done.  That bird made it through the prop and hit that little door during the 10 or so seconds it was exposed! What an extraordinary chain of events.

Good move diverting to a field with CFR rather than having local fire/EMS show up at your home drome. After popping the door latch, it’s a good idea to close the latch with the door open to ensure it doesn’t close on its own.

Ill bet sourcing all the repair parts was an adventure equal to the landing.

-dan

[Vance Harral]

Nice job, sir.  Thanks for sharing.

The thing I take away from stories about landing gear malfunctions is this: although there is occasionally further damage to the airframe in a gear up (or partially up) landing, there are almost never injuries, and fatalities are essentially unheard of.  What gets people into trouble is being so distracted about the situation that they fly the airplane into terrain, run out of gas, etc.  Staying calm and making rational choices worked out safely for the OP here, and it almost certainly will for the rest of us too, if we react as he did.

Thanks again for sharing your story.

[ZamF16]

12 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Glad everything worked out!! Good job! Sharing the details is very helpful to everyone else on here. I used to base out of CVB(Castroville) and I'm not sure I would have thought about going to Kelly, but it makes sense considering the resources there and the closer proximity even to medical facilities, had things not turned out as well as they did.

Was your insurance company good to work with? Did you have to transport the Bravo to another field for repair?  What all had to be replaced?

We had to overhaul the gear actuator, replace every linkage and bell crank from the actuator to the left main.  We also had to replace the front trim tube as the bent gear rod pushed a bolt/cotter pin against the trim tube.  When I ran the trim during the 45 minutes of troubleshooting the bolt and cotter pin almost completely cut through the trim tube like a pipe cutter..  We also had to replace the inner gear door and the gear dust cover.  
 

The insurance company was pretty responsive.  The only thing they balked at was replacing the gear actuator and the main bell crank up near the gear actuator.  We felt given the stress put on the actuator, we should plan to replace it.  The insurance company asked that we first attempt to overhaul it, which we did.  It was a matter of $27k for a new one and $2.5k for the overhaul.  It was a fair request.  It was hard to determine if the main bell crank was bent, but my A&P insisted we replace that, since everything that was attached to it was completely bent.  Once we disassembled it, it became obvious it was in fact bent.  
 

About a week after the incident, I worked a ferry permit, had the A&P secure the gear in the extended position and remove the inner gear door from the actuator, and then I ferried it back to Castroville, where we completed the repairs in my hangar.  

[ZamF16]

12 hours ago, exM20K said:

Nicely done.  That bird made it through the prop and hit that little door during the 10 or so seconds it was exposed! What an extraordinary chain of events.

Good move diverting to a field with CFR rather than having local fire/EMS show up at your home drome. After popping the door latch, it’s a good idea to close the latch with the door open to ensure it doesn’t close on its own.

Ill bet sourcing all the repair parts was an adventure equal to the landing.

-dan

Bolts, bushings, and other associated hardware were pretty easy to get, and LASAR was awesome to work with.  However, it took almost 8 months to get the trim tube, gear linkages, and the bell cranks manufactured.  COVID certainly impacted  their responsiveness, but 8 months was pretty ridiculous.  I will tell you that parts they had in stock I received in 1 day.  It just took a while to get parts manufactured.  

[ZamF16]

Update:  N330AJ is still not back in the air.  We got all the left gear parts and the bungee assembly installed and spent a good part of two days getting the landing gear rigging correct.  We discovered that the original gear rigging while sufficient was not in line with the service manual.  In addition, we now have one side that is all new parts and the other that has 33 years of wear on it.  We had to strike a balance to get both the old side and new to retract the same distance while at the same time have the right down lock tension when gear down. So, while time consuming, we are probably in better shape now than the original rigging. 

However, then it came time to install the new inner gear door.  When installed the gear door would not close completely.  It would bind against the airframe with about 3 inches to go.  We discovered that Mooney installed the hinge backwards putting the gear door too close to the airframe.  The hinge rolled towards the door, not away like the old door.  We sent it back to Mooney to have them reinstall the hinge the correct way.  After 3 months, we got it back.  When we installed the door, it was better, but we were still getting binding when closing with about an inch to go. We discovered that Mooney had installed the hinge in the middle of the end of the gear door.  The original door had the rivets off center on the hinge about 1/8", which moved the gear door away from the airframe.  So...last week I sent the gear door back one more time to have the hinge mounted correctly.  Per Mooney's request, I have also included the old gear door as a reference.  I am hopeful it won't take 3 months for this correction, and we will be airborne by Thanksgiving.   

I suspect that the way they manufactured the door is how they do it on current models.  It however doesn't work on my 1989 TLS-B.  I have attached some pictures to help illustrate the issue.  Hopefully, no one else has to deal with this type of failure, but it may provide some insight on considerations when dealing with the factory.  

Zam

Gear Door Hinge Issue Updated.pdf

[carusoam]

Great continued follow-up ZAM!

Thanks for sharing the details!

Might want to check the part numbers if able… (?) 

It sounds kind of funky that the factory would make a nice part that doesn’t fit…. And turns out to not be built to the original spec…

 

Best regards,

-a-