ZamF16 Posted March 23, 2022 Report Posted March 23, 2022 (edited) I am in need of the landing gear retract assist bungee assembly for my M20M. It was damaged during my landing gear mishap that I posted about in the Mooney Bravo forum, and we just caught the damage during reassembly. I contacted LASAR, and they said it is a long lead time item from Mooney; several Mooney Owners are waiting on them. I already waited 8 months for my last round of gear parts, and I really don't want to wait another 8 months for this assembly. I have already called around to Texas Air Salvage, Dawsons, and a couple other places looking for a serviceable part. No luck so far. I thought I would reach out to see if anyone on this forum might have a lead. Part needed: Mooney 560213-501, Landing Gear Retract Assist Bungee Assembly. Thanks, Zam Edited March 23, 2022 by ZamF16 Quote
carusoam Posted March 23, 2022 Report Posted March 23, 2022 Might be a long shot… But, there is a Long Body being parted out in Europe…. An Ovation. Find @Chrigi Really long shot… there was a Bravo that crashed recently where the wings folded outside the main gear… unlikely anything there isn’t bent… or burnt. Best regards, -a- Quote
KSMooniac Posted March 23, 2022 Report Posted March 23, 2022 Try Beegles in Colorado too. They've had some Mooneys over the last year. Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk Quote
ZamF16 Posted March 23, 2022 Author Report Posted March 23, 2022 10 hours ago, carusoam said: Might be a long shot… But, there is a Long Body being parted out in Europe…. An Ovation. Find @Chrigi Really long shot… there was a Bravo that crashed recently where the wings folded outside the main gear… unlikely anything there isn’t bent… or burnt. Best regards, -a- I reached out, thanks. 1 Quote
ZamF16 Posted March 23, 2022 Author Report Posted March 23, 2022 7 hours ago, KSMooniac said: Try Beegles in Colorado too. They've had some Mooneys over the last year. Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk Thanks, Scott. I reached out to them. Quote
1980Mooney Posted March 23, 2022 Report Posted March 23, 2022 This is the problem with owning a Long Body Mooney - when the time comes that you are needing a unique part. Although newer, fewer Long Bodies were built compared to Mid and Short bodies. There are fewer salvageable parts. Fewer of the manuals, specs and designs are in the public (like J's etc) and there are fewer third party parts. The Factory only wants to do production runs when it gets enough orders - and the fewer demands of unique parts makes for long waits like yours. If you have to wait another 8 months (plane down for nearly a year and a half), how are you staying current? Does insurance pay for a replacement plane rental? I assume you are still eating hangar and insurance costs. Sorry to hear. Quote
ZamF16 Posted March 23, 2022 Author Report Posted March 23, 2022 1 hour ago, 1980Mooney said: This is the problem with owning a Long Body Mooney - when the time comes that you are needing a unique part. Although newer, fewer Long Bodies were built compared to Mid and Short bodies. There are fewer salvageable parts. Fewer of the manuals, specs and designs are in the public (like J's etc) and there are fewer third party parts. The Factory only wants to do production runs when it gets enough orders - and the fewer demands of unique parts makes for long waits like yours. If you have to wait another 8 months (plane down for nearly a year and a half), how are you staying current? Does insurance pay for a replacement plane rental? I assume you are still eating hangar and insurance costs. Sorry to hear. I have been staying current by flying a local Cessna 172 rental. I had to bring a calendar to measure my airspeed, but it is flight time. It didn’t occur to me to ask insurance about rental coverage. I will look into it. Yes, hangar and insurance costs continue. Quote
Utah20Gflyer Posted March 23, 2022 Report Posted March 23, 2022 I'm just a vintage Mooney guy lurking but during my last annual my IA wanted to replace my gear assist bungies because they had some corrosion on them. I contacted LASAR and they didn't have any, that was probably 3 or 4 months ago. Fortunately for me I talked the IA out of needing to replace them right away. Apparently I dodged a bullet. Quote
ZamF16 Posted March 23, 2022 Author Report Posted March 23, 2022 I received feedback from Mooney through LASAR this morning. They are waiting on the materials to manufacture the bungee assemblies. They expect the materials by the end of April. So... I might see a new assembly sometime this summer. I will still keep looking for a serviceable assembly in the meantime. Zam 2 Quote
ZamF16 Posted August 1, 2022 Author Report Posted August 1, 2022 Update: I searched every air salvage place I could find over the last few months and never found a serviceable bungee assembly. However, Mooney finally received the materials to manufacture the assembly. It arrived a few days ago. Now we can proceed with rigging the gear. I hope to have my Bravo back in the air in about a week after being grounded since May 2021. 3 Quote
carusoam Posted August 1, 2022 Report Posted August 1, 2022 Yayyyyy! Kind of a benchmark… from which improvements can be made! Good luck with getting her finished up. Best regards, -a- Quote
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