Nose gear collapse on Take-off at KCIC

[SARNorm]

[SARNorm]

Unclear what happened. No injuries according to witnesses. Will provide more details as they become available.

[A64Pilot]

The two reports sure sound like a gear up landing.

Airplane is in the grass though?

[SARNorm]

Negative on the gear up landing. The aircraft was taking off. 

[SARNorm]

The airplane was transported to the base of the Control Tower where it sadly sits.

[EricJ]

The crunch in the front of the cowl suggests that the nose collapsed pretty hard before the mains came up.

[hammdo]

Future parts supply.. damn shame…

-Don

[EricJ]

7 minutes ago, 1980Mooney said:

Look at the scrape on the spinner. I have never seen that before. It must literally tipped forward at about a 45 degree angle. This doesn’t look like a simple nose gear collapse while rolling. It looks more like severe porpoising for some reason on take off. 

Big ding in the wing, too.   Maybe it just hit some stuff when it went off the runway.

[kris_adams]

Sad to see N9135V sitting on its belly.  My dad owned this for a while in the 80s.  Ironically the pilot that purchased it from him did a belly up in 1986 within just a month or two of buying it.

[kris_adams]

Weird thing is that the "belly up" that I'm referencing in ~1986, happened on departure as well...broke ground on a hot Georgia day, yanked up the gear immediately (super fast electric gear on a '69) and it settled back down on the runway...within a month the pilot owned a 231...

[kortopates]

Only one thing leads to the nose collapsing like that leaving the mains up is the infamous dented nose truss that has been failing for quite awhile and on take off it went completely.
Of course inspection will be required to verify it’s a failed truss.


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[Hank]

3 hours ago, kortopates said:

Only one thing leads to the nose collapsing like that leaving the mains up is the infamous dented nose truss that has been failing for quite awhile and on take off it went completely.
Of course inspection will be required to verify it’s a failed truss.

Don't know how it happened, but there's a Mooney at KALX with the nose leg broken and bent sideways. Happened within the past few months. It's a sad sight.

[kortopates]

Don't know how it happened, but there's a Mooney at KALX with the nose leg broken and bent sideways. Happened within the past few months. It's a sad sight.

Here is an example for you. This Mooney was saved because this damage was found before the nose could collapse. The owner thought he felt some excessive movement on his last landing and looked around to discover this.
But notice the two cracks that are about to allow the gear to collapse.
Only a few airframe hours earlier it was noted that the truss had an over steering dent.
Very quickly it went from a dent to two cracks - probably would not have survived one more landing!


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[Jeff Uphoff]

14 hours ago, kortopates said:

Here is an example for you. This Mooney was saved because this damage was found before the nose could collapse. The owner thought he felt some excessive movement on his last landing and looked around to discover this.
But notice the two cracks that are about to allow the gear to collapse.
Only a few airframe hours earlier it was noted that the truss had an over steering dent.
Very quickly it went from a dent to two cracks - probably would not have survived one more landing!


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Wow. Years back, I had an FBO over-tow my 231 and dent the nose truss. I got it fixed almost immediately, and now I'm glad I did--I had no idea it could quickly progress to something like that.

--Up.

[hammdo]

16 hours ago, kortopates said:

Here is an example for you. This Mooney was saved because this damage was found before the nose could collapse. The owner thought he felt some excessive movement on his last landing and looked around to discover this.
But notice the two cracks that are about to allow the gear to collapse.
Only a few airframe hours earlier it was noted that the truss had an over steering dent.
Very quickly it went from a dent to two cracks - probably would not have survived one more landing!


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And that is a rebuilt one too… notice the stop tabs…

yikes…

-Don

[cliffy]

And the fleet keeps dwindling down!

[kortopates]

15 hours ago, hammdo said:

And that is a rebuilt one too… notice the stop tabs…

yikes…

-Don

I believe the stop tabs that Paul invented at Lasar where incorporated into Mooney's Truss design sometime in the 80's - so not necessarily rebuilt.

[PT20J]

On 7/29/2023 at 7:54 AM, hammdo said:

And that is a rebuilt one too… notice the stop tabs…

yikes…

-Don

I’m not sure how much good the stops do. When mine got damaged, the right tab broke clean off at the weld. It also bent the steering link. Interestingly, the dent in the tube was only about 1/32” which is the acceptable limit. I’ve seen pictures of tubes dented 1/3rd the diameter or more. I can’t imagine how much you have to oversteer it to do that.

[Hank]

14 minutes ago, PT20J said:

I’m not sure how much good the stops do. When mine got damaged, the right tab broke clean off at the weld. It also bent the steering link. Interestingly, the dent in the tube was only about 1/32” which is the acceptable limit. I’ve seen pictures of tubes dented 1/3rd the diameter or more. I can’t imagine how much you have to oversteer it to do that.

The stops are good when hand towing, or maybe using a golf cart. With a typical tow tractor, it ain't gonna stop any damage . . .

[MikeOH]

Yikes! Old radios, high time engine.  Could cost more to haul the plane away than the trouble it's worth.  I wonder what it will actually sell for at salvage?