Cold Frigid Weather Ops Flaps Stopped Working

[TrexA380]

Hey all,

I am a new Mooney Owner.  1985 M20J.  Went Flying Yesterday up here in the Cold Frigid Mid West on a nice sunny clear day OAT -12c.

Flaps worked fine with the No issue on the first leg, then on  the leg back home, after landing and clearing the runway they would not retract from Full Flaps. 

I Pulled the plane into the heated hanger and after a few hours... the Flaps worked fine, No issue what so ever.

Things to note or worth mentioning, There was no moisture or contaminates that where taxied over or flown thru that could have frozen.

The motor could not be heard running at all when attempted to retract.  The CB was in, but tried to cycle it anyways.

I have flown and owned other planes in the past and not had any issues with flap motors in extreme Cold temps... 

What is other owner operator experiences here with the M20J in cold weather?  Any other Cold WX tips specific to type!

Thanks in advance. 

TRex

1985 M20J

[aviatoreb]

36 minutes ago, TrexA380 said:

Hey all,

I am a new Mooney Owner.  1985 M20J.  Went Flying Yesterday up here in the Cold Frigid Mid West on a nice sunny clear day OAT -12c.

Flaps worked fine with the No issue on the first leg, then on  the leg back home, after landing and clearing the runway they would not retract from Full Flaps. 

I Pulled the plane into the heated hanger and after a few hours... the Flaps worked fine, No issue what so ever.

Things to note or worth mentioning, There was no moisture or contaminates that where taxied over or flown thru that could have frozen.

The motor could not be heard running at all when attempted to retract.  The CB was in, but tried to cycle it anyways.

I have flown and owned other planes in the past and not had any issues with flap motors in extreme Cold temps... 

What is other owner operator experiences here with the M20J in cold weather?  Any other Cold WX tips specific to type!

Thanks in advance. 

TRex

1985 M20J

-12C is cold but not crazy cold - I have flown many many times at that and colder temps.  I use -20C as my dont fly temp limit most because its too cold for the poor pilot (me) to be nuisancing with prepping the plane but also for considerations of what it would be like an off field landing exposure considerations - knock on wood.

Anyway - I wonder if your flaps issue is unrelated to the cold.

[PT20J]

Usually when the flaps don’t retract it is a limit switch problem. Sometime wiggling them frees it up. 

[Fly Boomer]

2 hours ago, TrexA380 said:

I Pulled the plane into the heated hanger and after a few hours... the Flaps worked fine, No issue what so ever.

I'm not certain this pertains to the J, but some of these models have the flap motor positioned so that it gets dripped on (or worse) during oil changes.  It's actually a failure point, but yours could be in the "dripped on, but not yet advanced to failure" phase.  Just thinking that oil or other contaminants in and around the motor could cause your problem.

[Ragsf15e]

3 hours ago, TrexA380 said:

Hey all,

I am a new Mooney Owner.  1985 M20J.  Went Flying Yesterday up here in the Cold Frigid Mid West on a nice sunny clear day OAT -12c.

Flaps worked fine with the No issue on the first leg, then on  the leg back home, after landing and clearing the runway they would not retract from Full Flaps. 

I Pulled the plane into the heated hanger and after a few hours... the Flaps worked fine, No issue what so ever.

Things to note or worth mentioning, There was no moisture or contaminates that where taxied over or flown thru that could have frozen.

The motor could not be heard running at all when attempted to retract.  The CB was in, but tried to cycle it anyways.

I have flown and owned other planes in the past and not had any issues with flap motors in extreme Cold temps... 

What is other owner operator experiences here with the M20J in cold weather?  Any other Cold WX tips specific to type!

Thanks in advance. 

TRex

1985 M20J

Good chance it’s just a cold/sticky limit switch.  Little lps 1 and click it a few times to see it working.  I wanna say it just on the inboard side of the flaps, but you should reference the mm or someone with a J can tell you right where it is.

[jlunseth]

Well, just learned a new cold weather issue this morning. I needed to fly my plane from KFCM to Willmar for maintenance. On takeoff, I could not get the plane to level off. The trim was not working. I tried the usual suspects, tried the electric trim and when that did not work, I turned it off and tried forcing the trim with the trim wheel. That was not cooperating, so I let ATC know I needed an immediate return to KFCM. The trim was jammed in a nose up attitude. It took quite a bit of forward force on the yoke to keep the plane level. Cutting power helped. On the short return to the airport I was able to get the trim to move just a little. The landing was still not simple, although the trim problem was less of a problem at slow speeds, which needs a somewhat nose up attitude anyway. On the ground I was able to get the manual trim to rotate and I ran the empennage from top to bottom a few times. The movement was helping. I had the line guys check the empennage to make sure it was actually moving when I moved the trim wheel. Finally was able to takeoff again with a working but slightly stiff trim and made it out to Willmar. Temp was -2 dF. I guess I need to check the trim for function using the trim wheel on cold days. Cold grease. The plane is not long out of annual.

[hubcap]

It may just be the motor or the limit switch and may not have anything to do with the cold. I had to replace the flap motor on Myrtle last year. Not surprising on a 40 year old airplane.