M20M Gear Up at Gillespie County airport - T82

[Mooney in Oz]

Not much of a description at this stage.

https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/516388

[T. Peterson]

That’s a bummer. Very sorry to hear this.

[LANCECASPER]

KHYI is San Marcos, where Brian Kendrick works on Mooneys. I wonder if they were going in there to get work done. At least they are in a good location to get it repaired.

[1980Mooney]

1 hour ago, LANCECASPER said:

KHYI is San Marcos, where Brian Kendrick works on Mooneys. I wonder if they were going in there to get work done. At least they are in a good location to get it repaired.

Except that he departed from San Marcos and geared it up about 85 miles away at T82 -Fredericksburg. Other than the Hangar Hotel, there isn’t much at T82. 

[Fly Boomer]

First time I have been aware that the M20M is a "257".  I guess it's top speed is 5 MPH faster than a 252?

[exM20K]

TX82 RWY 15-33: 1824' of grass?  Nah, pass. Unless a forced landing of course.

-dan

[1980Mooney]

17 minutes ago, exM20K said:

TX82 RWY 15-33: 1824' of grass?  Nah, pass. Unless a forced landing of course.

-dan

T82. Not TX82. It’s 5,002 ft X 75 ft asphalt. 

[exM20K]

45 minutes ago, 1980Mooney said:

T82. Not TX82. It’s 5,002 ft X 75 ft asphalt. 

Ah, well, ok, then

[Ragsf15e]

10 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

Except that he departed from San Marcos and geared it up about 85 miles away at T82 -Fredericksburg. Other than the Hangar Hotel, there isn’t much at T82. 

I think there’s an avionics shop there that a lot of people use as well. That’s a fun little town to go to as well, we used to go there a lot just to go out have dinner and beers.

[1980Mooney]

7 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

I think there’s an avionics shop there that a lot of people use as well. That’s a super fun town to go to as well, we used to go there a lot just to go out have dinner and beers.

I think that you are talking about Pippen-York Avionics. But I don't think that they will be much help in pulling the TIO-540 to send it out for the prop strike AD/Inspection or replacing the prop in order to get it into shape to ferry it somewhere.  The alternative would be to cut the fuselage behind the back seats and put it on a truck/trailer.

[Pinecone]

You don't have to CUT the fuselage.  You can drill out the rivets and separate the tail.

[1980Mooney]

6 hours ago, Pinecone said:

You don't have to CUT the fuselage.  You can drill out the rivets and separate the tail.

Yes I understand that - I am using the word figuratively but the aft of the plane has to be removed.  It is a major event - all the wiring going to the tail which includes power and any remote avionics like autopilot has to be pulled, control rods, etc in addition to drilling out all the rivets.  Then it all has to be reassembled - and that sum total work is in addition to actually repairing the plane.  What a PITA.

[IvanP]

The outcome may depend largely on the insured value. Chances are, she may never fly again. That would be really sad.

[Pinecone]

21 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

Yes I understand that - I am using the word figuratively but the aft of the plane has to be removed.  It is a major event - all the wiring going to the tail which includes power and any remote avionics like autopilot has to be pulled, control rods, etc in addition to drilling out all the rivets.  Then it all has to be reassembled - and that sum total work is in addition to actually repairing the plane.  What a PITA.

But a HUGE difference in putting it back together between disassembling and CUTTING.

 

[cliffy]

Might be easier to just remove the wing and put it all on a trailer to Kerrville!

If one just wanted to do the minimum and just do the prop and the rear crank gear AD the metal work probably isn't too bad  Might be a good buy for a DIY repair and a keeper for a few years if resale value is not a big mental factor. Might not lose any money in the long run.

[LANCECASPER]

On 6/4/2025 at 9:59 AM, 1980Mooney said:

Except that he departed from San Marcos and geared it up about 85 miles away at T82 -Fredericksburg. Other than the Hangar Hotel, there isn’t much at T82. 

Sorry I just went by the title of the post. I'm 13nm from T82.

[Fly Boomer]

9 hours ago, cliffy said:

Might be easier to just remove the wing and put it all on a trailer to Kerrville!

Maxwell says separating the wing is WAY harder than yanking the tail.

[MikeOH]

40 minutes ago, Fly Boomer said:

Maxwell says separating the wing is WAY harder than yanking the tail.

THAT is an interesting bit of info!

[1980Mooney]

16 hours ago, cliffy said:

Might be easier to just remove the wing and put it all on a trailer to Kerrville!

 

7 hours ago, Fly Boomer said:

Maxwell says separating the wing is WAY harder than yanking the tail.

 

6 hours ago, MikeOH said:

THAT is an interesting bit of info!

This is how Maxwell does it...  (that is the Predator he recovered to restore)

The last thing that you want to do is separate the wing from the steel frame/cage.

[Mooney in Oz]

On 6/7/2025 at 11:05 PM, LANCECASPER said:

Sorry I just went by the title of the post. I'm 13nm from T82.

Sorry Lance. That was my error.

Title changed.

[cliffy]

 Never would have thought  Thanks!

[PT20J]

You can remove the wing. It’s just more work. In fact, Don and Paul removed the original highly modified Predator wing and replaced it with a wing from a 231 during restoration. 

[MikeOH]

5 minutes ago, PT20J said:

You can remove the wing. It’s just more work. In fact, Don and Paul removed the original highly modified Predator wing and replaced it with a wing from a 231 during restoration. 

Curious why it is more work to remove the wing than the tail section.  Seems like both are going to require flight control tube disassembly and disconnecting wiring.  Sure, you have to drain the tanks and disconnect fuel lines for the wing, but drilling out what has to be quite few rivets (without damaging the holes), then later having to align/jig and rivet it all back together for the tail would appear to be a lot more work than R&R the few bolts holding the wing on.

What am I missing?

[PT20J]

4 hours ago, MikeOH said:

Curious why it is more work to remove the wing than the tail section.  Seems like both are going to require flight control tube disassembly and disconnecting wiring.  Sure, you have to drain the tanks and disconnect fuel lines for the wing, but drilling out what has to be quite few rivets (without damaging the holes), then later having to align/jig and rivet it all back together for the tail would appear to be a lot more work than R&R the few bolts holding the wing on.

What am I missing?

Don would be the one to ask. 

[A64Pilot]

On 6/8/2025 at 1:42 PM, MikeOH said:

Curious why it is more work to remove the wing than the tail section.  Seems like both are going to require flight control tube disassembly and disconnecting wiring.  Sure, you have to drain the tanks and disconnect fuel lines for the wing, but drilling out what has to be quite few rivets (without damaging the holes), then later having to align/jig and rivet it all back together for the tail would appear to be a lot more work than R&R the few bolts holding the wing on.

What am I missing?

A Huge number of fasteners.