Mooney M20F Partial Gear Retraction

[Eli Greene]

I have an interesting issue with an electric gear M20F. While flying yesterday, I took off and found the aircraft performing quite poorly. I found that the landing gear was not fully retracted by looking at the mechanical window down between the seats. The gear unsafe light came off but the gear was not fully retracted. I cycled the gear again and the same thing happened. There is no circuit breakers popping and it doesn't sound like it is straining the motor any more than normal. My thought is that the limit switches are not set properly and I plan to find maintenance out here in Mississippi to jack the aircraft tomorrow and attempt to recreate the problem. I figured I would just write a quick note and see if anyone else had similar problems or any other ideas besides what I plan to do.

 

Thanks,

Eli

[Hank]

That happened to me I the depths of a WV winter. Stopped in warm weather, came back with a vengeance in the next winter. New donuts made it stop. Mississippi shouldn't be that cold, but checking the manufactured date molded into your donuts is quick and free (it's in MM/YY format).

[Slick Nick]

There was a long thread on here a few months ago about a guy who couldn’t get anywhere near book speed numbers on his mooney so after a couple of flybys he determined that his gear was dangling down halfway in the breeze. I believe when on jacks it retracted normally. See if you can find that thread and you might be able to get yourself some useful information. 

[Shadrach]

11 minutes ago, Hank said:

That happened to me I the depths of a WV winter. Stopped in warm weather, came back with a vengeance in the next winter. New donuts made it stop. Mississippi shouldn't be that cold, but checking the manufactured date molded into your donuts is quick and free (it's in MM/YY format).

Doe the vintage electric gear birds have a squat switch?  It’s conceivable that cold, compressed, shock discs are allowing the gear to squat and trigger the switch during the transition thereby stopping the retraction. 

[Hank]

24 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

Doe the vintage electric gear birds have a squat switch?  It’s conceivable that cold, compressed, shock discs are allowing the gear to squat and trigger the switch during the transition thereby stopping the retraction. 

The cold, hard shock discs didn't expand after takeoff. The gear hung down some, buzzed horribly and I was slower and slower as the pucks expanded less and less. Yes, my 1970 C has one microswitch for the gear. 

[Eli Greene]

The shock discs are approximately 4.5 years old, replaced them pretty soon after we bought the airplane. The squat switch is an interesting idea, will see what happens upon retraction of the gear when on jacks. Does anybody have any keywords or thoughts that would make it easier to find the article brought up here?

54 minutes ago, Slick Nick said:

There was a long thread on here a few months ago about a guy who couldn’t get anywhere near book speed numbers on his mooney so after a couple of flybys he determined that his gear was dangling down halfway in the breeze. I believe when on jacks it retracted normally. See if you can find that thread and you might be able to get yourself some useful information. 

 

[N201MKTurbo]

When you check the squat switch, check it on jacks, outside, on a miserable cold day immediately after jacking it up.

[Ragsf15e]

On 12/21/2025 at 7:15 PM, Eli Greene said:

The shock discs are approximately 4.5 years old, replaced them pretty soon after we bought the airplane. The squat switch is an interesting idea, will see what happens upon retraction of the gear when on jacks. Does anybody have any keywords or thoughts that would make it easier to find the article brought up here?

 

There’s only like one or possibly 2 years with a squat switch on the left main.  All other years have the airspeed switch behind the airspeed indicator to prevent retraction on the ground.  If the gear is at least starting up, i find it hard to believe the donuts have anything to do with it.

Not sure how your F is setup, but on my ‘68 F, the yellow/red gear light wasn’t an “unsafe” light (although it was labeled “unsafe”). It indicates that the gear is all the way up against the up limit switch.  There’s actually not an “unsafe light” per se, but if both the lights were off (green down & red up), that would indicate the gear were not against either limit switch.  Now my ‘87 K, the red light actually does indicate “unsafe”, so just make sure yours is indicating what you think, that might help troubleshoot it.

[Flyler]

I would strongly suggest getting this problem resolved on the ground (like on jacks).  Gear issues can really suck!