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Johnson Bar Handle scare !!!!

Espeed

By Espeed
in Vintage Mooneys (pre-J models)

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Espeed Contributor

Espeed

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Alright Guys, as much talk as there is on here about the Johnson bar reliability, I am wondering if any other Johnson Bar fliers have had this happen before.  First off, I am a 250 hr. non-IFR pilot with 175 of those hrs. in my 65' M20E.  I love my E and I love the johnson bar.  This past Sat., My father and I flew over to a local car swap meet a mere 30 miles away, when we left out that afternoon, I was performing a normal takeoff when the unexpected happened.  I reached up, unlatched the handle and commenced to folding it to the floor when the chrome handle flew off and ended up in the back seat.  Now you can imagine my surprise to see the johnson bar just dangling mid way with no handle.  Luckily my father (also a pilot) reached back and grabbed the spring and shoved it back into the handle and was able to slide it back on the bar and I lock it in the floor.  I know, hind sight tells me we should have locked it in the gear down position but everything happened so fast.  Now for the short 15 min. flight home I had to wonder what was going to happen when I got ready to put the gear down. Was the handle going to fully latch?  Was I going to have to make the dreadful belly landing?  Well, the gear went down and the handle latch held, and trust me, right up to touching the ground I have given the bar many tugs and fingernail test along with a racing heart rate.  Once taxied and stopped at the hanger and shut down, I found what looked like a dowel pin laying on the floor covered in grease.  My A&P is supposed to be putting it up on jacks today to determined just what happened.  Just wanted to see if any of you guys have experienced this before or am I the first to ever have this problem with the fail safe johnson bar.  On a side note, I am grateful that my father was with me, had this happen to me while I was by myself, I'm not sure if the calm atmosphere would have been the same.

Steve65E-NC Proficient

Steve65E-NC

Posted
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    Plenty scary.  What if the handle could not have been recovered.  The spring, less of a problem since you might have been able to hold the handle  up in the latch.

 

     It is an over-center linkage.  No handle, I wonder if your co-pilot could have braced against the seat and held the bar all the way forward with his foot through the landing and taxi off.  Any body know if this would have worked?  Worth a try.    No co-pilot, cooked for a wheels up as near as I can figure.  Any body with ideas?  

scottfromiowa Grand Master

scottfromiowa

Posted
Posted
    Plenty scary.  What if the handle could not have been recovered.  The spring, less of a problem since you might have been able to hold the handle  up in the latch.        It is an over-center linkage.  No handle, I wonder if your co-pilot could have braced against the seat and held the bar all the way forward with his foot through the landing and taxi off.  Any body know if this would have worked?  Worth a try.    No co-pilot, cooked for a wheels up as near as I can figure.  Any body with ideas?  
I believe this would have worked fine. I hope not to test though...his hand should have served to hold in position as bungee holds in place. Lock just locks handle. Once up or down minimal force required as linkage does work. If I had this happen I would lower and hold with power off over runway. Once on ground hands not needed on yoke and power could be used with one hand and hold bar forward with other, right?
Espeed Contributor

Espeed

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There is 3500 airframe hrs. on my E.  From what I encountered, the bar itself is two short to grab either latch, so the handle is a must for proper use.  The spring inside the handle rest on top of the bar and puts pressure against the locking end of the handle, without the spring, the handle itself can't function properly, there would be no pressure holding the beveled end of the handle up into the latch.  Now maybe in theory, if you could hold the handle and bar in the gear down position until weight from the plane on the ground would create pressure against the latch, then maybe it would hold, but man I wouldn't want to be in that position.  I am very thankful that everything went smooth.  I haven't talked with my A&P yet to see if he has had a chance to look at it.  He said he would try to have it fixed this week.  I will definitely be keeping everybody posted.  This maybe something that needs to be a key check during annual.

Espeed Contributor

Espeed

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UPDATE !!! Alright guys, here is what we found, the handle has a rod that is pressed into it at the top and is threaded at the bottom.  The rod runs through a small hole in the J-bar where a nut is screwed on through the side access hole on the J-bar.  The nut just acts as a bump stop keeping the handle from coming off the bar.  Well, the pressed end of the rod at the top of the handle had worn and fell through the hole to the bottom of the J-bar, thus allowing the handle to slide off the J-bar.  There's was no easy way to remove the rod from the bottom of the J-bar with the limited space of the access hole on the side, so the J-Bar had to be removed.  That was an ordeal.  Now we are looking for another handle, being the handle and rod are all one piece.  My A&P said that he could probably rig and fix the rod to stay in the handle but we figured we could just find another handle and slide it on and be back flying. 

N601RX Grand Master

N601RX

Posted
Posted

UPDATE !!! Alright guys, here is what we found, the handle has a rod that is pressed into it at the top and is threaded at the bottom.  The rod runs through a small hole in the J-bar where a nut is screwed on through the side access hole on the J-bar.  The nut just acts as a bump stop keeping the handle from coming off the bar.  Well, the pressed end of the rod at the top of the handle had worn and fell through the hole to the bottom of the J-bar, thus allowing the handle to slide off the J-bar.  There's was no easy way to remove the rod from the bottom of the J-bar with the limited space of the access hole on the side, so the J-Bar had to be removed.  That was an ordeal.  Now we are looking for another handle, being the handle and rod are all one piece.  My A&P said that he could probably rig and fix the rod to stay in the handle but we figured we could just find another handle and slide it on and be back flying. 

 

If he replaces the J bar it is going to require re-rigging all 3 of the landing gear.  Just make he knows this and has the rigging tools. I would want it checked even if the J-bar is just removed and handle replaced

Espeed Contributor

Espeed

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Why didnt they fish out the broken piece with a magnet???? It is steel ? no????

It was tried to be fished out until it was realized that the rod was stainless just like the handle, The top of the J-bar has a welded butt with a small hole in the center, the only access really to the bottom of the J-bar with a magnet is through the side access hole, trust me, a whole day was spent trying to fish the broken piece out with a magnet, it would never pick up.  My A&P has all the rigging tools and torque tool for re-rigging the gear, he has been servicing manual gear mooneys for 25 years.  He has 3 J-bar mooneys at our local field that he annuals. I'm not replacing the whole Johnson Bar, just the Handle.

Espeed Contributor

Espeed

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A couple pics would be appreciated for reference. How many airframe hours on your bird? Hope you find replacement quickly.

Scott, there is 3500 airframe hrs. on my E,  I will try and get some pics this afternoon.

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M20F-1968 Veteran

M20F-1968

Posted
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With this post it would seem that keeping an extra spring (the one inside the handle of the Johnson bar) handy in the cockpit would be prudent. That way, even if the handle comes apart, you can still insert the extra spring (assuming the original one flew into the back seat or somewhere else prohibiting it to be found in flight) and still be able to lock the gear down once for landing. John Breda

  • 2 weeks later...
aeromancfi Contributor

aeromancfi

Posted
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Here's another danger of the manual gear told to me by an airline pilot flying a Mooney> He had a young passenger in the back seat. Said passenger twisted around in the seat to retrieve something from the baggage compartment, Her foot was on teh handle of the retracted gear and released it. The pilot merrily flying along had just finished making a mixture adjustment when the handle flew yo an narrowly missed his wrist.

 

He was able to slow down the plane and retract the gear with no subsequent problems. ( I don't know if any of the fairings got bent).  Imagine if your wrist got whacked by a flying stee J-bar. Could break it. Then what??   Lesson:  I addition to alway keeping the gear handle area  free from obstructions,,    

BRIEF PASSENGERS TO KEEP FEET OFF THE GEAR HANDLE. NEW CHECKLIST ITEM!! 

 

DS

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