Back in the air!

[usafhaynes1]

I lost my M20c in May to collapsed landing gear. I'm happy to announce that I've received my insurance check and have already secured a deal for another M20C!

I'm picking it up on the 27th. It's a great deal on a stock plane. Great low time a/c that is IFR certified. I'll need to put a 201 windshield on it and flap gap seals in the future. It has an inop autopilot (servo needs overhaul).

I look forward to returning to the air and again being a part of the Mooney community!

Ona sad note, my friend had a gear up landing last night in his m20f. He is upset that it happened and we went over the casual factors. I won't post any info here but will gladly take PMs over lessons learned. He and his girlfriend were not injured. The belly took damage as well as the prop/engine.

[Oscar Avalle]

First congratulations for getting back in the Air! I really believe that the Ca are great planes. Second would love to see the lessons learned from your friend's incident.

Oscar

[Jamie]

Congrats!

 

The only thing I want to know is mechanical failure or human?   (And only because I'm trying to get a sense for retractable gear reliability.)

[usafhaynes1]

No mechanical error.

[orionflt]

congrats on the new plane, as for gear up incidents I thankfully avoided that situation a few months ago. I was flying my friends M20F (because my C is still recovering from hurricane Sandy), I picked up a friend from a local airport and we were headed back home. I have plenty of time in the plane and am very comfortable flying it, during take off we hit a little turbulence and I held off retracting the gear. we were only climbing to 2.5K for the short flight home and once a good climb was established we started sight seeing. (note we never finished the climb check list). once we got into the pattern at our home airport I went thru the landing checklist when I put the gear (down) I noted the Johnson bar seemed to actuate a little harder then normal. the pattern was normal and the approach was perfect, just before touchdown a friend on the ground called for us to go around. thankfully we listened and still had a few feet before we touched down. the landing gear warning system was inop and I never took a good look at the indicator, all the little things in the chain of events that could have prevented the incident at an earlier time. thankfully the call from the ground did. one of my biggest recommendations for mooney owners is to ensure your landing gear warning system is working properly. I know many have said that they never heard it going off, but when ever mine goes off in my "C" I hear it clearly. I have also moved the landing gear indicating lights on my "C" from the left hand side of the panel to directly in from of me and with the MVP-50 that is being installed I have added the sensors to utilize the landing gear warning function.

[Apollo]

congrats on the new plane, as for gear up incidents I thankfully avoided that situation a few months ago. I was flying my friends M20F (because my C is still recovering from hurricane Sandy), I picked up a friend from a local airport and we were headed back home. I have plenty of time in the plane and am very comfortable flying it, during take off we hit a little turbulence and I held off retracting the gear. we were only climbing to 2.5K for the short flight home and once a good climb was established we started sight seeing. (note we never finished the climb check list). once we got into the pattern at our home airport I went thru the landing checklist when I put the gear (down) I noted the Johnson bar seemed to actuate a little harder then normal. the pattern was normal and the approach was perfect, just before touchdown a friend on the ground called for us to go around. thankfully we listened and still had a few feet before we touched down. the landing gear warning system was inop and I never took a good look at the indicator, all the little things in the chain of events that could have prevented the incident at an earlier time. thankfully the call from the ground did. one of my biggest recommendations for mooney owners is to ensure your landing gear warning system is working properly. I know many have said that they never heard it going off, but when ever mine goes off in my "C" I hear it clearly. I have also moved the landing gear indicating lights on my "C" from the left hand side of the panel to directly in from of me and with the MVP-50 that is being installed I have added the sensors to utilize the landing gear warning function.

 

 

So the gear wasn't actually visibly down? Weird....But it was in its gear down position in the physical cockpit panel?

[usafhaynes1]

It's my pleasure to announce I now have a 1965 Mooney M20C again. This one is in much better shape than my last one. The autopilot is inop which seems to be standard. She's ifr certified and I almost filed it last night. Flew into nashville (Kjwn) about 10 minutes ahead of a flash flood storm. I was VFR direct from Kgcy and wouldn't have made it before the storm without nashville approach allowing to fly across the city!

I'm so happy to be back in the air, even after two months of not flying, I ran all checklists and everything came back quickly!

[aviatoreb]

It's my pleasure to announce I now have a 1965 Mooney M20C again. This one is in much better shape than my last one. The autopilot is inop which seems to be standard. She's ifr certified and I almost filed it last night. Flew into nashville (Kjwn) about 10 minutes ahead of a flash flood storm. I was VFR direct from Kgcy and wouldn't have made it before the storm without nashville approach allowing to fly across the city!

I'm so happy to be back in the air, even after two months of not flying, I ran all checklists and everything came back quickly!

 

Wohoo!!!  Congratulations sir!