Bad luck or bad flying- 2 gear ups in 4 hours

charheep

charheep

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charheep
Looking at the next money sink, I mean plane, I thought I would see what short Mooneys are priced at. Looking at this one, the engine times looked odd. The description says a gear up at 92 hours and at 88 hours. Poor plane.

65 M20E , 4980 TT , 1080 SMOH , 108 Since tear down inspection (Columbia engines) , O&N Bladders (54 gal) , Good solid platform , Manual gear , 2 Blade , with a new (B) hub , and fresh overhaul (88 hours) GNC250 , and KX155 , KT71 , and GDL82 for adsb out , JPI 701 monitor/fuel flow , Stec 40... Plane had a gear up , full tear down , 92 hours ago , and then a gear up , and AD inspection 88 hours ago , Crank dialed ZERO ... If the the AD inspection bothers you please move on , and buy someone elses aircraft , Plane has been flying 2 times a week since last September I fly it a lot... I will post pics , and exact times later tonight... Annual was 9/2020


1965 MOONEY M20E Single Engine Piston for sale - 2394971 (trade-a-plane.com)
 
EdFred said:
But that Johnson bar gear is bulletproof?!?!?
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I once asked @wanttaja if J-bar Mooneys had a better record of gear up landings than ones with electric gear. Ron's answer was they did not.

Looks like the recent damage is reflected in the price. I'd have the mother of all prebuys, especially to check if all the damage was fixed right, but I'd buy that if it checked out. These airplanes are all old, the vast majority have some sort of damage.
 
My '65 C model only had one gear up, but after owning it for 5 years and flying it for over 500 hours, it wouldn't scare me away from buying that plane.
 
charheep said:
Crank dialed ZERO ... If the the AD inspection bothers you please move on , and buy someone elses aircraft , Plane has been flying 2 times a week since last September I fly it a lot...
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Move on, folks. Cranks dialing zero mean nothing. We've discussed this before. You buy it, you fly it wondering just when that little crack that might be in that crank decides to get bigger and then suddenly fail.
 
Salty said:
My '65 C model only had one gear up, but after owning it for 5 years and flying it for over 500 hours, it wouldn't scare me away from buying that plane.
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One that survives another 500 hours does not prove that this one will. Wishful thinking saves nobody.
 
Dan Thomas said:
One that survives another 500 hours does not prove that this one will. Wishful thinking saves nobody.
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It’s been a lot more than 500 hours, that’s just since I’ve owned it. And the crank has been removed and overhauled and is probably less likely to fail than a new one.
 
Salty said:
It’s been a lot more than 500 hours, that’s just since I’ve owned it. And the crank has been removed and overhauled and is probably less likely to fail than a new one.
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If it has been out and overhauled since the gear-up, it was NDT'd and no cracks were found. The impression from your post was that it had had a propstrike without any teardown.
 
Dan Thomas said:
One that survives another 500 hours does not prove that this one will. Wishful thinking saves nobody.
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From what I've heard, gear-up landings aren't a big structural-damage risk — you just want to make sure the plane got new skins where needed on the bottom and an engine teardown.
 
David Megginson said:
From what I've heard, gear-up landings aren't a big structural-damage risk — you just want to make sure the plane got new skins where needed on the bottom and an engine teardown.
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And a new prop.
On some airplanes, grinding through the skin means the wing spar gets ground, too. Bonanza is one.
 
bnt83 said:
Bent Flaps, flap tracks, step attach damage, all kinds of stuff
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And if the pilot slows and flares as normal, the tail hits first and the nose slams down. That does the structure no good.
 
EdFred said:
But that Johnson bar gear is bulletproof?!?!?
Click to expand...

Well, it is. It's the hand attached to it that is faulty.

I'll bet someone just got his insurance renewal and was "told" he needs to fly fixed gear. If the avionics were better, I might take a stronger look.
 
By the way, Ron and I have been in communication. I a no longer so certain J-bar Mooneys have had as many gear ups as electric ones. Could be they've had less. Could be they've had a lot less. I think Ron's numbers are way, way low, since they don't reflect a lot of gear up incidents of which I am personally aware.
 
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