It does look staged (I mean the backstory, not the gear up landing. Or hopefully not that.)
Oh, man, I hope that was a mechanical failure. I sure hope it wasn't due to reaching for flaps. In the early model Mooneys at least, the flaps are near the throttle/mixture/prop, and in most electric gear Mooneys the gear handle is on the other side and usually toward the top of the panel. It could still happen I suppose.
Wasn't even down. The first frame you see the plane, all three gear are only partially out. As it continues they are retracting before it even touches down. I can't imagine this as an inadvertant flap/gear mixup as you'd not be raising the flaps at that point in the landing either.
Could be a Johnson bar down but not locked, then popped out without the pilot noticing. That’s exactly what it looks like when the bar is floating and you’re not holding onto it.
Possible, but you'd think you'd notice it. Especially when it came out of the panel on the partial retract, but the pilot may have frozen at that point.
N7767M is registered as a 1974 M20F. Did mid-bodies still have Johnson bars by then?
After ‘68 electric gear was standard.
Wow, that's really unfortunate. The panel in that plane was worth about as much as the plane was, too.
According to the video, they flew with the gear down. He also said he pulled the breaker.
Yeah, something doesn't make sense. Probably just missing part of the story.
Not that odd if the gear is not rigged correctly. You have to check the low and high torque with a bespoke tool.
