Have you guys seen this? Mooney Baggage Hatch Incident

MooneyDriver78 said:
Unless the fuel tanks rupture, and they usually do, and fuel ignites...the Acclaim accident in Phoenix comes to mind.
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Usually is perhaps stating it a bit strongly. Lots of airplanes burn when they crash. Mooneys are hardly unique in this regard.
 
steingar said:
Yeah, Mooneys are built stout. A few years ago a Navy pilot got his J into a departure stall, crashed into a house. He, his wife and daughter all emerged with little more than scratches. Someone did roughly the same thing in a Bo a year or two later, everyone died. If you can keep your Mooney under control odds are you'll survive the crash, unless you crash into the face of a mountain.
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The often maligned "old style" steel tube structure seems to have some validity to it. Both my airplanes, Aztruk and Husky, are steel tube frames as well and both also have reputations for being strong, tough airframes. But the Mooney track record is in a class all its own imo.
 
steingar said:
Bo
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I've never been impressed with it. It does everything sort of "ok" but doesn't really stand out in any one area. I am not a high wing fan, but I'd quicker own a 210 or a tricked out 182 than the venerable Bo. Cutting edge for 1947, and a great value compromise for many.. but it's not that impressive in any one area.. imho. They do look good though! However I find the Navion to look even better!

Mooneys are something else when it comes to strength. Loved seeing the bare structure they had on display at Oshkosh
 
GRG55 said:
maligned
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Interesting, I didn't know they had that kind of reputation. At least as thought experiment it makes sense, all the forces are either compression or tension.. seems logical they'd be crazy strong.
 
steingar said:
Usually is perhaps stating it a bit strongly. Lots of airplanes burn when they crash. Mooneys are hardly unique in this regard.
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True, but in comparison (maybe not a fair one), you rarely hear of post impact fires with automobile accidents.

I’d like to see the stats on wet wing vs bladders.

Impacts where the pilot and passengers survive but died of post fire injuries.
 
I had the bottom half of the airstairs on a Navajo fall open right at rotation. Big bang, sudden yaw to the left, suddenly lots of dust blowing around inside.

No passengers fortunately. Just a load of Pepsi going to Buckland. My first thought was ''Who just ran into me.??'' Then I saw the door open light on the annunciator panel, which was not illuminated before take off.

Plane flew like nothing happened. Just made the trip in the pattern, landed, taxied in and checked for damage. No damage and could not find a reason why the stairs dropped down.

Closed the door and finished the trip.
 
steingar said:
Yeah, Mooneys are built stout. A few years ago a Navy pilot got his J into a departure stall, crashed into a house. He, his wife and daughter all emerged with little more than scratches. Someone did roughly the same thing in a Bo a year or two later, everyone died. If you can keep your Mooney under control odds are you'll survive the crash, unless you crash into the face of a mountain.
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I'm reminded of the Mooney guy who had CO poisoning and woke up in a field. I have to wonder if the results would've been the same in lots of other airframes.

 
MooneyDriver78 said:
True, but in comparison (maybe not a fair one), you rarely hear of post impact fires with automobile accidents.

I’d like to see the stats on wet wing vs bladders.

Impacts where the pilot and passengers survive but died of post fire injuries.
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Most automobile accidents don't occur at 70+ mph either.
 
Love that fast electric gear in the Mooney... not sure if many other airplanes would have completed the down cycle that close to the ground. Johnson bar probably even faster.
 
FlySince9 said:
Love that fast electric gear in the Mooney... not sure if many other airplanes would have completed the down cycle that close to the ground. Johnson bar probably even faster.
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Johnson bar is definitely faster if you need it to be.
 
FlySince9 said:
Love that fast electric gear in the Mooney... not sure if many other airplanes would have completed the down cycle that close to the ground. Johnson bar probably even faster.
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I do not remember the gear being that fast on the Mooney, but it has been several months since I landed one. I know for certain the Beech Sierra would have ended up with collapsed gear with a deployment that late. Each time he pulled the throttle back and that gear warning horn lit off it freaked me out a little... :eek:
 
smv said:
I do not remember the gear being that fast on the Mooney, but it has been several months since I landed one. I know for certain the Beech Sierra would have ended up with collapsed gear with a deployment that late. Each time he pulled the throttle back and that gear warning horn lit off it freaked me out a little... :eek:
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I don’t know about others my my 65-C is very fast.
 
GRG55 said:
Just because it's under control immediately after the incident, when you have no way to really assess the nature and extent of the damage best to get it on the ground. You have no way of telling if something else is going to fail once there's been damage like that. The idea that one should try to "save the plane" is what kills people.
Planes are just dumb machines, easily replaceable.
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You bring up a good point, but it is also important to note that many accidents that start out as something as simple as a door open have ended up with balled up airplanes, sometimes fatal because people rushed to get down.

I can’t tell in the video if he was landing off airport or on a grass runway, but he sure seemed to be rushing it.
 
eman1200 said:
I'll sum it up for you.........................ANY comment other than "this was the most perfect emergency landing ever of all time" is deemed as devilspeak and the user is outcast and lambasted to the fullest extent possible.
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So Mooney owners are as bad as Cirrus pilots?
 
smv said:
I do not remember the gear being that fast on the Mooney, but it has been several months since I landed one. I know for certain the Beech Sierra would have ended up with collapsed gear with a deployment that late. Each time he pulled the throttle back and that gear warning horn lit off it freaked me out a little... :eek:
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Earlier Mooney electric gear have 20:1 ratios in the actuators. The gear comes down pretty fast. Probably the fastest of any GA electric gear. Later they went to a 40:1 ratio in the gear actuator to improve their life span and reduce maintenance. This brings the cycle much closer in speed to other planes.
 
Dav8or said:
Earlier Mooney electric gear have 20:1 ratios in the actuators. The gear comes down pretty fast. Probably the fastest of any GA electric gear. Later they went to a 40:1 ratio in the gear actuator to improve their life span and reduce maintenance. This brings the cycle much closer in speed to other planes.
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Not sure which one it had. Was an M20J.
 
Fearless Tower said:
You bring up a good point, but it is also important to note that many accidents that start out as something as simple as a door open have ended up with balled up airplanes, sometimes fatal because people rushed to get down.
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I lost several friends because of an unlatched nose baggage door and pilot panic.

At the other end of the spectrum, back in the 80s I was on the roof of a new concourse under construction at HOU, and stopped working to watch a 310 take off on Runway 12L. Just as he rotated, a suitcase flew out of a nacelle locker and slid to a stop on the runway. You'd think that would be impossible with the air loads, but out it came.

The pilot flew a tight pattern back the runway, landed, and stopped next to the suitcase. A passenger grabbed it, put it back in the locker, and they taxied back for an uneventful takeoff. No big deal.
 
Here is Mooney gear retraction and extension...11 seconds of video:

Looks like about 3 seconds
 
There’s a Mooney manual gear retraction In my avatar. Quite a bit faster.
 
smv said:
Each time he pulled the throttle back and that gear warning horn lit off it freaked me out a little... :eek:
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It is sometimes hard to get the Mooney slowed and descended, especially if ATC slam dunks you. I try to keep the throttle just above the gear horn as I don’t want to get used to hearing it. But hear it sometimes I do.
 
Bill Jennings said:
It is sometimes hard to get the Mooney slowed and descended, especially if ATC slam dunks you. I try to keep the throttle just above the gear horn as I don’t want to get used to hearing it. But hear it sometimes I do.
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Ha! Yah, that was the first thing drilled into my head in the <2 hours of Mooney training I got. You cannot go down and slow down. It is either one or the other... :D

Because of the funky yellow band in the middle of the Tach, I took to coming in a little high so when I was ready to reduce power I spent very little time in that yellow band, but by then the gear was already down and getting slowed was not that difficult.
 
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smv said:
Ha! Yah, that was the first thing drilled into my head in the <2 hours of Mooney training I got. You cannot go down and slow down. It is either one or the other... :D

Because of the funky yellow band in the middle of the Tach, I took to coming in a little high so when I was ready to reduce power I spent very little time in that yellow band, but by then the gear was already down and getting slowed was not that difficult.
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I always say out loud, “that’s the gear alarm, we won’t land when it’s going off” even when I’m by myself.
 
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Salty said:
I always say out loud, “that’s the gear alarm, we won’t land when it’s going off” even when I’m by myself.
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Its been years so my memory is liable to be suspect, but I don't recall ever hearing the gear horn much. I would aim for getting to pattern altitude or close to it about 5 miles outside whatever pattern entry I planned to use and keep power in for most of the descent. That usually allowed me to get slowed enough to drop the gear by the time I was on downwind.
 
In Florida it’s nice to stay above the clouds as long as possible. Bumpy and hot below them. So I tend to wait as long as possible to drop down, and frequently I need to pull throttle and sometimes even slip to get down through a hole and maintain clearance.
 
Salty said:
In Florida it’s nice to stay above the clouds as long as possible. Bumpy and hot below them. So I tend to wait as long as possible to drop down, and frequently I need to pull throttle and sometimes even slip to get down through a hole and maintain clearance.
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Ah makes sense now. The Mooney was the only plane I've flown where I had to start thinking about starting down 2 states away from my destination. But that was in the Northeast where the states are smaller and it was in clear and a million conditions. ;)
 
Juliet Hotel said:
Ah makes sense now. The Mooney was the only plane I've flown where I had to start thinking about starting down 2 states away from my destination. But that was in the Northeast where the states are smaller and it was in clear and a million conditions. ;)
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In the Northeast, they start you down two state’s early no matter what you’re flying. :)
 
Probably 10 or so years ago a similar situation on takeoff at MGY here near Dayton had a much sadder outcome. Kudos for the "good landing" here.
 
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