Other than Mooney, who else uses manual retractable gear

[jd21476]

I like how the Mooney uses a manual retractable gear system. It seems to work pretty well and since it is manual it seems like it would be less costly to fix and less prone to failure. What other plane has a similar system?

 

[jbDC9]

Grumman F4F Wildcat. Hand crank with sprockets and chains. Woof.

 

[Tantalum]

Grumman F4F Wildcat. Hand crank with sprockets and chains. Woof.

A proper man's airplane. Close to 300 knots and a service ceiling over 30,000 ft.. *love* the old piston fighters.. hard to beat the FW190 and BF109 though.. sorry for all you P 51 Mustang lovers!!

 

[SoonerAviator]

Long EZ?

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

 

[wheaties]

Pre '64 182s

 

[iamtheari]

Bellanca Cruisairs have a crank. I think all the 14-13 series planes had a crank-actuated landing gear while the 14-19 Cruisemaster planes went to hydraulics. I've never flown either, just wanted to.

 

[jd21476]

I like my Grumman but I think next year I may step up to one of the Mooney's with the manual gear.

 

[Tusayan]

Culver Cadet... designed by Al Mooney.

 

[Pilawt]

There was at least one Piper Arrow with manual gear ...

 

[MauleSkinner]

The earliest Staggerwings had hand-cranked gear.

There was at least one Piper Arrow with manual gear ...

View attachment 79927

i used to know a guy who tried that with an open-canopy airplane.

 

[JScarry]

Pre '64 182s

They had Johnson bar flaps but were fixed gear. 182RGs weren’t introduced until 1978.

 

[kgruber]

There was at least one Piper Arrow with manual gear ...

Same guy.................ran out of gas! (but reported otherwise!)

 

[Tantalum]

I had no idea power lines where that strong.

 

[steingar]

Mooneys are the only ones that use the Johnson bar for the gear that I know of. Way quicker than a crank.

 

[Stan Cooper]

I had no idea power lines where that strong.

Only if they're not maintained by PG&E.

 

[MBDiagMan]

I miss my Johnson Bar C model Mooney. The gear stopped working. Well, it wasn’t the fault of the gear. I fell and injured my shoulder. For the most part, that’s about all that can make the Mooney manual gear fail if it’s properly maintained.

 

[N1120A]

Even an electric gear failure in a Mooney is basically a non event, because the back up is so easy and gear so fool proof

 

[EppyGA]

BD-5

 

[nauga]

BD-5

I guess that makes two things they have in common now.

Nauga,
soon enough