Big John wrote:

Could the Mooney driver have been trying to show off???

That was my first thought. Rod Machado tells the story of a pilot that came to
him for a BFR. He did his runup and hit the gear up switch. That was his normal
procedure. Machado says "You won't find *my* name in his logbook."

George Patterson
If you're not part of the solution, you can make a lot of money prolonging
the problem.