On pre-flight inspections

In article
,
a wrote:

For what it's worth, I learned something back when cars had manual
transmissions. I was taught to never hold the shifter, but to move it
or 'slap' it in the right direction with an an open hand. On my
Mooney, the gear switch looks like a wheel, it would be easy to grasp
it -- I never do. Down means pushing it down with my finger tips, , up
means lifting it up with them.

So far it's worked, but there's always tomorrow!

Sensible when you can do it, but not workable for manual gear levers.
The gear lever in my plane is a direct linkage requiring a significant
amount of force, and so I have no choice but to grab it strongly. Worse,
the lever's travel is fore-and-aft, making it extremely non-obvious
which end corresponds to up and which to down!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On Jul 31, 10:46*pm, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,

*a wrote:
For what it's worth, I learned something back when cars had manual
transmissions. I was taught to never hold the shifter, but to move it
or 'slap' it in the right direction with an an open hand. *On my
Mooney, the gear switch looks like a wheel, it would be easy to grasp
it -- I never do. Down means pushing it down with my finger tips, , up
means lifting it up with them.

So far it's worked, but there's always tomorrow!

Sensible when you can do it, but not workable for manual gear levers.
The gear lever in my plane is a direct linkage requiring a significant
amount of force, and so I have no choice but to grab it strongly. Worse,
the lever's travel is fore-and-aft, making it extremely non-obvious
which end corresponds to up and which to down!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

I've never experienced it, but there must be a huge amount of ground
effect float in something like a Mooney as it sinks that close to the
ground with the gear up -- it would go well with that sinking feeling
of OMG, wouldn't it?

The only manual gear retraction airplane I flew was a Mooney Ranger
(M20C), and that thing we called a Joe bar made gear position pretty
obvious.

On Aug 1, 7:04*am, a wrote:
On Jul 31, 10:46*pm, Mike Ash wrote:



In article
,

*a wrote:
For what it's worth, I learned something back when cars had manual
transmissions. I was taught to never hold the shifter, but to move it
or 'slap' it in the right direction with an an open hand. *On my
Mooney, the gear switch looks like a wheel, it would be easy to grasp
it -- I never do. Down means pushing it down with my finger tips, , up
means lifting it up with them.

So far it's worked, but there's always tomorrow!

Sensible when you can do it, but not workable for manual gear levers.
The gear lever in my plane is a direct linkage requiring a significant
amount of force, and so I have no choice but to grab it strongly. Worse,
the lever's travel is fore-and-aft, making it extremely non-obvious
which end corresponds to up and which to down!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

I've never experienced it, but there must be a huge amount of ground
effect float in something like a Mooney as it sinks that close to the
ground with the gear up -- it would go well with that sinking feeling
of OMG, wouldn't it?

The only manual gear retraction airplane I flew was a Mooney Ranger
(M20C), and that thing we called a Joe bar made gear position pretty
obvious.

We had a Mark 21 and a Mooney Mite on the line at different times and
flew them quite often. The trick with flying a Mooney is to be
consistent on approach and threshold speed. You arrive too fast
through the flare window and you can be in for a bit of a ride through
ground effect that uses a lot of room bleeding it on down through
touchdown.
Most (GOOD) Mooney drivers will stress the need to have the flare
speed right on the money as the "secret" to safe Mooney operations.
Dudley Henriques

On Aug 1, 11:36*am, Dudley Henriques wrote:
On Aug 1, 7:04*am, a wrote:



On Jul 31, 10:46*pm, Mike Ash wrote:

In article
,

*a wrote:
For what it's worth, I learned something back when cars had manual
transmissions. I was taught to never hold the shifter, but to move it
or 'slap' it in the right direction with an an open hand. *On my
Mooney, the gear switch looks like a wheel, it would be easy to grasp
it -- I never do. Down means pushing it down with my finger tips, , up
means lifting it up with them.

So far it's worked, but there's always tomorrow!

Sensible when you can do it, but not workable for manual gear levers.
The gear lever in my plane is a direct linkage requiring a significant
amount of force, and so I have no choice but to grab it strongly. Worse,
the lever's travel is fore-and-aft, making it extremely non-obvious
which end corresponds to up and which to down!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

I've never experienced it, but there must be a huge amount of ground
effect float in something like a Mooney as it sinks that close to the
ground with the gear up -- it would go well with that sinking feeling
of OMG, wouldn't it?

The only manual gear retraction airplane I flew was a Mooney Ranger
(M20C), and that thing we called a Joe bar made gear position pretty
obvious.

We had a Mark 21 and a Mooney Mite on the line at different times and
flew them quite often. The trick with flying a Mooney is to be
consistent on approach and threshold speed. You arrive too fast
through the flare window and you can be in for a bit of a ride through
ground effect that uses a lot of room bleeding it on down through
touchdown.
Most (GOOD) Mooney drivers will stress the need to have the flarefor
speed right on the money as the "secret" to safe Mooney operations.
Dudley Henriques

The laminar flow wing on the M20J's simply don't want to waste energy
and will float for a long time. It's a fun complex single to fly, and
others, like the Arrow or 182 R's seem rather more forgiving. Too many
SEL pilots carry too much energy into the flare -- or maybe not. It
gives them margins for nearly everything but short field operations.

The guys I fly with pride themselves on landings where the throttle,
from downwind onward thru turn off of the active only moves aft. Even
better is if the brakes aren't used until after the turn off as well.
There's no excuse in a light airplane like a Mooney to touch down on
the numbers when the turn you'll be taking from the active is 2000
feet down the runway.

During the final landing during a BFR my instructor asked for a touch
down on the numbers. I declined, offered the idea above as a better
demonstration of flying skill. He bought the reasoning.

In article
,
a wrote:

I've never experienced it, but there must be a huge amount of ground
effect float in something like a Mooney as it sinks that close to the
ground with the gear up -- it would go well with that sinking feeling
of OMG, wouldn't it?

Funny you mention that. My plane sits significantly lower to the ground
than just about everything else I'd flown before. Not too long after we
got it back from the shop after my partner's gear-up landing in it, I
was landing and had that "sinking feeling" you describe because I
couldn't quite remember just how low I should have been. A quick check
to the gear handle reassured me but this totally screwed up my flare and
I made a fairly embarrassing (but non-damaging) landing because of it.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon