Checklist or gear up landing, your choice.

Watch an old Mooney take off sometime. You can tell the guy has thousands of hours in it if it doesn't wobble a little while he hauls on the bar. Or look at their right hand if skin is missing next to the thumb they are new.
And if you need a checklist to remind you to look at those pretty green lights, find another hobby. Not that I'm anti-checklist, mind you.

GUMP.

My dad has on of the last Mooney’s mad with the bar.
 
I never got the hang of being able to do the J-bar without the bobble that Boris talks about, but I only have about 40 hours in various Mooney's - from a D model, some Executives, and a M20J. The D model I flew had an electric gear mod on it and that may be the case with this Mooney - because I can't see how you could do this in a J-bar model.
 
Is it really physically impossible for a mechanical issue to cause this? Broken linkage, something came loose, something jammed somewhere?
 
Is it really physically impossible for a mechanical issue to cause this? Broken linkage, something came loose, something jammed somewhere?

Nothing is impossible, but in some cases the likelihood of an event occurring is near zero.
 
I never understood the GUMPS thing. Why leave a know good tank at low altitude because the other one is fuller?

Same thing for going out. I never change tanks after leaving the hangar. I want to taxi and run-up on one tank so it's tested before I depart. Several checklists have a "Switch to Fullest Tank" on the run up pad. That's just stupid. Switch to fullest tank is part of my walk around.

My dad has on of the last Mooney’s mad with the bar.
Not much room for a bar. A small ice chest maybe.
 
And if you need a checklist to remind you to look at those pretty green lights, find another hobby. Not that I'm anti-checklist, mind you.


x1234!! GUMP GUMP GUMP GUMP

Seriously whats so hard about that? GUMP on the downwind, GUMP on base, GUMP on final. People just get WAY to complacent, and in a single piston, VFR, I don't buy the whole "it gets way busy in the cockpit that you sometimes forget". I've never been so busy, even on an IFR flight that I've forgotten to check the gear.
 
I never understood the GUMPS thing. Why leave a know good tank at low altitude because the other one is fuller?

Same thing for going out. I never change tanks after leaving the hangar. I want to taxi and run-up on one tank so it's tested before I depart. Several checklists have a "Switch to Fullest Tank" on the run up pad. That's just stupid. Switch to fullest tank is part of my walk around.

Not much room for a bar. A small ice chest maybe.

I always took the "G" in GUMP to mean having the fuel being drained from the correct tank, if there is one specified for TO/Landing. I understand your post completely though and it makes perfect sense about changing tanks on short final and things like that.
 
The A36 I'm flying now gets really loud and obnoxious if you drop below a certain throttle position without the gear down. Kinda sucks on the decent until you get used to it actually.
 
The A36 I'm flying now gets really loud and obnoxious if you drop below a certain throttle position without the gear down. Kinda sucks on the decent until you get used to it actually.

My Super Viking too. One of the noises you hear is the gear auto extending and locking down on it own.
 
I never understood the GUMPS thing. Why leave a know good tank at low altitude because the other one is fuller?

Same thing for going out. I never change tanks after leaving the hangar. I want to taxi and run-up on one tank so it's tested before I depart. Several checklists have a "Switch to Fullest Tank" on the run up pad. That's just stupid. Switch to fullest tank is part of my walk around.

Not much room for a bar. A small ice chest maybe.

I missed this post before, must have posted at the same time, but I agree with you 100%. I use the G in Gumps for gas, meaning for me personally, to just check which side i'm burning still, and fuel pump on (basically whatever is gas related). The checklist at our flight schools calls for a fuel tank switch after the runup which is stupid. I tell ALL my students and folks I'm flying with, to never change tanks. There's no reason to taxi and runup on one tank, then switch to a new tank before take off, same goes for landing.

One thing I was taught, and pass onto my students though, is to try and get them to start on one tank, to make sure its getting fuel, then switch tanks before taxiing to the fuller tank, ensuring that both tanks are both operational. I take it one step further if both tanks are at equal levels, start on the right tank and switch to the left for runup and takeoff in the Cherokees. In case you should lose the engine on departure its much easier just pushing the fuel selector to the floor to select the Right tank, rather than having to find it and pull it up to the Left tank. It's a very small thing, but I've seen pilots struggle to find and pull up on the fuel selector to get to the Left tank, VS just pushing the selector down to the Right.
 
x1234!! GUMP GUMP GUMP GUMP

Seriously whats so hard about that? GUMP on the downwind, GUMP on base, GUMP on final. People just get WAY to complacent, and in a single piston, VFR, I don't buy the whole "it gets way busy in the cockpit that you sometimes forget". I've never been so busy, even on an IFR flight that I've forgotten to check the gear.

It might not have happened because he was "Too busy" but rather too distracted. Flying by yourself it's easy to -not- get distracted, but you put a second (or third, fourth, etc.) person up there, asking questions, pointing at stuff on the ground, etc. and all of a sudden, you can find yourself distracted right down to the scraping sound.

I recall 3 Eastern Airlines L10-11 pilots who were so distracted by one little green light bulb being burnt out, they flew a perfectly good L10-11 full of passengers into the everglades and everyone died.

And you know the old saw about gear up landings;

"There are those that have, and those that will."

As part of my 1000' callout on final, I always say, "1000 feet, cleared to land, missed approach altitude set, landing check complete, and the gear IS Down." Double redundant? Yes, but I'd rather check it 10 times than miss it once.

It's not about using a checklist, it's about being -distracted- while you are doing the checklist. When I know I've been interupted while doing a CL, I start over from the top.
 
I just condition check the G in gump for the plane I am flying. I dont swich to a more full tank, I will make sure its on BOTH, or on a main tank if needed etc etc.
 
But because of his little event I always taught people who were flying on the Johnson bar to never touch the gear on a go-around. She'll fly fine with the gear down so why complicate the whole mess?

Navy flies the bounce pattern the same way, gear down. Works just fine.

On a different note, anyone flown the old Pipers with the automatic gear extension? I've seen many of them disabled.
 
On a different note, anyone flown the old Pipers with the automatic gear extension? I've seen many of them disabled.

I've flown a couple of Arrow's with it, but they were all disabled. From my limited understanding of the history of the system, it seemed as if there was a history of AD's mandating the system to be disabled. Then, the problem was fixed and it could be re-enabled. Never have heard good things about the system.
 
I got my Multi in an old Piper Apache, with 150's, with the 'gear pump' for when the left engine (if I recall) failed...

Push right throttle up, push right foot to floor, pull out the pump handle and with right hand, get pumpin'! All this while flying and talking with the left hand! Great fun that! It would barely climb on one engine, clean, so the faster you could pump, the sooner you could start climbing!
 
Navy flies the bounce pattern the same way, gear down. Works just fine.

On a different note, anyone flown the old Pipers with the automatic gear extension? I've seen many of them disabled.
I never let students do touch and goes in manual gear Mooneys, there is just too much of a work load and you're almost always above 80 by the time you've established a positive rate, if not, 80 is coming quick. As I said that makes raising the gear a serious challenge. Instead I always have them do stop and goes or full stop taxi-backs.

I've flown many a piper with the auto-extend, you'll find that most of them have it disabled now per the STC. I've flown one that had it disabled with the help of a bungie cord and at one point the cord let go. Needless to say I was none too pleased.

As far as switching tanks in the air in a Mooney, you won't catch me doing it when I'm low and slow. They are notorious for getting air in the lines which causes all sorts of underwear issues. Instead my G in GUMPFS sounds like this: "Gas on the proper tank, plenty of it." It only takes a few sputters of the engine to convince you switching tanks was a bad idea.
 
I always thought it was:

Gear down
Undercarriage, as in, put it down.
Make sure you put the landing gear down
Put the damned gear down
Shucks... You forgot to put the gear down :(
 
I never let students do touch and goes in manual gear Mooneys, there is just too much of a work load and you're almost always above 80 by the time you've established a positive rate, if not, 80 is coming quick. As I said that makes raising the gear a serious challenge. Instead I always have them do stop and goes or full stop taxi-backs.

I've flown many a piper with the auto-extend, you'll find that most of them have it disabled now per the STC. I've flown one that had it disabled with the help of a bungie cord and at one point the cord let go. Needless to say I was none too pleased.

As far as switching tanks in the air in a Mooney, you won't catch me doing it when I'm low and slow. They are notorious for getting air in the lines which causes all sorts of underwear issues. Instead my G in GUMPFS sounds like this: "Gas on the proper tank, plenty of it." It only takes a few sputters of the engine to convince you switching tanks was a bad idea.

They'll send you home if you come to class and try to GUMP. ;)
 
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