Hope this is the only one this year!

http://www.theledger.com/article/201103 ... lfunctions

Mooney should never have abandoned the Johnson bar. Wish Beech had it (as I sit here staring at a gear motor and actuator assy overhaul).

I owned a 68 Mooney Executive (F Model). One time a CFI giving me a BFR asked me what the emergency gear extension was for the Johnson Bar. I said pray was the only thing I knew of. It was about the only retractable certified w/o Emergency Gear proceedures AFAIK.
Tavis
PS don't you love the emoticons

I got my intrument rating in a 68 Mooney Exec. in 1971 and did most all my instrument training in it. No altitude hold, heading hold or autopilot. Two nav/coms, DG, flaps and the johnson bar that's all it had. No autopilot, altitude or heading hold. You had to stay constantly on top of this airplane especially when in solid IMC. Talk about work. Fast little airplane. What a difference from the 172 I was used to renting.

I flew a 69 Mooney M20C that had electric gear; it had a backup hand crank similar to the Bo. This was a 2005 so it must have had the same system I would imagine...

I flew a '67. I thought it was "the best" at the time.....well before I ever flew a Bonanza. I looked at a Mooney when I bought my G36. Actually, the HBC salesman called me with the deal on the one I bought on my drive to the Mooney dealership.

I squished in the Mooney, looked around, jumped out, and ran!

The article said they raised it up and lowered the gear. Does this mean he just forgot or that the gear would not come down before the "landing."

I think I overheard someone once say if you forget to put the gear down and belly it in, flip the switch to the down position after you come to a stop to make it look like you had done it. Sounds like that may be a true statement if the gear dropped down when hoisted up by the crane... doh!!

Almost as good as the video of the Bo in Japan that brought the gear up after landing....

Can't get away with that with a J-Bar.

John Corneal is the pilot, a good friend. The plane is a fully-farkled Ovation 2 upgraded to an Ovation 3. John is a big supporter of Bahamas Habitat and flew several missions to Haiti after the quake. The new Mooneys don't have three green lights, just one dim light on the panel and a mechanical indication in the floor. But you can hear it go "THUMP" so you know it's down....or not..

Do that with master on and you wil not be happy with the amount of further damage you will surely do to the gear actuator mechanism, gear motor, etc.

Should be pretty easy to determine if there really was a mechanical problem with the gear. If the pilot communicated, before landing that he had a problem, that would certainly indicate that he did indeed have a problem and was planing to belly it in. If, on the other hand, there was no mention of a problem, prior to landing, I would assume that he just forgot to lower the gear.