Scudrunners

[url=https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Repor ... m&IType=FA]https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Repor ... m&IType=FA[/url]

Just up the street from me, a PPL tried to land his Mooney M20J
in [i]perfect[/i] wx at an airport he'd been to many times before.

He had 1265 TT.

[quote]the Mooney touch down ... begin to "porpoise," oscillating in pitch and alternately
contacting/bouncing between the main landing gear and the nose landing gear.

the Mooney lift off and the landing gear retract ...
... enter a very steep left bank (70° to 80°)
... the nose pitch sharply down (approximately 60°),
and then descend very rapidly to the ground.

the Mooney began the turn at an altitude of about 150 to 200 feet,
and that it essentially reversed course during the event[/quote]

I know people say that stick and rudder skill isn't important any more, but
c'mon people. 

Don't blow any four-bar BS at me, and try to tell me that an M20J is a
"fire-breathing dragon" that an experienced [b]1200TT[/b] pilot can't fly.

I have 400 hours in them, and they are solid, honest airplanes - built
like tanks, in fact.  Take the seats and upholstery out sometime on one,
and look at the spar center section.  Looks like a bridge.

I know I'm a shitty pilot and instructor, but people, for the love of sweet baby Jesus:

[size=24pt][b]LOWER THE FUCKING NOSE[/b][/size]

I sometimes get the disconcerting feeling from people that their continued
existence isn't really important to them, and they don't need to know this
"technical stuff".

A bit strange that after 1200+ hours and this being his own aircraft he would have figured out how to land it correctly.

Even after thousands of hours I have witnessed pilots who still think a wheel or stick is a pump handle and technique is panel to belly several times in the flair -- even on floats during a power one landing -- it's fucking scary - best though going through your heads -- keep repeating to your self  "quiet hands, quiet hands"

Not an approved maneuver:

[youtube][/youtube]

Pilots think nosewheel aircraft are easy to land, and that
is correct - but [i]only[/i] relative to tailwheel aircraft.

You simply cannot treat a piece of motorized equipment
with contempt, as many pilots do.  That is not a good way
to get older, but [b]pilots don't seem to care[/b].

[youtube][/youtube]

Not really a "Good Job".  Not a good reason to die, either.

Aren't nosewheel aircraft fantastic?!  Unlike tailwheel aircraft,
they allow a pilot to not develop any noticeable stick and
rudder skill, which we are told is old-fashioned by the self-
appointed "Kings of Canadian Aviation".

[quote author=Eric Janson link=topic=9144.msg25093#msg25093 date=1538801865]
A bit strange that after 1200+ hours and this being his own aircraft he would have figured out how to land it correctly.
[/quote]
Right?  Are we sure he wasn't mid-heart attack or something at the time?

Someone pulled back HARD on that control column to make that
M20J pitch up and stall like that.  I found them heavy in pitch for
a light aircraft - I would trim during the flare, but I am a [b]BAD PERSON[/b].

I don't think the pilot of Colgan 3407 can blame a heart attack for
his snap rolls after he stalled.

I don't think the pilot of AF 447 can blame a heart attack for holding
the side stick full aft for 3.5 minutes continuously.

When pilots panic, they want to [i]go up[/i] very badly, and often the best
course of action is counter-intuitive.  Instincts are wrong, and new
instincts must be painfully taught.  This isn't something that's done in
21st century aviation.

Ask any pilot that picks up a downgoing wing in a stall with aileron.

I haven't read anything I this thread that I disagree with but I also don't read why this happened.  Theories?  Mine is that he failed to plan.

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=9144.msg25110#msg25110 date=1538929128]
Someone pulled back HARD on that control column to make that
M20J pitch up and stall like that.
[/quote]
I couldn't find mention of a pitch-up in the report.

I have flown a couple of Mooneys including a 201 fairly recently out west. Had loads of options and the school onlyrequired a currency check once per year. Speed discipline is the key even more so than on a regular GA plane. Even with speed brakes, I flound it difficult to go down and slow down on final. It worked out but it is definitely a different animal.


I have flown a couple of different aircraft out of this airport where the accident happened including a big taildragger. It is not a long runway. If you are going there in a Mooney, you want to be on-speed. Just have a plan. Early power reduction, gear down early so you can concentrate on the busy traffic pattern. get down to pattern altitude reasonably early. Get the flaps out a bit early.

I'm not too bright, but there are two things I learned about flying an M20J:

1) lower the gear before landing (pilots forget this)

2) if you're on short final, with the gear down (see #1 above) and full flaps
and power off and you see more than 80 on the ASI, overshoot because
you're going to float in ground effect for longer than you want to.

That's pretty complicated, and I'm not a very good pilot, but I never had
any trouble flying an M20J.  Given that everyone else is a better pilot than
I am - that's the rhetoric - they should have [i]no problem[/i] with such a docile
nosewheel aircraft.