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WDYDWYRTW? (8/17-18/24)

AOG rescue mission...

A fellow aviator (and RV owner, for appropriate content here) dropped into Granby Colorado KGNB a handful of days ago in a Bonanza, and had a failed gear extension. After about an hour of circling and jacking around with the system, managed to get the gear down manually (but no greens) and landed uneventfully. I picked up a mechanic yesterday afternoon in Midland TX and flew him into Granby for some WTF, and we resolved the issue, and flew back this afternoon. Density altitude and weight with tools was certainly a factor - but all went well.

Trip up to Granby - stupid hot on departure.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20240816/2113Z/KMAF/KGNB


https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20240817/1804Z/KGNB/KMDD
Return trip at a more pleasant (cooler) altitude, still hot on the ground at arrival. Departure was fun - close to gross with density altitude of 11,400' and rising terrain all quadrants.

I have videos of the gear extension/retraction on aircraft jacks, but I can't upload them here and I guess it really doesn't matter anyway since it's a Bonanza :p
 
Packed the plane for a spur-of the-moment trip to the beach, got the Flight Director aboard, buckled in, ran the pre-start checklist just fine until "Engage starter." Click. Click. Oh, no. The FD already has sweat running down her back from the hangar / cockpit temps in the bright morning sunshine. Sent her back up to the house while I decowled and poked around. Here's what was hanging loose from the B+ nut on the B&C starter; the other end snapped off at the ring terminal when I tried to reconnect the Fast-on terminal:

IMG_9122.jpeg

Made a replacement and got the flight underway. I'm happy with the oil temps now that I've removed the air door from the oil cooler butterfly mechanism - it was always creeping partly closed and wouldn't stay full-open for me. Might miss it in cold temps but I doubt it. CHT's a little high on 2 and 6 (about 405 in climb) , but I have a plan to block off part of #4'a airflow from above to help equalize. I'm still playing with the adjustable oil pressure bypass valve, one screw turn at a time. Pressures vary quite a bit with 100F vs 220F 20W-50 oil. Would like to see this a smidge higher in cruise.

IMG_9126.jpeg
We enjoyed the flight, except for the part where a Southwest Airlines jet appeared on the traffic display a few miles astern and a few hundred feet above us. I watched him descend slowly and overtake us rapidly, on what looked for all the world like an overtake collision course. Made a broad right 360 when he was about a mile off my tail and got a visual on him. Madam Flight Director did not understand my concern, since he obviously was ADS-B equipped and in VMC. I explained that one cannot assume that equipment aboard either plane is working all the time - Ads-B out, in, tail strobe, Mk-I eyeballs can all fail anytime for various reasons. For some unknown reason the controller was vectoring him to a near-perfect intercept. No thank you. No wake encounters or worse for me today.

IMG_9125.jpeg
We're enjoying our quick getaway. The Atlantic hurricane is churning up the waters and the surf is pounding in a stiff offshore breeze. Our special thanks to Mike, the owner of NR32, who responded to my day-before inquiry about how visitors at Holly Ridge manage to pick up rental cars by offering the use of his Jeep to complete strangers. What a guy! Grass strip owners and aircraft home-builders have uncommonly common ground, but this is beyond anything I had expected.

Holly Ridge almost claimed the life of a friend a few years back when he snagged the wheels of his Bearhawk in the power transmission lines that cross runway 14, unaware of the displaced threshold. The lines have now been marked with orange balls. Wonderfully flat and long grass strip - I'm jealous.
 
airguy said:
AOG rescue mission...

A fellow aviator (and RV owner, for appropriate content here) dropped into Granby Colorado KGNB a handful of days ago in a Bonanza, and had a failed gear extension. After about an hour of circling and jacking around with the system, managed to get the gear down manually (but no greens) and landed uneventfully. I picked up a mechanic yesterday afternoon in Midland TX and flew him into Granby for some WTF, and we resolved the issue, and flew back this afternoon. Density altitude and weight with tools was certainly a factor - but all went well.

Trip up to Granby - stupid hot on departure.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20240816/2113Z/KMAF/KGNB


https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20240817/1804Z/KGNB/KMDD
Return trip at a more pleasant (cooler) altitude, still hot on the ground at arrival. Departure was fun - close to gross with density altitude of 11,400' and rising terrain all quadrants.

I have videos of the gear extension/retraction on aircraft jacks, but I can't upload them here and I guess it really doesn't matter anyway since it's a Bonanza :p
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity (as a bonanza owner too) what prevented the gear extension? There's not too many things that inhibit extension on the system.
 
NTex said:
Out of curiosity (as a bonanza owner too) what prevented the gear extension? There's not too many things that inhibit extension on the system.
Click to expand...
What ended up being the culprit (we believe) was an intermittent electrical fault - the hardest thing to find/diagnose. The gear up/down switch made partial intermittent contact and engaged the motor long enough in the down direction to unlock the gear, which gave the red "unsafe" light, and then quit. Manual extension was successful, but never received 3 greens. I do not have intimate detailed knowledge of the wiring on the Bonanza, so I can't say why or why not - just reporting what the A&P told us. We pulled apart the gear box, inspected all the components, ran it up and down about 8 times manually and about a dozen times electrically, put a few ounces of gear oil in the gearbox and called it good. The gear came up normally on takeoff, and down again on approach, and the owner intends to have the shop give it a good once-over now that it's home.
 
airguy said:
What ended up being the culprit (we believe) was an intermittent electrical fault - the hardest thing to find/diagnose. The gear up/down switch made partial intermittent contact and engaged the motor long enough in the down direction to unlock the gear, which gave the red "unsafe" light, and then quit. Manual extension was successful, but never received 3 greens. I do not have intimate detailed knowledge of the wiring on the Bonanza, so I can't say why or why not - just reporting what the A&P told us. We pulled apart the gear box, inspected all the components, ran it up and down about 8 times manually and about a dozen times electrically, put a few ounces of gear oil in the gearbox and called it good. The gear came up normally on takeoff, and down again on approach, and the owner intends to have the shop give it a good once-over now that it's home
Click to expand...
If the nav lights were on, the 3 greens are dimmed and are hard to tell if illuminated on a bright day. My friend had an F33 and thought he had a gear failure. Found out later it was a feature on his Bonanza. Not saying this is the cause but by any chance were the nav lights on?
 
DeltaRomeo said:
... getting this weekend's thread started. About 104°F here locally this weekend, so probably not gonna be any flying after about 7:30 in the morning :)
v/r,dr

Picture shown here: the insanely beautiful interior of an RV 7A at Randy Richmond‘s hangar
View attachment 68653
Click to expand...
Absolutely gorgeous. Out of curiosity, do you know where the accessible breakers or fuses happen to be? fold-down panel in front of one of the seats?
 
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