In rec.aviation.owning Jon Kraus wrote:
: We just purchased a'79 M20J 4443H. I am in the middle of getting my 10
: hours with a CFI for Insurance purposes and I have to tell you that this
: thing is a lot different to land than a Skyhawk. So far I am glad that

snip; followup limited to RAO
Hi Jon! Nice airplane.
The trim is very powerful in these airplanes. Much more powerful than a
skyhawk or cherokee. It's important to trim the plane up to final approach
speed instead of holding pressure or you'll never be able to round out and
flare precisely. I think your final speeds are a couple knots too high
unless you're flying at gross.
One other thing to watch is make sure that you arrest the sink rate with a
good round-out. It's not the same as a flare. If you flare without stopping
the sink rate you'll pound the plane onto the mains (carrier landings).
The plane will slam the nose wheel down and bounce right back up. You can
get away with pounding a skyhawk or cherokee or navion in because they've
got very forgiving landing gears. Mooney airplance have little damping in
their landing gear, the rubber donuts compress then expand right back
leading to impressive bounces.
Also try to lower the nose gently after touching down. "Derotation" it's
called in jets, or "fly the nose to the runway". Just letting the nose
come down of its own accord will usually bounce it.
I find that coming down final slowly, trimmed up to approach speed, using
full flaps, close the throttle over the fence, stopping the sink rate as
the plane gets to 1 or 2 feet, and letting the plane land itself works for
me. Trying to force it onto the runway won't work.
I do feel for you; my first landing in the M20J (a 1983 model) was at
Nantuckett. I was 10K fast, and floated something like 2500 feet before
touching down while listening to the owner screaming "just let it go
don't force it on!!!" Good thing the runway's 7000 feet long...
--
Aaron Coolidge (N9376J)