I had the scariest flight of my life this evening.

The weather in New England was superb. Dark, but clear. I had to go from Bedford to Scranton, PA (AVP) this weekend, so I thought I would take advantage of the good weather and fly down this evening. Until the approach, the flight was uneventful. My '83 201, N1173N had just come out of annual and was flying well. I decided to ask for the ILS to get some practice and Approach had me descend to 4000' (about 2500 AGL) for the outbound vector.

Then all hell broke loose. I heard a thud and the airplane suddenly dropped in a hurry. I noticed a very large deflection on the VSI, probably 1500 FPM, maybe more, maybe less. It became very noisy. In retrospect, the fact that my noise canceling Bose head set was now on the floor of the plane (along with my GPS) had a lot to do with the increased noise level. I pulled hard and eventually was able to level the plane. Steering seemed a little funny, but I could not place the problem. I would bank, but not turn very sharply.

I asked to abort the ILS and go directly to the airport. Approach gave me a vector to hover over the airport (there was a jet on final and I still had altitude to loose). The plane flew, but turns were wide. I was turned over to tower and given what ever I needed for the landing. They deployed the fire trucks. I felt weird when they asked how many souls were on the plane and how much fuel I had left. My answer of plenty was not what they wanted to hear!

I made the wide turn to final and was well lined up to the long, wide runway. There was a minor cross wind, but things lined up fine. On touchdown, I did skid to the left, but was able to settle the plane. One of the fire trucks guided me to the FBO, which was waiting after listening to the radio.

I turned off the engine and everyone is looking at my plane. A little shaken, I seemed to be in slow motion getting out. I was relieved to be on the ground. The inside of my plane looked like a disaster area. Many front seat items were in the back seat and back seat items were in the cargo area. One of the rear cushions was off, the other was upside down.

When I looked at the vertical stabilizer, I immediately saw the problem. I had hid a very large goose; squarely in the middle of the Mooney tail, just above the middle set of rivets. The head of the goose was missing, but the rest was wrapped around the tail; one foot on the left and one on the right! The whole stationary upper part was ripped back a little less than a foot. The antenna was toast. The rudder was binding and the whole tale section would bend when I pressed on the rudder peddles. The lack of rudder explains the aileron only turn characteristics as well as the less than perfect landing.

Tower called to get information and I spent time with one of the fire people filling out paperwork.

My plane became the center of attention. The FedEx people, DHL, line people, fire, and Delta pilots all came to look. It turns out that the Delta Jet that was on final when I hit the goose had also hit a bird. It only grazed the jet above the windshield leaving a big red spot.

Now the questions for this esteemed group. My plane is clearly grounded at AVP. A mechanic was called to look at the Delta Jet and he took a quick look at my plane and let me know that they will be able to get it fixed. I will call Falcon tomorrow to see if they have any procedures.

Does anyone have thoughts on factory parts or other sources. My tendency is to ask for factory parts but am willing to listen. Likewise, I am not thinking too clearly, so if anyone has some thoughts on procedures or things that I should do (but may slip my mind), please let me know.

Looking back, I was scared, but the Mooney was strong and kept flying. I can not say enough positive about how the people on the radio acted as did everyone else in the loop.

Of course, I do ponder the following question: If the Mooney tail was swept back like other airplanes, would the goose have been deflected up and away? However, the legendary Mooney strength proved to be true.

I did take some pictures and plan to be at the ModWorks roast, but it appears I will be flying on United.

Scott Cutler '83 M20J, N1173N

Sat, 28 Feb 1998