Narrative:

Enroute progress was very slow because of a tremendous head wind but I was able to stay on top at 5;000. Midway there was light snow for 30-45 minutes then a clear period and as I got closer to my destination; light rain. I was still in the clear because the strobes didn't reflect back; however; there were no ground references because the layer below was around 4;000 and no sky reference because of a high layer. The temperature was +2 to 3 C in the rain so I decided to turn on pitot heat and my ice light to make sure there was no icing. I was looking out the pilot window inspecting for ice when I noticed a slight change in the engine speed. I did an inspection of the engine meters which read normal then I noticed a precession on the ki-256 horizon. Just as I noticed this the king 150 auto pilot kicked out and the plane shot up so hard and fast I saw the co-pilot head set come off the seat and tumbling up the seat back. I instantly knew what had happened because I've previously owned another mooney that had a ki-256 failure and run away trim on the king autopilot. The plane immediately was in a climbing unusual attitude and center called me inquiring about my altitude. I replied with something like I've lost my horizon. Center called back again and asked if I needed help and feeling guilty about breaking altitude I just said something thinking how are they going to help with controlling this plane while I'm struggling with a full up trim and a serious attitude issue. I then decided I need to ignore center and concentrate on logically recovering the plane. First I neutralized the trim so I wouldn't over control then I referenced the dg and stopped the turn and finally gently pulled out of the dive so I wouldn't hurt the plane. When the plane was recovered I could see a few house lights straight down and I knew the ceiling was 1;500-2;000 so I descended to VFR so I could organize myself. Just at that time someone called my tail number and asked my position and altitude. I responded that I was at 1;500 but said nothing about my position because I hadn't reset my GPS or looked at my position. The relay pilot called again and said that center was concerned about my low altitude and wanted me to climb up to 2;400 so I complied. When I climbed I went IMC and I could tell I had a serious case of vertigo which felt unsafe so I descended again to VFR. Several more calls were made from center through relay pilots and then center made it to my frequency asking that I climb again. I felt frustrated that I was repeatedly asked to do this but I made a decision that I'm going to stay visual because I had decent forward visual range; ground reference and I was safe. Having ground reference also made my vertigo subside. Next I reset my GPS because it was already in my flight plan and it showed I was around 40 miles out. I knew the airport; it was well lit with a tower and it would be safe there. The vertigo dissipated and I was feeling secure so I called my destination's tower and reported my position. The tower responded with the wind direction and that I was clear for any runway which I thought was really nice after what I'd been through. I went through my gumps and turned on my landing lights but noticed that I didn't hear the gear coming down. Now the annunciator light was showing gear unsafe but it does that while the gear is in transition so I felt over the breaker panel and found the gear breaker had popped. Before pushing it in I made sure the gear handle was down because if it's got an intermittent problem I want it to go down versus up. I pushed the breaker in several times and it didn't reset. Next I moved the gear handle up thinking something maybe jammed and tried resetting the breaker. Again it didn't hold at all so I called the tower and told him my gear wasn't coming down and I would have to do an emergency extension. He immediately called back asking if I was declaring an emergency which made me realize I used the wrong terminology. I told him no and what I meant is that I would have to do it manually and that I may have to circle. He called back and said that was ok and I preceded with my manual extension which I felt went well and was easy with 8 to 10 pulls and the final one a half pull. The gear unsafe light was still on which concerned me so I used my flashlight to look at the manual gear confirmation window on the floor. That showed lines versus down so I checked the manual extension pull cord again which was taunt so I figured something was broken that didn't allow the gear confirmation systems to work. I also knew there wasn't anything else I could do so I proceeded on final and announced to tower that I didn't have to circle and would be landing 36. Tower called back with wind speed and clear for 36 again. The landing went smooth and I remember thinking how lucky I was because the wind was 15 KTS straight down the runway without a bit of crosswind which allowed for a short rollout and no cross control.as I slowed down for the turn to taxi A1 the left side starting to slowly drop so I immediately pulled the fuel cutoff to stop the engine to avoid a prop strike. The left main gear failure happened very slowly and eventually the wing started skidding on the runway which in turn pulled the plane to the left and caused it to cut across the corner and the grass then stopping on taxiway A1. I called the tower and told them I was alright and he asked that I stay with the aircraft and the fire truck would be there in a few minutes. The emergency person came to the pilot window and confirmed I was ok then asked that I stay there until the airport manager came to the scene which took 20 to 30 minutes. When the manger came he gave me his phone and said the FAA was on it so I took it and talked with mr. X and gave him my name; cert #; address; etc. Once that was done I was allowed to leave the aircraft and given a ride to the FBO. As a side note; just the week before I had allowed an instructor pilot I knew to use my plane to do a FAA check ride on 'manual gear procedures' in a mooney because he had an incident and didn't follow procedure. Mooney's are rare in our area and mine is a late model low hour plane so the thinking was mine would have the best chance of surviving a thorough FAA log and mechanical inspection. With that in mind I had my mechanic go over the plane and a specialized mooney instructor the FAA wanted the pilot to train with. We copied the 'manual gear procedures' and thoroughly went through them and the mechanics of the mooney gear system so I feel I was unusually familiar with 'manual gear procedures'. The initial inspection of the gear looks like a rod end broke on the actuator which is difficult to detect. Another thing that probably helped with the runaway trim and unusual attitude was recent training for a tail wheel endorsement. The insurance company required 10 hours of instructor time so we did a lot of takeoffs; landings; slow fight and unusual attitude recovery training. After this event I'm quite sure I'm going to keep a routine of going out under the hood with an instructor and practicing recovery techniques. For $40 I feel that's very inexpensive insurance.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An M20 pilot experienced a runaway trim and violent pitch up while cruising at 5;000 FT. After recovery using visual reference; the reporter found himself at 1;500 FT and unwilling to climb back to ATC assigned altitude. The Reporter continued to destination in VMC but discovered the gear would not extend normally and required manual extension. After landing the left main gear slowly collapsed.

Narrative: Enroute progress was very slow because of a tremendous head wind but I was able to stay on top at 5;000. Midway there was light snow for 30-45 minutes then a clear period and as I got closer to my destination; light rain. I was still in the clear because the strobes didn't reflect back; however; there were no ground references because the layer below was around 4;000 and no sky reference because of a high layer. The temperature was +2 to 3 C in the rain so I decided to turn on pitot heat and my ice light to make sure there was no icing. I was looking out the pilot window inspecting for ice when I noticed a slight change in the engine speed. I did an inspection of the engine meters which read normal then I noticed a precession on the KI-256 Horizon. Just as I noticed this the King 150 auto pilot kicked out and the plane shot up so hard and fast I saw the co-pilot head set come off the seat and tumbling up the seat back. I instantly knew what had happened because I've previously owned another Mooney that had a KI-256 failure and run away trim on the King autopilot. The plane immediately was in a climbing unusual attitude and Center called me inquiring about my altitude. I replied with something like I've lost my horizon. Center called back again and asked if I needed help and feeling guilty about breaking altitude I just said something thinking how are they going to help with controlling this plane while I'm struggling with a full up trim and a serious attitude issue. I then decided I need to ignore Center and concentrate on logically recovering the plane. First I neutralized the trim so I wouldn't over control then I referenced the DG and stopped the turn and finally gently pulled out of the dive so I wouldn't hurt the plane. When the plane was recovered I could see a few house lights straight down and I knew the ceiling was 1;500-2;000 so I descended to VFR so I could organize myself. Just at that time someone called my tail number and asked my position and altitude. I responded that I was at 1;500 but said nothing about my position because I hadn't reset my GPS or looked at my position. The relay pilot called again and said that Center was concerned about my low altitude and wanted me to climb up to 2;400 so I complied. When I climbed I went IMC and I could tell I had a serious case of vertigo which felt unsafe so I descended again to VFR. Several more calls were made from Center through relay pilots and then Center made it to my frequency asking that I climb again. I felt frustrated that I was repeatedly asked to do this but I made a decision that I'm going to stay visual because I had decent forward visual range; ground reference and I was safe. Having ground reference also made my vertigo subside. Next I reset my GPS because it was already in my flight plan and it showed I was around 40 miles out. I knew the airport; it was well lit with a Tower and it would be safe there. The vertigo dissipated and I was feeling secure so I called my destination's Tower and reported my position. The Tower responded with the wind direction and that I was clear for any runway which I thought was really nice after what I'd been through. I went through my GUMPS and turned on my landing lights but noticed that I didn't hear the gear coming down. Now the annunciator light was showing gear unsafe but it does that while the gear is in transition so I felt over the breaker panel and found the gear breaker had popped. Before pushing it in I made sure the gear handle was down because if it's got an intermittent problem I want it to go down versus up. I pushed the breaker in several times and it didn't reset. Next I moved the gear handle up thinking something maybe jammed and tried resetting the breaker. Again it didn't hold at all so I called the Tower and told him my gear wasn't coming down and I would have to do an emergency extension. He immediately called back asking if I was declaring an emergency which made me realize I used the wrong terminology. I told him no and what I meant is that I would have to do it manually and that I may have to circle. He called back and said that was ok and I preceded with my manual extension which I felt went well and was easy with 8 to 10 pulls and the final one a half pull. The gear unsafe light was still on which concerned me so I used my flashlight to look at the manual gear confirmation window on the floor. That showed lines versus Down so I checked the manual extension pull cord again which was taunt so I figured something was broken that didn't allow the gear confirmation systems to work. I also knew there wasn't anything else I could do so I proceeded on final and announced to Tower that I didn't have to circle and would be landing 36. Tower called back with wind speed and clear for 36 again. The landing went smooth and I remember thinking how lucky I was because the wind was 15 KTS straight down the runway without a bit of crosswind which allowed for a short rollout and no cross control.As I slowed down for the turn to Taxi A1 the left side starting to slowly drop so I immediately pulled the fuel cutoff to stop the engine to avoid a prop strike. The left main gear failure happened very slowly and eventually the wing started skidding on the runway which in turn pulled the plane to the left and caused it to cut across the corner and the grass then stopping on Taxiway A1. I called the Tower and told them I was alright and he asked that I stay with the aircraft and the fire truck would be there in a few minutes. The emergency person came to the pilot window and confirmed I was ok then asked that I stay there until the Airport Manager came to the scene which took 20 to 30 minutes. When the Manger came he gave me his phone and said the FAA was on it so I took it and talked with Mr. X and gave him my name; cert #; address; etc. Once that was done I was allowed to leave the aircraft and given a ride to the FBO. As a side note; just the week before I had allowed an instructor pilot I knew to use my plane to do a FAA check ride on 'Manual Gear Procedures' in a Mooney because he had an incident and didn't follow procedure. Mooney's are rare in our area and mine is a late model low hour plane so the thinking was mine would have the best chance of surviving a thorough FAA log and mechanical inspection. With that in mind I had my mechanic go over the plane and a specialized Mooney instructor the FAA wanted the pilot to train with. We copied the 'Manual Gear Procedures' and thoroughly went through them and the mechanics of the Mooney gear system so I feel I was unusually familiar with 'Manual Gear Procedures'. The initial inspection of the gear looks like a rod end broke on the actuator which is difficult to detect. Another thing that probably helped with the runaway trim and unusual attitude was recent training for a tail wheel endorsement. The insurance company required 10 hours of instructor time so we did a lot of takeoffs; landings; slow fight and unusual attitude recovery training. After this event I'm quite sure I'm going to keep a routine of going out under the hood with an instructor and practicing recovery techniques. For $40 I feel that's very inexpensive insurance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.