Con,
Opinions is right!, I have no objections, flew all the same models, worked for R. George Mall / International Business Aircraft in Tulsa,OK to gain experience on the mits before i bought mine as i had low- multi turbine time, my ag time didnt hold water with the insurance company, flew with his 135 freight company for a year in all sorts of wonderful midwest weather.
I have had the same issues with the gear micro switch but was taught to treat them with WD-40 before known encounters with icing/ preflight. yes its approx 183 strokes to extend the gear.
Lost a fuel cap too - In OKC at dusk, the line man locked the cap, before he replaced it and rested it back into position on the tank, my co-pilot did the walk around,didnt give it a second glance as it appeared flush in the dim light; it was just resting in place with the tab flush, took off lost the cap, Tower called said we're streaming fuel from the right tip, checked the dump valves they were closed - emptied 90 gals in about 30 sec. It takes a fair amount of spoiler to hold it straight with one tank empty and the other full, got turned around and vectored for the downwind, all trimmed up then remembered i could dump the other tank too! kicked 25 gals out of the left to get down to 65gal landing limit and landed cussin' for not checkin them myself!, the Feds were most gracious didnt fine us, had some words with the lineman and FBO supervisor.
Burnt the Series /Parallel relay on ground during a post MTC run, shudder to think what could happen in flight. Traced it back to a foreman robbing parts off my P model in the hangar, and not properly re-installing which after melting the relay started a nice fire in the baggage compartment. The Shop paid to replace all the wiring and all new relays in the back.
Heard about your incident from G.Cruz who was MAI's Avionics chief from 71 -85, Himself and George were a wealth of info on the Mits.
your comments are most welcome, after 800hrs you definately know how you feel about the Mits, I have had some of the same issues, but these were minor when compared to what i transitioned from - Agplanes which tried to kill me on more occasions that i can recall, i can remember all the times i stupidly tried to kill myself!
maybe we flew the same dogs? N54US -J model is one that was around forever - god awful choclate brown paint scheme, new owners changed the registration; had a list of 30-40 MU-2 s/n i flew ; some of the top of my head
679BK
349MA
113SD
707AF
390K
217SB- Bendix FCU Failure
303FN
770MA
3UN
61BA
710G - Lgd door motor failed man extension
725MA
755MA
121BA
738MA
361JA
500PS
211BE
375CA - ACM turbine failure in cruise, cooked cabin
703DM
298MA
291MB
4065D
64MD
261KW
1790M
175CA