wixxyl
By default the bigip will use http version 0.9 for monitor strings but I'd recommend a http1.0 or 1.1 request. How about if you try:
GET /ews/status.html HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n
or..
GET /ews/status.html HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: host.domain.com\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n
BTW, the RFC for http 1.1 requires a host header.
See the following docs for more help:
http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/2000/100/sol2167.html?sr=23939294 (Constructing HTTP requests for use with the HTTP or HTTPS application health monitor)
http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/3000/200/sol3224.html?sr=23939294 (HTTP health checks may fail even though the node is responding correctly)
I'd use telnet / curl as well to see if the receive strings are being seen too.
Hope this helps
N