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I don’t think you’re wrong at all. That is a potential upside. You should also be prepared to go worst case as well, or walk away.

A Huge number of fasteners.

No Reason is as soon as the engine stops, oil pressure goes away and the pitch goes to min, meaning it may move on you, or not who knows? Besides I didn’t think to try it. Idea was more than anything is if you were at altitude and needed to stretch the glide, a stopped prop has way less drag, but while I didn’t run the numbers I think it’s a fools errand I think because the altitude you will lose accelerating back to best glide is worse than if you just stayed at best glide and I guess pull the prop all the way out, I think. To pull this off for a gear up it’s my thought that you would have to stop the prop at altitude, then modify your pattern to make the runway. I don’t see any way your going to pull it off on final.

You didn’t look at the pictures?

He is still sharp as a tack. Climbing ladders and fly with over a century of life completed. Very impressive. Glad he got that victory roll in.

- Removed from my most-recent Ovation by Brian Kendrick. Fully-operational when removed. Used less than 50 hours' flight time before aircraft was sold. Pristine condition. - Antenna included. - $659 or reasonable offer.

I can’t imagine how anyone could pass judgement on something sight unseen. You can inspect a cam for corrosion by pulling a couple of jugs, but even then you can’t be sure My advice is take a competent A&P out to inspect it, you would have to to get a ferry permit anyway. It could be the deal of the Century (unlikely) or it could be a piece of junk (also unlikely in my opinion) Corrosion is what kills airplanes, gear rust is very common and easily dealt with, interior spar and fuselage tubing corrosion, not so much. I’d bet it’s something in between, however it’s very likely to get overly expensive if the plan is to drop it off at a well known and therefore expensive shop, you need an A&P / IA that will “work with you” that is you work under their supervision to the extent of your ability, and you need a good hangar with electricity etc. In short a good bit of sweat equity, assuming the A&P finds it worth doing. ‘In a couple of hours I can get enough of a look to know if it’s got severe corrosion and I’m not a particularly special A&P/IA.

- Came out of my most-recent Ovation connected to the G3X Touch. Unit along with the CHT and EGT wires (no damage, cuts, defects). Fully-operational when removed by Brian Kendrick. - Unit was installed about a year...less than 50 hours' flight time. - $659 or reasonable offer.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

What was the estimate you were given? Did they do work that was not approved? If so, other issues aside, I don't know that I'd let them remain in possession of the airplane for fear it may continue. You are not a blank check; I thought issues over scope of work were resolved after the first bill. I thought the whole point of Savvy was to manage things for you so that you didn't end up with unexpected bills or uneccessary work. What have they done for you? You're at $58k, add in the engine work and re-install you and going to be at $100k. Ouch!

The way I read it, they replaced all of them and nose gear assembly.

Bleach, bleach, I need bleach...

Something must be going on because my Bravo puts out plenty of heat.

If you call Continental or Lycoming and tell them it ran with no oil pressure, they will tell you to tear it apart. Because the hydrodynamic wedge has been compromised, and you can’t guarantee that the engine will not fail later. I can’t believe anybody with the professional license would tell you it was OK to continue with an engine that has been treated like that.

Same here, Bravo doesn't seem to produce much heat in the winter. I don't think it's normal; it looks like it shouldn't be. Any ideas what might be going on?

You missed my point completely! I highlighted the hourly rate on the alternator item only to point out the $1355/hour rate on the dipstick was wrong! Hence the .65 hour time is ok, just the total amount should be corrected for the dipstick.

REMINDER - Early Bird deadline is Coming Up! Visit www.MooneySummit.com to view the Agenda and to Register before the rates increase. The hotel deadline has passed, however if you are looking for a room at our discounted rate please e-mail me or DM me. We are looking forward to seeing you in Tampa next month! --Alex

It makes me sad to see a Mooney parted out... but I personally would never take on a project like that. Maybe someday there will be enough value to rebuild Mooneys from a dataplate and a logbook like the tube and fabric guys do. I've seen them bring pre-war basket cases to like-new condition. Unfortunately for Mooneys, the fleet needs parts bad enough that the salvage value threshold is pretty high. Of course things could always be better than they appear like Pinecone says... but I wouldn't want to bet on that without a very close preexisting relationship with a local A&P/IA.

I was 20 at the time, and don't know how much was actually done in between designs. What I do know is that the entire airport runway environment was done and we did inspect the first one throughout the course of the project. The second and third i didn't participate inspections and don't know what happened. I was just drafting and checking other drafters work, i did do inspections on the fourth one so it was done at least twice. When i asked the firm owner why we were redoing it he said they had grant money to spend. This was around 1992-1995. They were his single biggest client until he retired in 2015. We did a lot of municipal work and all of it was haphazardly managed and no one cared about cost. They would demand stainless steel tubing and risers at 10/12 times the cost of galvanized as one example. Even though the service life of the galvanized was 30 years. look up Milton”s four ways to spend money. Goverment 1,0000,000% embraces the worst of the four. but i am not cynical at all..... sarcasm/off/

REMINDER - Early Bird deadline is Coming Up! Visit www.MooneySummit.com to view the Agenda and to Register before the rates increase. The hotel deadline has passed, however if you are looking for a room at our discounted rate please e-mail me. We are looking forward to seeing you in Tampa next month! --Alex

There is no way you can economically resurrect that plane. It would be a challenge even if you did all the work yourself. Buy a plane that you can fly today.

REMINDER - Early Bird deadline is Coming Up! Visit www.MooneySummit.com to view the Agenda and to Register before the rates increase. The hotel deadline has passed, however if you are looking for a room at our discounted rate please e-mail me. We are looking forward to seeing you in Tampa next month! --Alex

While I agree, in general, things could be better than expected. A local A&P/IA got a F model that was last in annual in 1997. It was painted, parked in a hangar and left. He got it for a couple of months hangar rent. He knows Mooneys somewhat. He pulled the interior and inspection panels and did a deep dive into the internals for corrosion. There is some surface corrosion on the steel tubes, with within limits. No spar corrosion. Engine borescope showed a small (quarter sized) patch of rust in each cylinder. But not deep. Things were good enough that he pulled two cylinders to inspect that cam. And it is fine. And this is also a Mid-Atlantic plane, but closer to the water. It still has a few niggling things but looks like it will be a nice plane for someone. @jetdriven is closer to the plane (KGAI) and a very good Mooney mechanic. He owns and flies an early J also.

Can you give a little more details? Was it 4 different projects or you really tore out everything that was there and reinstalled a new system 4 times? Or were they 4 different phases to complete 1 larger project? If it was a total replacement each time, was it all paid by the FAA/Gov or were the different projects just paid by the Airport? Yeah, I get that bureaucrats often play games. But this one seems a bit out there. I'd expect them to keep funding diffrerent projects if they were just trying to dump money into the airport.