Firebird2xc

Something to look for in pre-buy, then.

Maybe. Maybe I just wanna stretch?

For the win!

Can you drop me a link to your panel shot? I don't think I've seen it, personally.

Are there specific antenna part number or serial numbers to look for? I'm inclined to build a panel like gsxrpilot with the Avidyne and audio panel. I carry a Walkie as an emergency comm anyways and have a Stratus 2 and iPad for charts and ADS-B... I still kinda wonder if that would be enough.

I've briefly considered it. A few local GA fields are kept in a stranglehold by the local FBO. Makes me wonder...

@gsxrpilot This is interesting. If the aiplane I buy has a 530 or 430, the plug and play swap to an Avidyne is up for consideration.

Dare to dream, sir. You've got to have room for your entourage, too...

Okay, so the gist of it is that it's legal depending on the means of navigation just not entirely smart. Thank you, all.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but per the FARs if you have an approved GPS as a primary NAV/COM you don't really need a secondary navigation data source or a second radio. Do I have this correct? Other than getting the ATIS or a total #1 Com failure, it's not really essential? Technically you could get by with a walkie in the event of a panel failure? I am pricing out potential panel retrofits and suddenly find myself wondering... Anybody ever had a Garmin or Avidyne fail outright?

You totally could. But I like to plan/design things and pay close attention to detail. Doing it all at once would also limit the ability to savor the experience. It's not like I'd be worried about time- if I won the Powerball I wouldn't be working. Not to mention, no need to just speed a chunk and dig it all out of your own pockets. Take that money, invest it, then make big moves with gains and not principal. That's how you get rich and STAY rich. Crap, I almost forgot the 20 pax hottub...

I asked around. It's hard to find people who know what's what, and very little to be had. Florida real estate ain't cheap.

Those are some pricey haciendas, mang. Dare to dream, right?

I'd start with my own AIRPORT. 4000-5000 foot strip, parallel taxiway. Local weather reporting station. Fuel pump so I can buy in bulk, cheap. Nice climate controlled hangar with shiny white floors, a planning lounge, etc. THEN I'd go airplane shopping. Phase three would include a plumbed bunkhouse for fly ins, etc. Yeah, I've never though about this before...

That's a nice looking bird. I notice it has an aftermarket turbo. Do the J engines hold up well with those? I understand K model 231 turbos were problematic and not really refined until the 252...

N644DD? In Chico? Sounds like it. I researched this airplane thoroughly and was a little put off by the seller. Formerly owned by a Seattle flight school with questionable maintenance practices... Get a thorough prebuy and don't believe a word that salesman says. http://aviationdb.net/aviationdb/AircraftDetailPage#SUBMIT

Okay, good to know, thank you.

The junk on the skin is also a little weird but I hadn't really noticed it before now. As for the rod corrosion, yeah, I see your point. Thanks guys.

Perusing photos of used airplanes. See some light corrosion on an airplane. My anal military maintenance side wants to furiously scrub it all clean with an abrasive pad then drown it in CPC. My civilian pilot side says it's just outer plating corrosion and not to worry about it. I figured I'd let those here who are more knowledgeable help me... What's the score, Mooniacs?

Thank you for your advice, sir. Here's to hoping.

I agree whole-heartedly. I consider the PPI an initiation fee and a relatively cheap lesson. In one of my other interests there's an expression: "Buy once, cry once." In other words, better to pay up and snivel a little over a bigger cost now or you'll have to do it twice in the end. Lesson learned.

One can only speculate. That's the problem with airplanes like this- if a first look finds all this, what's next?

The gig list from the PPI was nearly 40 items and nearly $10,000 long. That did not, for some reason, include the massive oil leak from the base of the #2 cylinder. Don didn't include a price for repair on that in the list of deficiencies, but it was still on the list. This confused me. The brokers portrayed the airplane to me as "high time but serviceable", and that TBO was a recommendation and not a hard and fast requirement. The hope was, were that true, to get a hundred hours out of it, maybe, before it went to overhaul. Don wouldn't stick a number to it and said it would be fixed in overhaul. I got him to ballpark me a price as it sat. I wanted some compensation in the buy for it- if this is an engine not truly at TBO as the broker said, why would I be expected to fix it? If the seller didn't stipulate the engine as 'runout' and agreed to fix whatever airworthiness issues found in PPI to make the sale go, why was this leak somehow exempted and automatically expected to be fixed by me at my cost? That wasn't in writing and certainly wasn't in the sales pitch. Don remarked on the severity of the leak and that RTV had been applied to slow it. I found a puddle of oil near the firewall just by looking into the service panel on the Cowl. I had serious misgivings about it and when the engine would hold up just flying it home and to an overhaul shop. A runout just by manufacturer time and date is a misnomer- many people can and safely do fly past those numbers. And yes, at that price point, an overhaul in the relatively near future was part of the plan- but not an immediate one found during prebuy. I sent a photo to Jimmy of the oil pooled in the cowling and he still acted like they didn't know what I was talking about... The purchase price was $75,000- pending inspection. This didn't wind up me paying $65000 and the seller paying $10000, though. I would have still been out $75,000, the seller wanted to pay for repairs out of that, and then I would have still been on the hook for an overhaul. The real deal breaker overall was still the breathtaking lack of repair on the airplane. It had an annual about this time the year before at Dugosh, who if memory serves was also giving it 100 hr inspections... Why then was there a hole in the airplane? Loose antennas, cracks, chafing cables, missing firewall grommets, a leaking gascolater, etc? A creased aileron, a bent elevator counterweight bracket? The horror show of it wasn't the cost of the repairs needed- it was how many. So many little things that would have cost very little to fix in the grand scheme just ignored. Having been annualed by and maintained by a shop with Dugosh's reputation and coming out looking like this means either the shop has gone incompetent or the owner was just blatantly, terribly neglectful. I knew full well that the airplane would eventually need some expensive maintenance done and maybe a few upgrades, too- the price point made sense for that. When I called Dugosh, they copped to a squishy right brake- never could quite get it right. I had that written into prebuy... ... but the sheer level of neglect that had obviously fallen on this airplane plus the weird ambiguity of the engine issues were too much to bear. $75,000 was based on an airworthy airplane with a high time engine that might have a few issues in prebuy. The buffed turd that it came out to be isn't worth nearly that much. If that's what came out in prebuy, what else would show up in the first year of ownership? I've had a number of people try to walk crap by me before with used airplanes and I'm getting sick of it. The seller should be ashamed that this airplane became what it was on his watch.

Yeah. I definitely dodged a 30mm colonic here...

N201QS. Like I said, I don't hold any bad feelings towards to the brokers or inspectors. I think the seller kind of screwed us all here. As has been said, a good prebuy inspection is worth way more than you pay for it, and I more than got my money's worth.