gitmo234

It's amazing how much "If I do not see progress in getting my airplane back soon I will be taking legal action" works. Had a very long talk today. His side: he admitted he put me on a low priority because I'm not there, and he was trying to expand his helicopter A&P work, since that's bigger money. He also purchased a new building and an offsite to expand it. (verified those with my dad who has seen a helicopter parked there and the new building/small town talk of the offsite purchase) He also has personally been in a car wreck and his father was in one, and is going back into the hospital today (also verified by my father) and the prognosis isnt well. That being said he updated me with what has been going on this last few weeks. Landing gear needed some serious work and there are cracks in the firewall, and he has to file a 337 to fix. He's specifically not asking for another dime until it's done (which is good because I wasn't going to pay another dime, since I've paid almost 20k). We've agreed he will give me a weekly log and photographs of his work. Once the info on the firewall repair/patch is done, the engine mounts will go back on and the engine will be assembled. The landing gear is coming off tomorrow for the overhauled parts. I feel better with those answers but not 100% - we shall see

On a lighter note, out of curiosity, I googled the first airplane I owned. Turns out it was in a minor accident last year and flipped over onto its top. No accident reports that i could find, but an ebay auction showing it all bent up.

The engine assembled and installed (it has been returned overhauled), and the annual completed, which from what I'm told was awaiting a few parts that are now in. I heard back from him just now, after I texted him that I going to take legal action if I didnt have a call with an update by tomorrow. He said he cannot talk tonight but tomorrow he will walk me through it and give me a firm date. If that conversation doesnt go perfectly, I will have someone else work it, if i can find it. The airport is 3VS - middle of nowhere. Once this thing is done, someone is going to get a good deal on an M20E. This whole experience has me done with it all. I literally just got this thing ADS-B compliant and an avidyne IFD-440 installed.

I believe the hangars are full. The field is small enough that the mechanic is the airport manager and the only person to talk to so. Tomorrow during the day, if I dont have something truly solid, I'll start calling both lawyers and insurance

Bumping this thread. My dad tried to go by the place a few times - he was never there. The only thing there are a few cars he's working on in the hangar, and my aircraft. He asked around and found out the mechanic is also at risk of losing the business (financially). I can't make it out there so I'm making one last attempt to speak with him on the phone and get some solid dates/estimates, or I'm going to begin the process of serving papers. Curious if insurance would cover a situation like this. At this point, all I want is out of it. I'm f@#$ done. I dont even care as long as I get the amount I owe on the loan.

I'll have to see who's around and how I could do that, if he can't accomplish it. I'm trying not to be rude, but I also kinda want to text him a list of events that have happened since: Christmas, first born child was conceived and born, finished two semesters of a PhD program, started a new job, bought two new cars, etc.. the list goes on. Still no airplane

Yes, I live in Virginia, the airplane is now in Missouri. I have family within a few miles. He was in a car wreck that took a few months to recover from (verified by my dad), and he's the only local guy handles recoveries and works on the rotary wings for the local emergency services so he spends a lot of time on that too.

Hey folks, A year ago I had my flight that screwed up my engine. Over thanksgiving my airplane went into overhaul. There has been a lot of things happen, most of which I've verified through my family in the area, but its been a whole year and my overhaul and now my annual are not done. He's also the only mechanic in the local area. The mechanic is friendly enough, not asking for any more money while he works, and always responds to texts and calls, but I'm getting really impatient. I'm paying $600 a month for an airplane I havent been able to fly for the last year. Any advice?

Right now I’m running roughly $24k when it’s all said and done. I believe they are those lifters. He gave me the option but said he strongly recommends brand new lifters/followers when the other parts are replaced. I went with his recommendation

Updated call from the shop. some of my terminology may be off so forgive me if something doesnt make sense: Fuel Servo: hasn't been touched since the 80s apparently, needed an overhaul to bring up to standard New cam shaft required New followers Needs a new prop cable Prop governor - inspected and no surprises... overhauled crankcase - no updates since the 1980s. There was a mod or fix to prevent it from vibrating/rubbing/etc that wasnt done. this is being done accessory case - needed to be re-machined oil pan/sumps -tubes flow through them and there are some seals and lining that were leaking badly - overhauled overhauled cylinders to be installed. Prop itself - eddy inspection, seals replaced (small leaks) but overall GREAT condition. they did some basic work on it and said it looks brand new. Plus side: prop came in way under what was expected. Downside: Fuel servo wasnt expected to be as bad as it was.

The thread drift is quite alright. I enjoy this stuff. I'm a bit of a data nerd. I'll miss the gigantic sign telling me what I want to know because I'm busy reading up on the inner-workings of the problem. Does camguard work? what is the actual cause of engine failure? stats? etc to infinity. Its clear though. My engine was jacked and had been for a while. Slowly rushing to failure. I focused on one thing at a time. I had it looked at by a half a dozen people and places. All gave a thumbs up. If I had "zoomed out" a bit on the chart the trend was visible. Oh well. We win some and we lose some. My Cessna was a 1956 continental O-300 with an absolutely ancient overhaul. Ran pretty decently. This had a less ancient but still old overhaul and had problems. When you put it all on red, sometimes you get lucky. Either way. The good stuff here is that I was prepared. I didn't have a specific engine fund built up that far yet, but I did have the means. So this means I get a 0 time engine soon. What this also means is I have a wonderful opportunity to get intimately familiar with that engines personality and how it runs. It's not a guess for me or anyone else. If its oil burn increases... I'll know. I am confident in the work of the shop doing my overhaul and so far, it's been more than I couldve asked for. Regular phone calls, pictures, etc. So honestly, this is a good thing. My only concern now is a 6 hour cross country being the break-in flight. If all goes well that's probably pretty awesome. Six hours steady flight is probably good for it (from what I've been reading)

Funny you should say that. When I started out I checked oil pressure. All good. did my normal run up, checked it again. When flying I was doing my scan. That time it didnt include looking at that. Something in my head said... like an actual voice "NO....check EVERYTHING this time" and that's when I noticed oil pressure dropping slowly

This conversation messed with my head. Last night I had a dream she was ready for pick up. I hopped in left seat and someone more experienced (but I dont know who) was in right seat. She was parked right behind another airplane and this dude starts it up full throttle and just lets it run at max RPM and I was yelling at him. Then he grabs it and starts taxiing around hits the other airplane and wrecks the the wing of mine and the tail of the other. Then the mechanic wants me to taxi thru his hangar, which is full. I spent the rest of the time in the dream either giving up thinking "oh god, this is fucked now" or yelling at people. Either to clear out the hangar or for doing the dumb shit like hitting an a parked airplane.

Agree with this. I wasnt planning on this but was well prepared financially. I've asked him about a handful of additions for the future and other stuff I wanted done as well

They're taking care of this with the overhaul. The shop doing it mentioned that to me during some preliminaries.

Funny you should mention that. I'm sure you remember the logs seemed pretty okay, and it had a good pedigree. Someone else here notice and pointed it out to me, that for the last few years the mechanic had been servicing it 2+ quarts lower on oil that what it should've been. When I was scanning them I read "blah blah, filled with oil...blah blah good compression". That was another clue that I was able to put together after the fact. I was prepped for the overhaul, so honestly, it sucks but its not a big deal either. Worst part is it being down for awhile. Best part is a 0 time engine. I had some digital currency investments that are now paying for a good portion of it too. Here's a pic of the preliminary looking for metal

the engine had about 1100 hours SMOH. Nothing unusual on the engine monitor that I noticed, but I'm not overly proficient at reading them. There were other signs that individually dont mean much, but put together pointed toward it being bad. 3 out of 3 cylinders had been replaced in <10 years, and the oil analysis was showing some metal but it was written off as coming from cylinders with <100 hours on them. Finally, I thought I had screwed up on a preflight and forgotten to check oil that was severly low. I topped it up and kept flying/kept an eye on it and the oil turned super black and burned off fast but not mind boggling fast. I had it checked out by a mechanic after that and he made the call/prediction it was done.

Getting updates from the progress of my overhaul. Engine is disassembled and ready to be taken to Tulsa. Looks like this was coming due for awhile. From the mechanic: I finished disassembling your engine and getting everything ready to deliver to Tulsa. Everything came apart as expected. I found severe carbon oil deposits inside the engine and a buildup of sludge inside the crankshaft Journals. I also found that the cylinder barrels were severely worn as I expected. The camshaft and followers show signs of excessive wear as well. There is signs of excessive blow by past the pistons. The main bearings have a lot of ware on them as well. The crankcase has several loose fitting through bolts and sings of fretting. Overall this is a tired engine in need of this overhaul. Glad it's being done.

I can only offer my perspective. I was the 100% typical Bart Simpson. In gifted classes (and kicked out of them several times over) for most of school. Left home at 17 to be on my own and worked full time (retail and crap) my last year of school and rented an apartment, because i was smarter than everyone and knew the world better. Joined the air force, scraped by at aircraft maintenance with a subpar performance record (they dont like you punching out people and pointing out how things can be done better sometimes). Finished up that enlistment and ended up with a very junior position in the federal government in office administration. I started to rise through the ranks because the defiance that hurt me elsewhere helped me innovate a bit there. Next thing I know I'm somehow considering the military again only part time. I get a degree in computer science. Do my testing and school and commission. Still rising through the federal ranks, and generally "okay" as an army infantry officer, my brigade commander does a review of all his junior officers and corners me. Overall schooling and scores are super high and in his opinion it explains why i dont fit the mold well and he finds me a position in space operations, with a promotion, which works because I had also gotten a masters degree in space systems (with some space systems engineering). I deploy and succeed enough that word gets back that my products I developed in a combat zone are now training material for a national space agency, and I get promoted to very senior grade in my civilian position and they're paying for my PhD, and sending me to a very prestigious school for executive development at the same time. Now...if I was back in your sons shoes and I wanted to do aviation for a living. I would tell myself to calm down a bit, and its okay to "follow orders" on occasion, and to suck it up for the schooling. Just because you can sleep through a computer science degree doesn't mean you should. It's also okay to realize you might not fit in with the military crowd, but its about the quickest way to get flight training completed (and get paid for doing it). If he wanted to go rotary wing I could probably put him in part time myself. I'm glad for my road i went down but it couldve been a whole lot easier.

I've got an AOA so I'm halfway there

I wish I had that perspective when I started. first guy was no big deal... he hardly spoke and I only flew a few hours with him, then he went off to the airlines. Second guy seemed okay but a bit shady at times. Couldn't put my finger on it. Then one week I cut them a very large check. Several thousand to just book a few days, 3 hours of flight. Break for lunch and some ground instruction, then thee hours of flight. The last day during my break I got a text message to come home, my wife was getting the flu and she was sick. The CFI was nowhere to be found and late for our flight anyway so I talked to the school owner. He said it was 100% okay, take off and he'd pass the message. 30 minutes later I start getting text messages from the CFI that were getting nasty. Cursing at me for leaving, threatening me, etc. I not only left him but left the school. They called me and apologized for that a few days later but it was time to go, regardless. Same school that was rude to me at the start and told me I'd never buy a plane and it was a stupid idea to, etc. Then all of a sudden they were very interested. "hey buddy, havent seen you in awhile, sorry about the incident...you still interested in that airplane? we'll work out a deal for parking if you buy it..." etc. I bought the plane and found a better airport and CFI. Parked and maintained it with them. Havent so much as landed at the other airport since.

To the meddling in-laws discussion: meddling in-laws ended my first marriage. They were enough to derail literally everything, but they werent enough to bring it back. When we were in the death spiral I made it clear what they had done in a very courteous and professional manner. The look changed in their eyes as I saw the mental puzzle pieces coming together. They tried their best to reverse it, even going so far as to lose their cool several times with their daughter about her choice. It didnt work. Suddenly my spouses family became an important factor in selection. To the nervous pilot stuff: Not quite what we're getting at but part of the reason I post my screw ups is my own is because of some anxiety type stuff. Sometimes it's no factor. I can fly and it's smooth. A great time. Sometimes even thinking about flying makes my palms sweat. The day of my first solo my CFI and I checked the weather and it looked fine. We talked about it, planned it etc. Flew to a towered airport and did some practice patterns. He hopped out and wished me luck and told me to do three. Winds were roughly 2-3 knots down the runway. I took off and noticed some bumps and I was being blown a bit. Landed. Tower cleared me for departure again, suddenly it was hard to control. I was fighting it to stay close to the pattern. Turned final and its clear stuff had changed. I was getting rocked hard. Good chop and a crosswind that required me to crab at a near 45 degree angle. Coming over the runway a gust blew me over the grass. I recovered, but I was being blown harder than it seemed the airplane could keep up. I got it down with a bounce. Tower cleared me to depart and I respectfully requested to return to the FBO to pick up my CFI, I was going up again. Winds had changed to 15G22 direct crosswind with moderate turbulence. CFI said that he was happier that I made that decision than that I had landed successfully. We got in the air to head home and to this day I have never felt turbulence that bad. I literally hit my head on the ceiling a few times. CFI told me "I'd never fly in these conditions...oh by the way, you're landing when we get home". I was still shaking from the solo. I did manage to land on that 2000 foot long and very narrow strip, but that day honestly set me back several months in my training. It was months until I could land very well again and I'd argue it still has some influence on me sometimes. I've had one sort of similar day, but I spotted it and brought a safety pilot with me.

Didn’t get one

Unfortunately she's out in central Missouri. It really looks like I'm getting a major overhaul. He doesn't know the specifics of it yet, but there was enough metal in it that it was clear this was a building problem, and now it's at its limit. He's willing to ship it to jewell aviation but basically said that by the time he pulls it, ships it, overhauls the accessories that aren't included, and reinstalls it, its going to be the same price to just do it there, and I'll also get regular phone calls/updates, pictures, etc. He's quoting me about $20k out the door

Verdict 1 is in. The engine is and has been making metal for awhile. magnetic and non-magnetic