WAFI

Well.... After flying back from St. Augustine and landing at my home airport KHWO. My front nose gear collapsed halfway down the runway and shortly after the main gear followed. The plane suffered minor belly skin damage, nose gear door scratches, bent prop, prop hub, bent crank and found the failed linkage that caused the collapse. Given this forums experience on prop strikes and gear collapse incidents. I looking to gather any info I can on the possible cost involved with the repairs. New Prop, Hub, Crank, Tear down inspection, reassemble, New Mag, maybe governor, Landing gear assembly, etc... Anybody with experience with a prop strike and the overall cost to go with it, is welcome to share there experience. I would like to compare previous repair estimates or actual cost with my insurance companies repair estimate. This is my first plane, first time and hopefully last time dealing with an aircraft insurance company.

I changed out the green push rod tube o-ring / gasket and flew for about two hours with no leaks. Done!

Thanks for the feedback!! Now onto my bigger issue!

I'm not as concerned as my other issue that is going on but I wanted to get some feed back on this situation. After any length of flight I get a small puddle of Fuel/Oil mixture dripping from the 90 degree fitting underneath my motor. Thoughts??

After a two hour flight and back in the hanger I noticed a some oil streaks down the pilot side of my plane. I removed the cowlings and found that there was oil surrounding my #4 exhaust port and also up underneath the push rod tube that is covered up by the aluminum baffling. My firsts assumption was that the push rod tube green gasket was leaking oil down the cylinder but in the back of my mind I am worried that it might be a cracked cylinder. Thoughts....??? @M20Doc Absolutely no change on my engine monitor, all cylinders temps are great!

@MMsuper21 Our next event is this Saturday, December 10, and at this time the weather forecast is good. Also, their self serve fuel price appears to be about the lowest in the State, currently shown on Foreflight as $4.55. Below is an attachment to the restaurant website which shows their menu. All events start at 11:30. Future events: December 10. Lakeland, ( LAL ) at the new Waco restaurant in the old terminal building. We are supposed to be able to park on the ramp in front of the building. If that is unavailable for any reason, park at the FBO and it is a short walk to the reataurant. We will be sitting on the porch to be able to sit together. January, 14, Leesburg, ( LEE ). We will car pool to our house for lunch, then weather permitting run model trains. February, 11, Fort Pierce, (FPR).

Honest answer, I watch a lot of YouTube... Certified pilots try to butter there landings while E-AB pilots tend want to fly upside down, do barrel rolls, hammerheads, land off field or on some gravel bar on a river, etc... I've been to a few Mooney meetups and they are pretty standard camaraderie and its fun to chat with other Mooney owners but there nothing like a bunch of STOL pilots meeting up to do a weekend unsanctioned race. Its just a different mind set and make sure you take this with a grain of salt. There is also plenty of safe STOL pilot meetups.

"Pilot Error" would be a variable because I'm talking about plane construction and the ability to maintain them with the latest technology. Not the guy who fly's into a electrical tower. Like I mentioned before I agree E-AB make more pilot errors than certified plane pilot because they take more risk flying not more risk building. Obviously this doesn't account for the radical left field builds.

I'm not going to get into how facts can be and are usually are one sided to push some agenda. That being said is where the "Common sense" comes in. Its pretty hard to find comparable statistics that are relevant to what I'm proposing. You cant compare the broad certified world to the broad experimental world. It would be more realistic is if you compared the same planes in the two different categories. You can't look at statistics that do have a control to base their data. Don't compare Mooney crashes vs. RV crashes. A more realistic comparison would be a Certified Piper Cub vs. Exp. Carbon Cub and don't even take in to count the people who own Exp. aircraft really fly there planes to the limit vs the average Joe commuting to work or vacation. It would be hard to take pilot error out of the all equations and focus on just construction.

Not completely correct, remember when you are talk about a mercury on your personal boat requires no certified mechanic to work on it. If your are talking about a commercial vessel then yes you are required to obtain a certified technician do certain work. For example you need an A&P to replace sheet metal on your Mooney and you would need a certified ABS Class or Loyds Class welder to replace shell plating on your steel vessel. Once again its all about how the vessel is used vs how it was built. You can drop the Class Society at anytime and revert back to being a private vessel. Then have your backyard welder go at it.

I propose that the FAA create a whole new category of aircraft class. (Decertified) I agree there should be certified aircraft in this world for the commercial sector but I really think there should be a way to decertify your aircraft and fly it for personal use only. If I know I will never use my plane commercially and willing to limit the market for resale, then decertifying my plane would be great. Still have the same rules as far as maintenance is concerned but be able to tap into the after market parts availability and fabrication of parts would really change the game. I'm in the maritime industry and they essentially have this type classifications. Full commercial Vessel - Classed, very strict rules (Certified World - ATP, Training Schools) Limited commercial Vessel- Classed but less rules (Certified World - Freight, Mail) Private classed Vessel- much less rules but still many SOP's (New Decertified World - Private aircraft owner non-commercial) Private not classed Vessel- very little rules (Experimental / LSA World)

Common sense - I do need to look at statistics to realize a billet aluminum part is better than a cast aluminum part or EFI is better than a carburetor or variable time is better that fixed timing. All I am saying is STC's are keeping GA in the stone age.

HA!! I would like to smack the Friday at 5 o'clock engineered idea it was to put the fuel selector out of reach in between my feet on my Mooney!!! Home depot supplied PVC pipe with two cuts in it, is my STC fuel selector tool. The quality of certified work is built on experience not a certificate.

Umm... I'm not worried about the condition inspection or even paying for a full annual. I just want to be able to through on some Beringer wheels & brakes because they look cool and out preform other OEM stuff and not have to wait for some damn STC to be approved. Maybe modify the landing gear to accommodate larger tires and loads. I'm not 100% sure but I believe I will at least need a repairman cert to do my own modifications, or have to be the 51% builder.

Agree... the only thing holding me back from building a EA is time as well. I am still looking at alternative solutions to buying a EA and being able to work and modify it too. I have just recently learned that I can go to a two week class and obtain a repairman's certification, that would allow me to work on my own EA. You can also hire someone to do a build assist with a kitplane and that will shorten the time you would need to commit too. You would need to be there to complete most of the rigging and engine install but wouldn't have to paint the plane for example. Side note: I'm looking at a 4 place Cub from Airframes Alaska or 4 place Bearhawk 5, maybe a KitFox.