rblauson

Just wanted to follow up for all the Mooney owners that offered excellent advice in this " learning " phase for me regarding that stressful annual. In retrospect I could have definitely handled things better/smarter so I'll know next time what not to do. I am glad I was able to work things out with the shop owner. It still turned out to be an $11,500.00 annual but it could have been worse. The repairs conducted have held up so far. Thanks again all for the input. Mark

Thanks for all the input ! greatly appreciated as usual mark

That wheel contraption looks good! Can you also explain how that works and where you got the wheels? Is the robotow heavy and a pain to connect to the airplane without the wheels? again thanks for your info mark

Hi Jose if you don't mind me asking what you paid for yours? And have you had any issues with the battery?. How does it work in cold weather or wet weather when your nose wheel tire might be wet? And how does the unit actually connect to your plane? My tube port where my handheld tow bar fits into seems a little worn. Do you think that would effect a robotow from connecting to my J model properly? thanks much for the info / help. Mark

And does anyone have any experience with the electric robotow?

Any ideas where I might find either one used?

Anyone know how the sidewinder compares to the robotow? Both are portable, electric and priced similarly ? Merry Christmas all, mark

Suggestions on the best electric powered tow bars that work well for a M201J? Differences between them and cost? Thanks and happy holidays, Mark

Agreed. Anyone suggest a good electric powered tow bar for my 201? Many thanks, Mark

Good news - he supplied an email this morning that said I was paid in full. I assume an email is sufficient ?

Clarence, No problem and thanks for the clarification. I do agree that a deal is a deal and if you make it, you should stick to it. My only problem with the shop now is the owner is ignoring my request for a receipt stating that I paid him in full. Without that, he can reneg and change his mind at any time and simply claim I didn't pay him in full for whatever amount he wants. In other words no where did he put in writing about our agreement. What if he decides 6 months from now to put a lien on my plane? This is a conundrum part 2 lol. Mark

I'm almost more amazed at the vitriol this subject has created. If what happened to me happened to any of you I am certain all of you would be angry in your own way. The only difference between any of you gentlemen might be the method you chose to proceed. In the end I felt I did the right thing by compromising and avoiding an unnecessary battle. Lessons for me learned. Next time I'll choose much more carefully. Again, I thank all of you for the input and advice!

So Clarence you need to read your facts before you make assumptions like that

Where are you guys getting that I revered the Amex payment - I DID NOT- I REPEAT I DID NOT DO THAT. an agreement is an agreement

Clarence, I do not doubt that a bit. There are unscrupulous people everywhere. For the record I never once said I would back out of my Amex payment to him. Another mooneyspace member only recommended I do that if I had no other choice. The owner and I agreed to a settlement and I paid him in full for the amount we agreed on. I did my part for the shop owner. The only thing he did not supply back to me ( I just sent him an email requesting it ) is a receipt that now accurately reflects what I paid him and that I am paid in full. Hopefully he will supply it. If he does not I will obviously be worried accordingly- Cheers and Merry X Mas Mark

I paid with AMEX ...:) duly noted and I hope I don't have to dispute it.

Not to beleaguer the point but just because I did not do the "pre" inspection items in this case that you recommend does not give any shop the right to rip anyone off. It just makes it far easier on them .:)

New Mooney owner now renting an unheated T - Hangar in CT. I have a Reiff preheat system installed. What's a good way to keep the cabin pre heated? I bought a small ceramic heater that's the size of a small box. Put it in the baggage compartment and leave it plugged in a few hours before a flight ? Also I do not have a good method of pulling/ pushing my M20J in and out of the hangar? Ideas? Power tow bar? Thanks! Mark

"My name is nobody" lol , you seem to have a chip on your shoulder.?? I admitted I made the mistake of dealing with that shop. I learn from my mistakes. They won't get my business again. Cheers whatever your name is -

I just reread your post. For the record nowhere do I ask for anyone to feel sorry for me. I asked for advice.

Don't rush to assumptions although I do not blame you for being skeptical. I guess I never even thought someone on here would presume what you just said. But I'll be honest about it. First, the reason I decided not to state the owners name or the shop at this point is because he agreed to a compromise with me to settle it. Why would I want to go bash him or his shop after that? Yes I'm still angry about it all, it was a total disaster. It's true I'm not satisfied with the deal I ended up with, but isn't that the nature of compromise ? Regarding the original facts of this story. There are a lot of details I didnt include ( mostly because after 4 months of pain and back and forth with the shop it would take pages to explain it all). I felt I did a decent enough job telling my side of the story and not putting you to sleep considering my objective was to get good advice from this community. Which I absolutely did get. The bottom line is there are always two sides to a story, and as other Mooney owners have stated they have heard far worse stories of annuals gone wrong. My honest opinion is if you knew me, you were familiar with my airplane, and we're privy to all of the facts surrounding this story, you would without a doubt take my side in it. I try to be objective and fair when dealing with anyone, including this shop. I tried to put myself in the owners shoes a number of times during my discussions with him. If you asked the owner of the shop about it all, I'm sure he'd disagree with some of it. With that said, the two major things he couldn't disagree with that matter most is the 4 month timeline for a standard mooney annual ( you can rebuild a friggin airplane in that amount of time ) and the fuel leak debacle which took him two months to repair ( if it's even repaired- jury still out ) and he openly admitted that he trusted his mechanic to handle the fuel leak and stated he and I quote " I got bad info from my mechanic about handling your fuel leak properly and it turned into a mess". The owner should have poured his resources into getting it done especially considering he already had my plane in his shop two months leading up to the fuel leak, but he chose to work on other airplanes. How did I know? I would walk into the shop and see for myself .The owner had no problem admitting his shop royally screwed up my fuel leak issue, but in the end didn't want to take responsibility for it. In the end we compromised. But I learned some valuable lessons. I'll fly this thing to TX to have Don Maxwell do my next annual if I have to. I figure 2k to fly it there and back and an honest quality annual. Worth every cent until I can find an honest capable shop near me. I'm looking!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Mark

Thank you Matt! Happy Holidays

First, I want thank ALL of you Mooney owners for so quickly attempting to offer advice and help. I obviously chose the right airplane and the right community. If only I had chosen the right MX shop. As it turns out I compromised with the shop, although there is no doubt they got the better deal. I'll life to fight a bigger battle in life. This one just wasn't worth going to court over and having to agonize over the many details in the process. The good news is I have my plane back and it seems to operate fine. The bad news is that shop managed to damage some of the white paint on my wings surrounding my fuel access panels on top. Now that I have settled the matter with the MX shop, I have to find either a paint shop or a paint detailer that can touch up the mess they made. I'm in HFD ( Hartford, CT). Any ideas on that front ? Again, many thanks to all of your input regarding this. Happy Holidays -Mark

Can you give me a call? I'm worried about my next step here 203-243-0099 Mark

Yes I realize I only provided a very brief summary. So here's more detail. When I approached them to do the annual I was told to expect roughly 2 to 3 weeks to do it. I supplied them with a short list of squawks that I wanted to be fixed/ addressed in addition to whatever they found. The first surprise was a supposed 25 + hour labor charge just to look over the airplane prior to beginning the annual which I was never told about. Then the annual itself supposedly racked up over 7k in labor charges although no major repairs of any kind were conducted. I will supply more details on the exact hours when the receipt for the annual is given to me. I was told by the owner of the shop that a lot of the work / labor on my annual was due to having to " undo" improperly previously conducted work. Again, I have yet to see thier specifics yet. during their inspection they found a fuel leak on one side. At first, they were saying they would sign off the airplane and did not consider the leak unsafe. After my airplane already having been in the shop for a couple of months for a 9 k annual, my thinking was - they've taken their sweet time with a 9k annual where no major repairs were done so considering they've taken away the remainder of my summer flying months by working on other planes and not prioritizing mine, I might as well have the fuel leak repaired IF they can do it and IF they can do it at a reasonable cost. So both the mechanic assigned to my Mooney and the shop owner agree to do the work on the leaking side for an amount between $1200.00 and $2500.00 max. The mechanic specifically states I should expect 3 to 4 years of trouble free non leaking from that side. He did state I shouldn't expect the 7 to 10 years that a complete reseal would take. Verbally agreed too ( yes a def mistake on my part not to get that repair estimate up front in writing ). They start that work and figure out once they stated it that figuring out where the leak/s were coming from was more difficult then they expected and they spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. Additionally they damaged a lot of my paint ( paint job not even 4 years old) with the tape they used around my upper side fuel access panels ( peeled away a lot of my paint- like a 3" circumference around each upper access panel) The truth is they weren't experience enough in Mooney tank repair to figure it out in a reasonable amount of time. Once they did, they didn't plug/ seal the leaks properly. They had to keep going back in to find the source of the leak. All the while the owner was pulling the mechanic that was doing this work to work on other airplanes- leaving mine to collect more dust as their level of frustration increased trying to plug the leak and keep it from re- leaking. Eventually after approx. 4 total months of my airplane in their shop they claim to have finally repaired the fuel leak. The few discussions I've had with the owner about the cost of the fuel repair side have now gone from the original $1200.00 to $ 2500.00 max ( on top of the 9k annual ) to something like 90 hours of additional labor at $90.00 an hour and there's even more to the fuel leak portion of this story but I don't want to put any of you to sleep. Today I'm supposed to test fly it. I have no idea if the annual stuff they did will be ok after all this time, or if they fixed any of the squawks I brought into the annual because they wasted so much time on my annual and fuel leak. They haven't repaired the damaged paint ( the owner verbally agreed to do that ) but I think he will reneg on that. He left other work undone that was supposed to be done. I now believe he's been down this road before with other airplane owners and wants to " cut his losses " assuming I won't agree to pay him for the fuel tank work debacle etc. I have paid $3000.00 on my Amex card only. So out of the ridiculous 9k they want for the annual and the " who knows what he will now charge " for the fuel leak. I'm only in it for 3k. But I don't have my logs back. Should I request those logs be back in my possession before I even text fly it? I thought of offering him a couple of compromises but before I offer those I want advice from flyers like you with likely much more experience dealing with this stuff.sorry for the long details. There's plenty more unfortunately. Fire away gentlemen and can anyone call me ? 203-243-0099 I could def use a little coaching Thanks mark