dmc

My insurance company paid me $600 to move my plane when Irma came thru. Im on the SW side of Florida, thankfully our prices are not that high yet. I’ve been pondering buying a lot at an air park, but don’t want the hassle of moving and building a new house.

If the plugs being replaced had say 500 hrs on them they may not have been performing as new. Did he replace new massives with new fine wires? If he did then there was definatly an improvement for him. Or were the plugs he replaced just worn? I called Tempest and asked what the difference was in their plugs. They only said that the fine wires lasted longer, that iridium was expensive, and they didn’t sell as many, thus the higher cost. They did not claim that they performed better.

I wonder if new massive might give you the same results. I assume you were replacing older plugs.

I probably should have mine weighed. No idea if it’s ever actually been on a scale. My CG is 78.8 and useful load is 1086. And I’ve flown it at gross many times with no problems. I do have to watch the weight in the baggage area. of coarse I live at sea level. I could gain 300# of usful by adding tip tanks, but it’s not worth the expense for me. I believe they just Change the category , utility to normal.

Reading this thread made me get out my notebook. I’ve had my Debonair for 7 years now and have many notes on airspeed and fuel flow. I also have done a 3 way gps true airspeed calc and compared it to my airspeed indicator. The gps calculated out to 156knts true, the airspeed came out at 154 knots true. I’d call that a wash as I was flying, and writing at the same time. I have the lower compression 225hp engine that is not as efficient as the higher hp v tails. i generally cruise at 150 knots at slightly under 12gph. That’s just slightly lop. I can do 160, but that’s pretty much down low and very rich. But I can burn Mogas. Currently 90 octain cost $2.66 vs $3.69 for 100ll. So to cruise at 150 Knt. 12 gph 100ll cost $44.28 per hour. Mogas cost $31.92 per hour. 8.7 gal of 100ll cost $32. So my Debonair using Mogas is also pretty efficient cost wise. Granted on longer trips it’s not available. And come overhaul time it will be hard not to opt for a 260hp plus engine for the extra speed.

I have not been in the market, but when I was I didn’t see many for sale only 25% higher than The upgrades. I agree that if you can buy a plane that someone has installed say an aspen, stec, and 650 or 750, and only expects .25cents on the dollar it would be foolish not to buy. My problem I guess is I’m to impatient, I decided what I wanted and had a budget. Then I looked for a few weeks and bought the one my wife liked the looks of the best.

It still depends on cost and mission. It’s great if you can find a plane with all those, but they will cost more. I’ve owned my plane for 6 years with no panel mount gps, and I added a brittain wing leveler and acutrak later for not much money. I was more interested in engine times and cosmetics. Everything cost and you just need to decide what is important to you. And most important is your budget. i have about 60k in my plane. I paid 50k and added shoulder harness, engine monitor, and the brittain. It will probably also be my last plane, I’m 61 now, so I have no plans on selling. Sure I could spend 30k or so on the panel and probably have a $65-75k plane. Or I can just fly it the way it is and keep the 30k invested. 10 years from now I can give the plane away and probably be ahead. But I’m a VFR pilot and unless it makes the plane faster or safer, I’m not interested.

I know this is a Mooney board and they are fine planes, but I wouldn’t limit myself only to a Mooney. I narrowed my search down to either a Mooney or Beechcraft. Then I found one I liked and bought it. Being able to run Mogas has definatly been a plus for me. I burn more fuel than a Mooney, but my cost is about the same, and I don’t have to worry about 100ll going away. But if I had your mission I would seriously look at the RVs as well. They are fast and very efficient, and being experimental will make upgrades much less expensive.

Hopefully you now have your plane in the shape it should be in and will only have the routine stuff in your future.

Wow, I did everything wrong. I bought the plane sight unseen after looking at adds. I was a student pilot at the time and figured I wouldn’t know what I was looking at anyway. I did hire a buyers agent to help. And did have a pre buy. I bought a plane that had 50 hrs SMOH, 12 years prior. I bought it because the wife liked the color of the plane and the cosmetics were good. This after looking for a couple of weeks. I still had to take my check ride in a 172 and then get 25 hours of dual, along with the high performance and complex endorsements. I knew there were some upgrades that I wanted, shoulder harnesses and a engine monitor. The first year surprises were only a door hinge repair and strut work, about a $1000. Ive owned the plane now for 6 years and about 600hrs and pretty much only what I would call routine maintenance over the years. Batteries, generator, starter, tires, and things you would expect to replace from time to time. My average maintenance cost have come out to around $4500 per year over the last 6 years. This includes the cost of the annual inspection. I also replaced the transponder. This does not include upgrades, shoulder harnesses, engine monitor, and fuel flow . ive had my plane inspected by 4 different shops. I bought the plane in Wisconsin and had its first annual there, then I lived in Missouri, now Florida. So there have been several sets of eyes looking it over. I’m currently waiting for my mags to return for their 500hr inspection. But it’s been a very reliable plane so far. its not a Mooney, but that really shouldn’t make a difference. It’s just been maintained over the years. And I got lucky I guess on the engine. I had expected to probably need a rebuild due to lack of use. But so far it’s going strong.

Have you called your insurance agent yet? As I said earlier, my repair only cost me $50 out of pocket. And it didn’t affect my rates. And there is no question it was done correctly. It was reskined, painted and balanced. I didn’t have to do anything but open my hangar door.

I never said it was a Mooney. Just trying to show similar damage and what it cost to repair.

I’ve paid over $6000 in insurance premiums over the last 6 years of owning the plane so they are still ahead of the game.

It did look a little worse on the bottom. And my cost was only $50, my insurance paid the rest. And if I went to sell I’m sure the buyer would expect something from it.

Thankfully insurance covered it. No need to cut corners and they were actually great to deal with. I was debating even getting it fixed, but if I ever went to sell the plane it would be a problem. I did pay $500 for a used powertow to help keep it from happening again.

Here is my boo boo. $6000.

I had a similar accident also pushing my Debonair into the hangar. It cost $6,000 for the repair. That consisted of the local shop to remove and ship the elevator to Biggs. They reskined in aluminum per stc. They also painted and balanced. Then local shop reattached. my cost was $50, and it had no affect on my insurance rates. Took about a month. I also purchased a used powertow . No more head down pushing for me.

That's great, I finally got around to having my Accutrac installed and it works great. The only problem I have is remembering how to use the old panel mounted gps it's hooked up to.

I will confess that if my DG goes out a new garmin G5 might be interesting instead of overhauling my old gyro.

How's this for a vintage panel.

While I agree with most of your list, I don't see the upside of upgrading for the next buyer. I have a vintage plane with no IFR gps. It does have a very nice interior and paint. I'm close to 60 and this is most likely my last plane, also my first. i added shoulder harnesses, engine monitor, and gammi's. I also have the brittain wing leveler and accutrak. if I added a garmin 650 it would probably cost me at least 15k. Adding altitude hold is probably 7k. I've flown quite a few long cross country trips hand flying the entire way, I do like my iPad and foreflight. On long cross country's I actually take a spare iPad along. i agree if I were to sell the plane it would be easier with a IFR gps and stec. But I don't see how I would be money ahead. The best value for these old planes would be to pay for what you need, and fly them till overhaul time and scrap the plane or find a usable engine to replace. If you have a $40k to $50k older mooney with lower engine times but older panel. I'd say money wise it would be better over say 10years to save the say $25k plus in upgrades. Hopefully you would have gotten some return on your money, so you would have that and even a runout plane is worth something. Now if you have to be somewhere and fly a lot in IFR conditions it may well be worth it. But these planes were flying before there were gps. And for me I figure I can stay a lot of nights in hotel rooms before I spend $25k. But I'm retired and don't have to be anywhere at a certain time.

I finally got the accu track installed. It works as it should. Also the ability for standard rate turns with the turn of a knob is nice. Im happy with it so far. It's pretty basic, but it follows the magenta line just fine.

Thanks, but I plan on getting it installed this year, unless I get surprised during my annual. Hopefully it won't cost to much to get installed.

I've been holding on to this for a few years. I've sent it to Jerry for overhaul but never got around to getting it installed. Hopefully I'll have it in the plane this year. i picked mine up from someone upgrading there autopilot. Then I sent everything to Brittain to get checked out. They are out there, but for some reason the valve is hard to find. You think that they could make new ones for what I have seen these sell for.

I've also gone back and forth about getting the rating. I'm also retired and based at PGD. My wife is a nervous flyer and we also no longer fly at night. I've got about 20 hrs of hood time and plan on continuing to add hours just for practice if nothing else. I don't see myself flying IFR enough to stay proficient. It has meant we have had to delay trips and stay a few days longer than originally planed, but we don't have to be anywhere at a certain time. And many times it's a line of thunderstorms that keep us grounded, so we wouldn't be flying anyway. And honestly I'm just not as sharp as I use to be. I'd probably think differently if I was 40.