kommers

I have my own theory why they dropped me more than a year after the incident instead of right away. I suspect that there could be some communication breakdown between department handling the claim and department that writes the policy. My theory is that accident database was not updated fast enough to reflect July 2015 incident, so in September 2015 when they were writing 20J policy for me they were simply unaware of what happened to my 20C. Later on, they figured it out, but since new policy has been paid for in full, they had to patiently wait for the term expiration and inform me about discontinuance then

Sure thing ! US Specialty Ins. Co

Why would they see me as a loss-prone? Personally, I never caused any problem to the insurers... oh, I forgot, I once totalled my Camry in 2001, but that was on the ground and aviation insurers didn't know about it When it comes to aviation, technically, there was 1 incident with the planes I owned through my life, and 0 incidents with me as a pilot. Basically, I am punished for the sins of others and that "other" is actually the company that made a faulty Johnson bar lock..

Hm... maybe, my English is at fault. After all, English is my second language although for the last 10-15 years, I was writing technical documentation that was accepted for "production" without changes.

I thought I was clear. The ONLY incident that I reported to the insurance company was with Mooney 20C, and it was a gear collapse after the landing and rolling down the runway. As to 20J, I never had any incidents or accidents in this plane. Policy for 20C listed 4 pilots, that is myself, my mechanic/CFI, my wife's CFI and my wife. Gear collapse occurred when my wife and her CFI were flying. After the incident, I bought Mooney 20J and obtained a policy for her with the same insurer. To my surprise, the new policy for 20J was only slightly more expensive than my previous one for 20C although insured value was more than 3 times higher. My explanation to this was simple: new policy didn't have the people who were flying 20C when incident occurred. I must admit I was even cocky enough to request a separate quote for 20J with my wife and her CFI added back, but the quoted premium made the effect of a powerful laxative on me.. So, leaving my wife and her CFI out of the deal and with myself and my mechanic remaining, that insurance company gave me the brand new policy for 20J and I enjoyed it for a year, then I received a letter from them stating that due to the past incident (with 20C), my policy is not to be renewed. I had to find another insurance company, my premium effectively doubled since I had to report that 2015 incident regardless of the fact that I wasn't on board. Next year, I switched to Allianz and the premium came down again to remain relatively low for another 2-3 years. Then comes year 2019, Allianz informs me that they no longer insure GA and with yet another new company, that I had to find, premium skyrocketed again and guess what? They keep mentioning that 2015 incident with 20C as a reason for high premiums. I will cross 5 year post-incident mark in July 2020 with hope that since I no longer have to report the events of 2015, insurance companies will show some mercy..

Well, this is a bit debatable... In July 2015 the gear of my 20C folded after the landing. I wasn't aboard the plane at that moment. Investigation named freshly installed Johnson bar's lock a culprit, thus leaving the pilot free of blame. The airplane was insured for 27K and insurance company wrote it off. Two months later, I bought 20J. This time, only myself and another pilot, were on the policy, neither of us was responsible for that accident. The insurance policy was issued by the same company that previously insured my 20C. A year later, I received a letter frommy insurance company that stated that policy is not to be renewed due to "past incident". For a record, I am not even close to 70, the incident occurred because of equipment malfunction, I wasn't there when it happened. Insurance company was in light aircraft business for a few years, I had a total of 3 years with them.. and yet, they declined to continue coverage.

Agreed! I was using Joe for a few years by now. He got me my first Mooney insurance and I still get my Mooney insurance through him because I did shop around and nobody could beat his prices

I had this issue for about a year in my 20J and my mechanic was losing his last hair trying to figure it out. Switch worked intermittently. Sometimes, it worked only to bring the nose down, but not up, sometimes, it would not activate at all. The reason was the pinched cable in the area of glareshield. One of our brothers in Mooneyhood already mentioned that in his post earlier

thank you. I knew that my chances were next to nothing. I might try junkyards, after all

Exactly! Math and physics, as well as Mooney landing distance have no influence on my wishes. Consider me irrational, this is is probably true in this case, but I do want right side pedals for 20J, or better yet, the entire kit

Never heard of "right seat ready" training. I even asked my instructor, he just shrugged. Sounds too exotic for Georgia. Maybe, it is available in New Jersey? Also, it is not about just my wife. I fly with others, too and wanted to be able to control Mooney from the right seat. I am confident about my abilities to land the plane from the right seat (have done it before). but not sure that the guy in the left seat will be able to use the brakes properly. Again, from what I know in my situation, letting someone else, who is not certificated on complex aircraft, to fly in the left seat is illegal. Illegal, because officially, I don't have a complete control over aircraft. With that said, I almost landed a deal with another guy on Mooneyspace who had the right brakes a couple of years ago. Alas, he either changed his mind or forgot, I never heard from him again. If someone is ready to offer me the brakes, he will certainly make my new year. thanks

Initially, I wanted it for my wife. She received some Mooney training, and as I am getting older, I wanted her to be able to handle Mooney landing in case of possible emergency with me. Also, I want her and another guy to fly in the left seat but this would be illegal since none of these two are certificated pilots and I cannot act as PIC in the right seat since I don't have complete control over the plane with brakes not present on the right side.

thank you all for your input. Based on your feedback, I chose Hawk at Tampa Exec and already scheduled this project to begin in December (they are booked until beginning of Dec)

These of you who recently painted your planes at Hawk in Tampa, do you mind sharing with me the ballpark figure for external paint job (strip/sand and paint)? thank you

Had the same issue a year ago for my 1979. Ended up buying Whelen unit and rewiring

I remember I was able to find references to some great Florida paint shop here, but suddenly, I find nothing through the search today. I am located in Atlanta. After a big hailstorm yesterday that left a few dents on my plane and the fact that old paint shows its age in different spots of the airplane, I am about to start looking for the best paint shop in South. Now, having heard horror stories about consequences of doing it dirt cheap at some .. well, not too reputable shops, I am looking for quality job and quality paint that will last. I can take my Mooney to any of neighboring states like Fl, TN etc, but am not eager to fly more than 3 hrs from Atlanta. Any advice? Recommendations? Experience? thank you guys in advance !

I sent you private email on this.

yes, please thank you!

you mean you have the right side (co-pilot) brakes with stems for 20J?

If anyone needs these, I put the set of two up for sale on Ebay. but I can terminate this auction if anyone here needs them. They are brand new (base also shown on the picture is used)

yeah, I saw these already. They don't look exactly like mine which means a double labor charge on taking off and installing wingtips considering that these wingtips are riveted to the base, it will be long and extensive

pictures of the damage are here: https://www.facebook.com/yuri.levenfeld.3/media_set?set=a.555261001327268.1073741830.100005301188652&type=3

well, at this point, if I choose to buy Lasar new wingtips and pay for the labor, I am looking at 5K+. Unfortunately, this year I had tons of out of pocket expenses that made Mooney repairs with new parts prohibitively expensive. At this point I am looking at two options: repair or getting used wingtips somewhere. I found the guy from marina who does boat repairs and is intimately familiar with fiberglass. However, the last post of Jetdriver shook my confidence, I am referring to the fact that I need to use a special aviation grade epoxy glue and some rib inside the wingtip of which I was blissfully unaware. That marine guy is an expert though. I showed him a few photos on broken wingtip and he said that this wingtip has been already repaired twice. Indeed, plane log shows two repairs, I am not the first person to cripple it.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try although my mechanic thinks that restoring this wingtip will cost more than buying a new pair. As to the damage, I wish it was just the lens since lens is readily available for just above $200. That second pilot and myself sustained nearly identical damage, losing the lens and getting a huge gash in the wingtip itself. The only difference is that my strobe survived it, while his didn't

Mine is 1978 and I don't have logs before 1997 when plane was reimported from Venezuela. From the current logs it is clear that wingtip was installed in 90's as the log only has a mention of repairing already installed fiberglass wingtip