Heloman

I'm 34 years old and I've had 55 hours pilot training over the last few years ( plus 12 hours in the last month doing serious "shake the rust off" ground training-with a specific focus on flight planning and decision making) ups and downs with old jobs have kept me from completion. However things have changed for the better, I started an aviation related business and I've done quite well. But now I'm out of the country until December, I have no kids, a cheap house, paid off everything, very few deductions, and I can buy an airplane cash without it being a burden. In a perfect world I would casually go about finishing my PP and move on with having fun getting a IR all while renting until I get 100- 200 hours, but my business has good income so I can use it to buy an airplane with with pretax dollars. The rub is, how do I buy a plane when I'm not going to be home for the rest of the year, who can do that for me? How crazy am I? I hate to lose the fun and experience of buying my first plane, but for a 1/3 off the price I can get over it, especially if I feel that I'm using some sort of "bonafide by Mooney-space- expert buyer" that SHOULD be able to do a better job than I would. However, I was an A&P in a previous life (still am I guess, according to the card in my desk drawer two thousand miles away )and if something stupid is missed I'll blame myself for not being there to catch it , but I guess that's just something I have to live with. I've talked to my accountant about this, he agrees that I should have no issue using an aircraft as a tax deduction, I even discussed with him the article that was in Plane and pilot about tax law changes that came out about a year ago, the thing is I can show a reasonable business purpose for the aircraft beyond simple transportation, and even If the Gov-thugs make me pay it back it wouldn't be the end of the world. I'm sure allot of you guys are business owners yourselves and may have been through similar scenarios, any thoughts or advice that come to mind? Feel free to give it to me strait!

You seem like a reasonable guy, I hope to buy a Mooney from a guy like you!

It seems to be an ego thing with with lots of guys, boats or airplanes, I hear it all the time, "I'm not taking less than X, no matter what." Often time "X" is much much more than the item it worth so they let their boat or airplane just sit and rot away not being used; I've learned to just nod my head in patronizing agreement when I hear it, they own it, they can go to their grave with it if they want to. Many of these guys act like the years of sitting have no effect on the value...

Well, airplanes are more and more just reflecting the value of their engines.(Old) King Airs', being that they're on the extreme end of the spectrum for "regular" people to own, have had their values drop to often times less than the sum of their engines, that's what happens when there's no demand for a particular air frame. This is what's happening to most GA aircraft, light twins first; it costs money to take them apart and sit on the parts. The people I know think I'm out of my mind (or a closet millionaire) to fly airplanes.

What you're talking about is a shop that looks the other way when opening a motor. Another way you could find the answer to this question is to ask around for the worst/cheapest shop people have ever heard of. I know of these shops, as I used to work for a company with a 145 engine shop. It sucks for everyone involved when a motor has to be opened for a "repair." The customer is on the "lookout" from the start thinking he's going to be ripped off and the shop knows it, we rarely would except a repair job like this, and would often ask the customer to come look at the motor after it was apart, but they rarely did. What repairmen wants to sign off a motor when they know they saw "something" or they're not supposed to be looking "there???"

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So you get a PPL, and a complex/retract endorsement all on the same day? Awesome!

My point is, right or wrong, STCs are swapped all the time, if it were me I would certainly try to get permission from the STC holder; but if I couldn’t, I would not scrap perfectly good parts. Try to do the right thing but don't get screwed out of thousands of dollars’ worth of parts.

A while back I was surprised to find out that people do this kind of thing all the time, I work in FAA certification and have been told several times from different FAA PMIs or ACO personal that the FAA is about safety not protecting patents or license agreements (I’m not talking about PMA license agreements as that would include a production approval). My local FSDO has responded (surprisingly) when I asked a similar question that if I have approved data, they don't care how I got it, they're not even going to look at the 337. This does not exactly make it legal in regards to whomever owns the STC but I don't think you're going to have much trouble with the FSDO, like I said they likely won’t even look at the 337. Since it's not a field approval they just send it off to the big file cabinet in the sky. Any beef would be with the STC holder not the FAA; with that said, the FAA hasn’t been standardized since the moment they hired their second employee; so if you ask, I’m not guaranteeing you get the same answer.

My first post, I don't have a Mooney but I've been thinking about getting one, so I've been reading this forum for a while, but this topic is something along the lines of what I do. I develop PMA parts (but usually for part 25 aircraft), I write certification reports and develop PMA/STCs, and I'm a DAR, and I've worked projects involving composites. Although not exactly easy, I don't think this project would be all that hard if you kept the design very similar to original parts, with only minor changes. Digitally scan a 201 cowling to create a model, make the changes you want, and then use the model to make the tool, which will be quite expensive. As far as material goes, don't be too wrapped up in carbon fiber, carbon fiber is not always the best material for the job when looking at all factors. In this case, I think epoxy-glass would be my choice, but I’d have to look into it more to be sure. There are many pods and cowlings mounted on much faster aircraft that are made using epoxy glass. I would think that if you could get at least ten people to pre order, with a deposit, it might be doable but not if you’re paying someone ells (DER and other consultants) to do all the certification work. What other parts would you need besides the actual cowling? What is the price of the other STCs and where does the kit price need to be to put this on a 40-50 thousand dollar airplane, how much time would it take to install, how many could be sold in five years? The answer to all these questions might make the project not look so good. As far as getting someone else’s STC, why did someone stop selling it, if it was a good seller? It's all about volumes, and aircraft parts rarely have good volumes.