DaveL

2013

UPdated price!

Thanks for the tip. Frankly I'm not sure what the new owner is going to do. I know he's working on taking the wing off, but past that?

I have a brand new Mooney wing stub spar for sale. Yes, I know it's not a high-demand item! I had the Mooney factory make this for me last fall for my M20C, and I've never even removed it from the packaging. Note that, though it is quite light in weight the ten foot width will necessitate truck freight I think. For reference I paid $3000 or so before shipping. I'd like to get $2000 for it (plus shipping). I can remove it from the packaging if photos are desired. I believe it will work for most any Mooney M20 wing, but a quick call to Mooney will confirm. Don't make me mount this to my wall on a plaque! Dave 425-444-4175

Ok, I was able to send the hard parts back to LASAR for a restock fee, so I now just have the biscuits to sell. Eleven Lord biscuits for $1000 shipped via US Postal. Dave 425-444-4175

Again I'm overwhelmed by the outpouring of support you're showing me! I feel I'm letting you all down in saying this, but after dealing with this for over a year now I'm at the point that I really need to get out from the costs involved in keeping it around, between the loan payments, hangar fees, insurance, etc. I've got a guy on my home field who wants to buy the airplane - I don't know his long term intentions with it. That would get my loan paid off and let me start over. I'll go into my next Mooney purchase in a year or two with enough knowledge and experience to make a much better purchase and end up with a much better aircraft. I'm definitely hooked the idea of another short-body Mooney - it'll just take a little time to get there. I would say that for someone to repair this aircraft repairing the existing wing would be the way to go, especially since I already have a new spar. The wing already has O&N bladders and is in otherwise good condition. A replacement wing would need a very thorough inspection to make sure it didn't have similar corrosion issues as mine. From what I've learned almost every early to mid sixties Mooney is prone to the corrosion due to Mooney using substandard material (sourced the 6061 from a supplier who had a problem with their heat treat procedure or something). After my plane was diagnosed the ripples went around my area with at least two other planes checked and found to have similar problems. Thank you again for the amazing support, and I'll check in once in a while to stay connected to the aircraft and folks I appreciate the most! Dave LaTourette

Ok, I'm officially beyond words. You all are amazing and generous beyond measure! While I appreciate all of this immensely I don't think any FSDO in their right mind will give a ferry permit for this thing to get to the next airstrip over much less to OK! signed, amazed and thankful for folks like you, Dave

I bought these to use on my airplane but found that my airplane was not worthy - airworthy that is. I have eleven brand new Lord biscuits still in their bags for sale. The date code in the rubber appears to indicate a manufacture year of 2013. $900 for all eleven - a steal! Thanks, Dave 425-444-4175

Thanks guys, I just have to get out from under the loan payments and insurance payments on something I can't use and won't be able to for quite some time. If the dang thing was paid off it wouldn't be so bad - I could consider swapping the engine into another airframe. Dave

Sold the plane to the guy who runs the airstrip I was based at. It was sad, but a relief too to be out from under the debt burden and continuing costs. I'll be back! Dave

Thanks everyone! I searched the forum(s) but obviously used the wrong terms. I'll proceed and keep in mind the spacer trick - awesome! Dave

I finally received a new stub spar from Mooney and am beginning the disassembly of my C model. The maintenance book references a tool to assist in removing the retract springs. Does anyone have a dimensioned drawing of said tool? Is the tool necessary? Thanks! Dave

Make sure they check for corrosion _everywhere_ (wheel wells, under back seat, under interior panels, etc.)!

AD hub, engine has ~388 hours but was rebuilt in 2000 - so it's dated out. LASAR said they wouldn't be interested in any of the rest of the airplane and would only give $7k for the engine and prop. Thanks.

According to LASAR I'll get $7000 from the engine and prop and pretty much nothing for the rest of the airplane. They told me that people have _given_ them Mooneys in better condition than mine. This thing has no desirable avionics, has the old style seats, gear, and control surfaces. Others have said I might get $12k for the engine and prop to a homebuilder, but again, that's not enough to make parting it worthwhile to me. Although the idea of having an engine-less aircraft sitting in my backyard does have a certain appeal...

I joined EAA and have been watching sheet metal videos! I'm still disassembling the plane to check for more/worse corrosion, but so far my IA structures guy thinks we should repair it. Mooney says $3k and 3 to 5 weeks for a stub spar assembly.

Mine has non-leaky bladders - another reason to try and salvage my wing.

Thank you for the link. I have a feeling that, unless I keep finding more corrosion, that plane is much more of a project than mine! It does look like a good deal though, and I'll keep it in mind in case things begin to look worse. It would be a major deal to remove the wing and trailer that thing up here though.

Yep, but it's much more work to remove the belly panels than it is to remove the seat in my estimation.

I can take photos later, but removing the seat is a very easy 5 minute job. The bottom cushion (C model) has a flap across the front that simply hooks behind a series of clips. Using fingers one just unhooks the rod, and then the seat bottom pulls out. The seat back has four bolts - again very easy to see and get to. Once that's out one needs to peel the aluminum tape off a series of inspection covers and remove some small phillips screws from each. The rear spar is easily seen through those panels. I think it might take 45 minutes at best to do the inspection including removing the seat and panels.

I'm not sure what you're asking. I'm not responsible for the corrosion to the airframe. I'm not responsible for taking money for a PPI from a customer brand new to general aviation and aircraft, I'm not the one who's job it was to be a paid professional inspecting an aircraft to make sure something like this wasn't going on. Ultimately since I'm the one who took out the loan and must pay it back I guess I'm accountable to the bank. I'm doing my best to not throw a fit and wring my hands in the air. I'm investigating options and weighing financial benefits and making plans to move forward to solve the problem. However when I do work for someone I'm held to a standard and responsible for my work product. Should I ask less of the person(s) I paid to do a job outside my area of expertise? I look in the mirror and see a guy who's not going to give up and who is going to try to keep his flying dream alive. Because I'm not well to do I can't just open my wallet to solve the problem. In closing I'd like to thank all of you who have expressed support for me in my plight and who have offered positive suggestions - it means a lot.

I'm glad my experience is getting others to check their planes at least. Here's my plan at present: As I am friends with many attorneys I'm going to aggressively go after the previous owner and in particular the A&P who did the PPI. Meanwhile I'm going to begin disassembling the interior and belly panels and try to remove the stub spar without removing the wing (like the guy in Aus did in a previous link). If I continue to find corrosion worse than what I'm seeing I'll make the decision to scrap the plane. If not and it looks salvageable, it turns out I've got a friendly A&P IA on my home field who is an aircraft structural engineer type who is willing to assist with the repair. I'll call Mooney to get a current price on the stub spar next week and start drilling rivets in my spare time. Since the annual doesn't expire until the end of the month, today I'll make my final flight in it to get it back to my home field (a 15 min flight). In the last year and a half I've put over 100 hours on this plane, and the entire time it had this damage, so I'm not too worried about a 15 min flight. In the meantime I guess I'll rent 172s to keep my currency up.

I found that too and noted that he was able to accomplish the repairs without removing the wing. It's difficult to see how much of the underwing panels he had to remove - I wish he had more photos of his work!

The airplane is at least 50 miles from the nearest salt water (Puget Sound) with some foothills in between. I doubt there's a salt issue, but there's certainly a damp issue. You may have a point about the corrosion accelerating, but I find it hard to imagine that much exfoliation happening in a few years much less eighteen months. Just looking in the wheel wells the corrosion is immediately obvious if one knows where to look. After that it takes only minutes to pull the rear seat bottom and pop the screws from a couple access covers to see the rest. I feel like I paid for the PPI just for this type of thing. I was up front with the previous owner that I was paying his full price, which was a little on the high end, for a solid airframe - not the avionics (it has an original very basic panel without even a working VOR). Yep, I'm pretty upset right now. I'll likely have an attorney send letters to both the A&P who did the PPI and to the previous owner (for all the good it'll do). Dave

Yep, I had a pre-buy. I emailed the guy today, and he called me this evening and expressed his extreme apologies. He said he couldn't believe he missed it. He didn't really make me feel better, but I was surprised he called. The previous owner has not called back.