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Showing results for tags 'Annual Inspection Blues'.
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Members of this group have been very helpful to me over the years sharing experience. While I don't make a practice of spreading negative news, I have to report to this group my most recent experience with San Marcos, Texas based Blue Skies Aviation (aka Compliance Aviation). The K Model went in for the annual inspection in February this year. They were chosen for a number of reasons: 1) nearby, 2) no prior experience with them (fresh eyes on the plane), 3) they sought my business (they sent me a flyer several months earlier stating lots of prior Mooney experience), 4) while checking their website I discovered they offered $100.00 off the inspection and a free prop balance for all MAPA members. OK. I'm in. Met with Shaune Maycock, Owner of BS (pun intended) to discuss my expectations. Although he claims to have worked at the Mooney factory for some time, I got the feeling he was not as knowledgable about the TSIO360MB as I felt he should be. Nonetheless we moved forward with the inspection. A week or so later he produced a discrepancy report and we discussed a number of repairs. Among the agreed repairs was replacing the brake line hoses to the main landing gear and the cowl mounted landing light cover. Additionally, I wanted the fuel injector nozzles flow tested and synchronized for optimum balance. He reported a fuel tank leak at the inspection plate next to the fuel strainer. Insofar as this was a warranty item due to a compete tank reseal some years back, I asked that he reach out to the vendor and coordinate the repair. Maycock acknowledges being able to do all that and even offered to save us some money by constructing the brake hoses and landing light cover "in-house". Since I didn't see the prop balance task on the report, I reminded him that I wanted that done. A week or so later I received the call the plane was ready. He had hired a local pilot (additional $100.00 charge) to test fly the plane and assured me everything was ready to go. When I arrived I was presented with a bill. There was no indication he had made any effort to work through the fuel tank leak (it's still leaking). He did not offer the MAPA discount. He charged $250.00 for the prop balance. When I questioned him about these issues he denied any knowledge of any tank repair request, MAPA discount or free prop balance. Since we were sitting at his desk I asked him to turn to his computer and pull up his website. After reading the offer, he continued to deny my right to the benefits claiming that is a program only available in October (how convenient since its March). After some further discussion, he reluctantly agreed to remove the prop balance charge and discount the bill by $100.00. It would have been nice had the saga ended here but then I got in the plane.... Left brake was so soft my partner couldn't turn the plane around on our home field without running off into the mud. It took a second trip back and a $145.00 rent car to get that resolved. The fabricated landing light lens began falling apart within 10 flight hours. After 75 flight hours, it's currently cracked as bad as the one it replaced (which was on the plane 1400 hours). Requests to replace it have been ignored. All of the above pales in comparison to the massive upper deck fuel leak I experienced during a recent flight to Houston with a passenger on board. The fuel injector work they did evidently required they remove the high pressure line to the injectors. That line was only hand tight and came off in flight spewing fuel all over the engine. Only a miracle prevented an in flight fire. That's my experience folks. Stick with trusted service folks. BTW, there was no financial savings in this annual. In fact it was one of the most expensive I've had in the 20 years I've owned this plane.