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Corrosion Repair


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Here is typical language from an aviation policy:

Wear and Tear. We will not cover damage to your aircraft caused by and confined to freezing, deterioration, corrosion, erosion, mold, mildew or any other form of wear and tear. However, if the wear and tear results in damage that would otherwise be covered by this policy, we will cover the resulting damage. 

 

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Wow - what a job!  That's the biggest repair job I have ever heard of - they rebuilt the entire airplane.  May I ask how many hours they needed to do that?

Is that a new cage they brought in from some other airplane?

I am amazed it was covered by insurance - I had a very expensive corrosion repair last year, but NOTHING like that job - I wish insurance would have covered me - or would they?  It never even occurred to me to ask.

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1 hour ago, aviatoreb said:

I am amazed it was covered by insurance - I had a very expensive corrosion repair last year, but NOTHING like that job - I wish insurance would have covered me - or would they?  It never even occurred to me to ask.

I'm completely guessing here, but my thought is that it is the mice that made the difference. Simply leaving your plane outside by the ocean with leaky windows is just neglect, or normal aging, or poor maintenance, but when your plane is hangared and attacked by mice, that's an unforeseen outside force harming your plane even when you did your best to prevent that. (Kept it in a hangar) 

Now imagine a group of teenagers break into your hangar and have a party there. In the process they dent up your wings by dancing on them. Insurance likely will cover this. The mice are like the teenagers. Intruders that you tried to keep out that damaged your plane by having a party in there. The key to this mystery I think is that it was mice and it was in a hangar.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! ;)

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On 8/4/2016 at 11:19 PM, mooneyspeed said:

Hi there. I'm new to the forums and pretty new to Mooneys.   We bought our first plane this past April, a 1981 M20K, and have put about 25 hours on it so far. It just went down for annual in July as well as an avionics panel upgrade.   After we opened it up and took off some interior siding we found that a family of mice had moved in and proceeded to eat up much of the insulation and spread their business about the steel tubing in the cage and a bit into the left wing.   We figure they came up the left main gear sometime between its last annual and this one.  Couldn't smell a thing!!!

Corrosion is an issue and some tubes are going to need to be replaced and specialty welded back in.   Insurance has been great and is going to cover repairs.  The poor bird is scheduled for some NDT early next week.   

 

One of the options being presented to insurance,  which to my surprise they seem to be on board with, is to have the whole "birdcage" removed after being de-skinned, repaired, sand blasted and then powder coated.  Modern insulation and likely some new paint, or a betterment towards new paint, better wiring and some other addons to follow since this is all going on.

 

I'm looking for some expertise and opinion on the powder coating idea vs the standard treatment of green.  My concern is that it's a 35 year old airframe and even with a proper prep and coating that should some other crack/corrosion arise in the future it wouldn't be able to be detected anymore.  I've noticed its common for engine mounts to receive this treatment these days regardless of the higher stresses they endure.

 

I look forward to your replies.image1.JPG

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I think the first post on this thread explains why insurance covered it. Mice got in there and their urine caused the corrosion. Lots of evidence that it wasn't just corrosion that comes from where the airplane was stored or normal wear and tear.

Edit: Wow last post and mine were at the same time.

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Yes, I can understand the astonishment over the coverage. My policy did not specifically have clauses that stated coverage for rodents, infestation, or anything of the sort.  My broker was pretty blunt and right out of the gate said that he'd never heard of this being covered before.   The adjuster said due to good maintenance logs and the fact that the mice were right there was the reason this was being paid out. Otherwise I'd be on here and Barnstormers selling parts!!!  The EXTERNAL DAMAGES clause is what they felt best represented this situation.  The clause is pretty broad, could cover anything from a lightning strike or tree falling on it to some drunk yahoo driving through the airport fence and into the plane.

The first question of course was when did it happen, which was pretty impossible to explain.  All we were able to provide was over an approximate timeline.  Having only owned this aircraft for just over 2 months at the time of discovery I was worried because the damage would have happened under the previous ownership.  I couldn't see that happening in a shorter time frame, then again I don't know what the pH of mouse urine is either.  Our discovery during the annual did not seem to affect this for something along the lines of that the aircraft was insured under previous ownership by the same company ( that may also have been a saving grace).   The aircraft was insured for $95000 CDN, repairs were to the tune of $52,000 CDN and involved around 250 hours of labour.   We found the damage in mid July of 2016,  claims adjuster visit in early August, spent a few weeks getting quotes and deciding on best value/total solution options without approaching write off territory.   Had a new airframe by end of October.  Was worked on from November and finally flown mid February of 2017.

We acquired the other airframe from the folks down at LASAR.   The reason we installed a new one vs a repair was that it was actually more economical.  The prices charged for welding repairs were just atrocious.  That frame plus shipping was about $12,000 CDN all in vs a repair of almost $30,000 CDN quoted by Acorn welding (and that didn't include the labour to remove and install everything,  was looking at almost $80000 CDN all in).  $5000 CDN for the engine R&R, and the rest was for labour, parts, and a bit of paint.  

With the plane in so many pieces it was a good opportunity to do the panel since it was apart and renew things such as tank seals, other lines, gaskets, and basically do a D-Check type of annual.  It seemed a lot of the aviation community in Calgary new about this project.  I even had people at work I've never come across asking if it was me.

My insurance rates didn't go up much as a result of this, in fact the major increase was due to my new insured value of $145,000 CDN as a result of the other upgrades I paid for outside of the insurance claim during this process and the fact that I was probably undervalued/insured right off the bat.  So I'm paying $2250 CDN a year presently.

I think that addresses some of the questions and comments, if not please post away.  I'm happy to share this story and explain what I can. I thought it was something the community would enjoy.  We are really enjoying have her back online.

Mike

Exchange rate right now is about .78 to the dollar, CDN to USD currency for those that are looking to convert.

 

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12 hours ago, DaV8or said:

I'm completely guessing here, but my thought is that it is the mice that made the difference. Simply leaving your plane outside by the ocean with leaky windows is just neglect, or normal aging, or poor maintenance, but when your plane is hangared and attacked by mice, that's an unforeseen outside force harming your plane even when you did your best to prevent that. (Kept it in a hangar) 

Now imagine a group of teenagers break into your hangar and have a party there. In the process they dent up your wings by dancing on them. Insurance likely will cover this. The mice are like the teenagers. Intruders that you tried to keep out that damaged your plane by having a party in there. The key to this mystery I think is that it was mice and it was in a hangar.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! ;)

good call.  Now it makes sense.  I guess having a dead mouse stuck in the insulation definitely bolstered the claim.  :lol:

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Rodents, critters or crawlers are all driven by the same things: food and shelter . It works for humans too. 

They would not move in something that is moving and most likely did when the plane sat there not being flown. 

I redid my interior relatively soon after I purchased my plane to find that a mouse had moved in ( and out) . I am sure it was when the plane was sitting for sale at the dealer. Damage was minor. I also did not have the insulation so the interior was not very cosy for a mouse .

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