The 2 Year Annual (well sort of)

[RLCarter]

After working on and off for the past 24 months on my 65’ “E”, it was signed off and flown yesterday for the 1st time since I’ve own it, and the 1st time in almost 7 years. Short story long, the previous owner had contacted me about flying the plane seeing how they just didn’t have the time due to family and work schedules. This was going to work out well seeing how I was about to start my commercial rating and didn’t have a complex aircraft to do it in. After nearly 3 months of waiting for them to get the plane back in annual they bailed on the deal and decided they would sell the aircraft instead. I knew of the plane and had seen it from a distance but never really had a close look at it, so I told them that I would be interested in seeing the aircraft. We met at the airport so I could look it over and take a look at the logbooks, The plane hadn’t been out of the hangar for the past year or better and had a thick layer of dirt (way past the “Dust” stage) on it. Almost all the sheet metal seams had the corrosion treatment wicking out them, which was kind of a good sign, as I opened the baggage door I stuck my head in the cabin to see if I could detect the smell of fuel, no smell was present so another good sign. I then looked and smelled in the fuel tanks (the Mooney I had looked at several weeks earlier had Mo-Gas in it) the sealant seemed to be in good shape inside the tank, said they had the tanks sealed several years earlier, the seal job wasn’t the best as there was a bunch of sealant around the inspection panels that was never cleaned off after assembly that looked like crap but it was still very pliable, no stains on the bottoms of wings was possibly a good sign as well. The interior plastics were in pretty good shape and seemrd to be Plane Plastics as the material was much thicker, some had been painted and some had not, seats were leather and in really good shape, there was no carpet in the plane but they said they had the carpet at home, all in all the interior was decent just needed a good cleaning. The instrument panel was like most of the older Mooney’s (shotgun), which doesn’t really bother me, the avionics were doable as long as they worked, (KMA 24 Audio Panel, Narco 890 DME, 2 Narco 810’s (Comm. only), King KR 86 ADF, Narco Nav 11 VOR/LOC/GS and a Narco AT 150 Transponder) given I had no intentions of flying hard IFR anyway. I wasn’t really looking for a project but all in all the aircraft would work for my mission if the pre-buy doesn’t show anything too bad and we can agree on a price. After taking a few photos for the wife and photos of all the logbook pages for me I headed home to start adding up what I already knew had to be done. A few days later I decided to proceed with a pre-buy, all though the IA had do the pre-buy has very little Mooney experience it was someone that I have known for years and I could trust plus I had been looking at Mooney’s for over a year and had read about the big ticket items that could bite you. Once I had the aircraft in my hangar I began removing all the Inspection panels, interior panels and removed the cowling in preparation. Once it was all opened up I went around and made notes of things I saw so that I could point them out once he got to the plane. I picked up my buddy at 7:30am on a Saturday morning handing him my list to look over on the way to the airport, he handed me his list that he had researched which were the big ticket items, spar corrosion inspection, tubing inspection, along with a couple more items (he had spoke with an IA friend of his that has had a Mooney for the past 20yrs) and said these will be first as they would be the deal breakers. The pre-buy went fairly quick as it was all opened up so 4 hours later it was off to lunch to discuss the airplane, which by the way was the cost of the pre-buy. The aircraft was left opened up so that the annual could be started if the seller & I could come to an agreement. I met with the seller the following weekend a presented all the things that would have to be replaced in addition to the normal items at annual so it could be signed off (gear pucks, tires, brakes, hoses…etc.). Their original asking price was over fair market value even if it had been in annual so my offer was WAY off from what they wanted. After showing them the list of items needed they came down some but we still couldn’t agree on a price. Not willing to pay more I re-assemble the aircraft so they could take it back to their hangar the following weekend. What started out as having the aircraft for 2 weeks for the pre-buy ended up with me waiting on the owners for almost 3 months before they finally came to take it back, I still had the cash at the house for the original asking price so I decided to take my offer plus an additional 2k along with an FAA bill of sale already to go as a last try, standing in a metal hangar in August in S. Texas can be brutal to say the least, not sure if the heat was getting to their decision making or mine but the money didn’t sit on the wing very long and I now had a project on my hands. I didn’t think it would take much more than a few months to get it back in the air but it has. The short list is new tires & tubes (all), new brake rotors, new gear disks and associated hardware, All new hoses (fuel & oil), new scat tubing, sound proof insulation, interior panels repaired and painted, new plastic around nose gear wheel well, new carpet, leather wrapped yokes, seats re-died, all 4 seat belts with shoulder harnesses for the pilot & co-pilot, rudder pedal boots (4), J-Bar boot, flap actuator rebuilt, 70 amp Alternator conversion, new door seals (entry & baggage), a bunch of new hardware (everywhere) just to list a few things. Almost forgot the most important thing, me and my CFII flew just under an hour, and the bird flew great.

[Patto]

Nice!  Welcome to the family!

[mpg]

I am glad to hear of your success!

It is proof that MS'ers really can get an old non flyer, flying again... 

 

 

Now we're just waiting for a happy report from that,,  other,,  guy...

Edited August 29, 2016 by mpg

[RLCarter]

4 hours ago, mpg said:

I am glad to hear of your success!

It is proof that MS'ers really can get an old non flyer, flying again... 

Now we're just waiting for a happy report from that,,  other,,  guy...

MooneySpace played a huge roll, tons of info and talent on here. Not sure if I will ever be completey done, but at least now it's a flying project 

[bradp]

Great story. 

 

Pictures please!

[RLCarter]

 

I didn't take a lot of photos other than how things were put together so I could confirm it was assembled correctly before re-assembly. You can see how low the nose was by the angle the of the front spindle, prop was maybe 4" from the ground. Pretty dirty when I found it, but it cleaned up good enough

 

Edited August 30, 2016 by RLCarter

[RLCarter]

Not really much to look at, yokes were wrapped in leather, the seats were painted a two tone grey, new plastics around the nose wheel well, and when I ordered the carpet I ordered a half yard more to put in front of the rudder pedals

[DXB]

Very nice - congrats!!

[RLCarter]

40 minutes ago, DXB said:

Very nice - congrats!!

Thanks, could purchased one for a little more money and a whole lot less time but I hated to see it waste away

[Pictreed]

Nice to see another '65.  My SN is 815...is that the original N number?

I've had a bit of work to do on mine too.  Some of it wasn't necessary but made me feel better.

Good news on the tanks being leak free.  Have you filled them up to see if it stains the carpet?

She cleaned up well.  It looks good.  I especially like the 1 piece windshield.

Tim 

[RLCarter]

Tim

N number is original, all the glass was replaced in 05' and in really good shape. A 201 windshield looks a lot better in my opinion but it sure is nice being able to remove the panels in front of the windshield. So far no leaks of any of the fluids, leaks drive me nuts

[Yetti]

good news  Yippee

[Raptor05121]

Awesome, gives me hope

[RLCarter]

4 hours ago, Raptor05121 said:

Awesome, gives me hope

Yours is next, just keep chipping away. Took the IA 6.5hrs for the log entries and I gave him a detail list of repairs along with part#s and serial#'s...paper work....lol