How it took me seven months to buy a Mooney

[EricJ]

I first came on Mooneyspace nearly a year ago (I think) as part of my search for a decent E model, after just getting current again after a thirty year break from flying.   I've been flying a rented Arrow around in the interim, but a Mooney fit my personal requirements for speed and efficiency, so I was looking around.   I live in AZ and have property and interests in SoDak (where I'm from), so an important part of the mission is fairly frequent trips back and forth between the two.

Some of you may recall this thread from the For Sale section:

I thought a low-cost J would be a good opportunity, so I went up to look at it in January, while it was in the middle of an annual inspection and taken apart.   I though it was a perfect time to go look, it looked basically decent, no red flags, etc., etc.  Just an old airplane that needed some TLC and updates.  Later, while reviewing my pics I noticed that there was a trace of some dust/dirt adhered to the bottom of the wing near an inspection plate weep hole, so I went back up in early Feb, opened up that plate and took another good look at the airplane.   There was no trace of fuel dye or goo or anything in the area near the plate or anywhere, everything else looked like a fairly decent old airplane that had been stored outside in the desert for a couple of decades.   There was some neglect, the panel was an avionics museum, but the bones seemed good and it was priced within reason of decent negotiation, so I told the AOPA I was interested.  The plan was that once the annual was completed, I'd have the IA do a check flight and prepurchase inspection (he and I had discussed it and had a decent plan, and since it was a donation there was not a conflict of interest).

Unfortunately, the annual wasn't completed until the end of May, due to the IA having a busy shop and finding more stuff to fix whenever he looked at the airplane.   By that time I figured it might be faster to have the PPI done here (AZ), and the AOPA agreed to ferry the airplane here for that purpose, arranged a pilot for a check flight, etc., etc.   A couple guys from here, a long-time but former Mooney owner and a current Mooney owner, went up to get the airplane but recent storms had left one of the tanks with a large amount of water in it.   When the IA pulled the sump plug to drain it, it broke.   Since a spare plug wasn't available that grounded the airplane.   A couple weeks later the IA flew it down and we put it in my hangar at Deer Valley.   By this time it was early July.  Arranging for the initial ferry and then for the IA to bring it down burned a fair amount of time.

The plan was to do a check flight with a pilot the AOPA had selected, but that pilot declined when I mentioned that we needed to check the charging system because the IA that flew it down was getting staticky radios just before landing and the ammeter was not indicating charge.   Our (my and the IA's) suspicion was that the ammeter had failed, so, without the opportunity for a check flight, I put a voltage-reporting USB adapter in the cigar lighter, ran it up and confirmed that the charging system was fine, it was just the ammeter that had died.  The IA had also reported that the gauge suction looked like it was starting to droop quite a bit while on the way down, but when I ran it up to check the electrical system it was fine.   I then started prepping it for a PPI with a local IA, and while underneath the airplane removing the belly pans I noticed a LOT of blue dye around the left wheel well, and some coming out of the exact inspection panel that I had pulled in February to double check.

I closed the airplane back up, took some pics of the leak, and told the AOPA I was no longer interested, but that they could keep it in my hangar until I found something else if they wanted to.   The AOPA offered to ferry the airplane to Don Maxwell's in TX to get the tank repaired.   Since this created no obligation on my part and would provide the opportunity to get the PPI done at Maxwell's, that seemed like a good idea.   Rich, aka @N201MKTurbo , offered to ferry it to TX.   On July 22 I met Rich at the hangar and we got the airplane ready.   I told him I'd wait around until he was airborne a bit in case he needed to come back since the airplane broke every time it flew.   I watched him taxi out to the run up area, and then taxi back after runup failed.   After a bit of effort back at my hangar (in Phoenix in July) and another run up, the foul cleared up and it was running okay.   Rich then made a successful departure, and later reported that the vacuum pump failed ten minutes into the flight.   I don't know whether the AOPA increased his ferry payment for having to hand-fly it all the way to Longview or not.      He did report that it seemed pretty decent otherwise, with a couple of little squawks added to the list with the vacuum pump.

Since it has been at Longview the tank was repaired, the vacuum pump replaced, fuel pump overhauled, motor mounts reshimmed, etc., etc., and the pre-buy done with a fairly long list of non-major, non-critical stuff that it needs that adds up to a very tolerable cost for additional work to be done.   As of yesterday the AOPA agreed on a final price with me handling the pre-buy repair issues.   Payment for the airplane was wired and received, so it's basically mine now.   Expectation is for the remaining work on the airplane to take another week or so, then I'll go out and fly it back.

There's a lot of detail left out of the story, naturally, and my frustration level has been pretty high with the long delays.  I have been looking at other airplanes this whole time, but just didn't find anything that I thought was overall a better fit.   I was salivating over a very nice F33 Bonanza for a while, but it was over twice the price and I just thought it probably wouldn't be the best first airplane for me, as I am a CB.  I usually do better with a fixer-upper as a first experience.  With all the work that has been done on it during the initial annual and now at Maxwell's, I think I have a reasonable hope of having a decent airplane.   We know the bones are good, but I suspect there'll still be some latent deferred maintenance/neglect issues that'll pop up during the rest of the adventure.  I'll fly it as-is for a while to see what it needs and then the plan is to upgrade the panel, do the usual stuff, etc.   Looking forward to putting some time on it.

 

Edited September 1, 2017 by EricJ
Fixored speeling

[Hank]

Congratulations, Eric! Good bones is the important part when buying an airplane, and nothing makes Mooney owners happier than seeing Maxwell's shop in the logbook.

Fly often, and fly safe!

[carusoam]

Nice write-up Eric.  You are only a couple of months shy of the one year mark.  Keep up the good work...  Stuff stops breaking after a while...

click on your avatar to see your own details.  Great time to update with a photo too!  

Best regards,

-a-

• CONTENT COUNT

  218
•  

• JOINED

  November 12, 2016
•  

• LAST VISITED

   1 minute 

[N201MKTurbo]

For the first time in my flying career, I got money from AOPA! 

[ragedracer1977]

So awesome!  

[29-0363]

Congratulations on your new Mooney.  It will take a lot longer to sell it.....

[Kyle N]

Thanks for sharing your purchasing story.

 

I am considering moving away from renting and getting into airplane ownership (potentially a Mooney), so stories like this are reassuring that the process is possible to get through with some sanity left

[Danb]

On 9/1/2017 at 2:03 PM, EricJ said:

I first came on Mooneyspace nearly a year ago (I think) as part of my search for a decent E model, after just getting current again after a thirty year break from flying.   I've been flying a rented Arrow around in the interim, but a Mooney fit my personal requirements for speed and efficiency, so I was looking around.   I live in AZ and have property and interests in SoDak (where I'm from), so an important part of the mission is fairly frequent trips back and forth between the two.

Some of you may recall this thread from the For Sale section:

I thought a low-cost J would be a good opportunity, so I went up to look at it in January, while it was in the middle of an annual inspection and taken apart.   I though it was a perfect time to go look, it looked basically decent, no red flags, etc., etc.  Just an old airplane that needed some TLC and updates.  Later, while reviewing my pics I noticed that there was a trace of some dust/dirt adhered to the bottom of the wing near an inspection plate weep hole, so I went back up in early Feb, opened up that plate and took another good look at the airplane.   There was no trace of fuel dye or goo or anything in the area near the plate or anywhere, everything else looked like a fairly decent old airplane that had been stored outside in the desert for a couple of decades.   There was some neglect, the panel was an avionics museum, but the bones seemed good and it was priced within reason of decent negotiation, so I told the AOPA I was interested.  The plan was that once the annual was completed, I'd have the IA do a check flight and prepurchase inspection (he and I had discussed it and had a decent plan, and since it was a donation there was not a conflict of interest).

Unfortunately, the annual wasn't completed until the end of May, due to the IA having a busy shop and finding more stuff to fix whenever he looked at the airplane.   By that time I figured it might be faster to have the PPI done here (AZ), and the AOPA agreed to ferry the airplane here for that purpose, arranged a pilot for a check flight, etc., etc.   A couple guys from here, a long-time but former Mooney owner and a current Mooney owner, went up to get the airplane but recent storms had left one of the tanks with a large amount of water in it.   When the IA pulled the sump plug to drain it, it broke.   Since a spare plug wasn't available that grounded the airplane.   A couple weeks later the IA flew it down and we put it in my hangar at Deer Valley.   By this time it was early July.  Arranging for the initial ferry and then for the IA to bring it down burned a fair amount of time.

The plan was to do a check flight with a pilot the AOPA had selected, but that pilot declined when I mentioned that we needed to check the charging system because the IA that flew it down was getting staticky radios just before landing and the ammeter was not indicating charge.   Our (my and the IA's) suspicion was that the ammeter had failed, so, without the opportunity for a check flight, I put a voltage-reporting USB adapter in the cigar lighter, ran it up and confirmed that the charging system was fine, it was just the ammeter that had died.  The IA had also reported that the gauge suction looked like it was starting to droop quite a bit while on the way down, but when I ran it up to check the electrical system it was fine.   I then started prepping it for a PPI with a local IA, and while underneath the airplane removing the belly pans I noticed a LOT of blue dye around the left wheel well, and some coming out of the exact inspection panel that I had pulled in February to double check.

I closed the airplane back up, took some pics of the leak, and told the AOPA I was no longer interested, but that they could keep it in my hangar until I found something else if they wanted to.   The AOPA offered to ferry the airplane to Don Maxwell's in TX to get the tank repaired.   Since this created no obligation on my part and would provide the opportunity to get the PPI done at Maxwell's, that seemed like a good idea.   Rich, aka @N201MKTurbo , offered to ferry it to TX.   On July 22 I met Rich at the hangar and we got the airplane ready.   I told him I'd wait around until he was airborne a bit in case he needed to come back since the airplane broke every time it flew.   I watched him taxi out to the run up area, and then taxi back after runup failed.   After a bit of effort back at my hangar (in Phoenix in July) and another run up, the foul cleared up and it was running okay.   Rich then made a successful departure, and later reported that the vacuum pump failed ten minutes into the flight.   I don't know whether the AOPA increased his ferry payment for having to hand-fly it all the way to Longview or not.      He did report that it seemed pretty decent otherwise, with a couple of little squawks added to the list with the vacuum pump.

Since it has been at Longview the tank was repaired, the vacuum pump replaced, fuel pump overhauled, motor mounts reshimmed, etc., etc., and the pre-buy done with a fairly long list of non-major, non-critical stuff that it needs that adds up to a very tolerable cost for additional work to be done.   As of yesterday the AOPA agreed on a final price with me handling the pre-buy repair issues.   Payment for the airplane was wired and received, so it's basically mine now.   Expectation is for the remaining work on the airplane to take another week or so, then I'll go out and fly it back.

There's a lot of detail left out of the story, naturally, and my frustration level has been pretty high with the long delays.  I have been looking at other airplanes this whole time, but just didn't find anything that I thought was overall a better fit.   I was salivating over a very nice F33 Bonanza for a while, but it was over twice the price and I just thought it probably wouldn't be the best first airplane for me, as I am a CB.  I usually do better with a fixer-upper as a first experience.  With all the work that has been done on it during the initial annual and now at Maxwell's, I think I have a reasonable hope of having a decent airplane.   We know the bones are good, but I suspect there'll still be some latent deferred maintenance/neglect issues that'll pop up during the rest of the adventure.  I'll fly it as-is for a while to see what it needs and then the plan is to upgrade the panel, do the usual stuff, etc.   Looking forward to putting some time on it.

 

Seems like a good plan. Glad to see another Mooney has been put back in the air where it belongs. Good luck. You've made a good decision on the Mooney 

[AlexLev]

Great story and sounds like AOPA was very reasonable in offering it to ferry it to Don Maxwell's. Best of luck with ownership!

[kris_adams]

Good luck!  Hoping for many amazing experiences for you!