Abandoned Mooneys

[DanM20C]

2 hours ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

Amen. Back when I was growing up as an Air Force dependent in the 1970s there were demilled early jet fighters in practically every Air Force town playground or park that we ever lived in.  Good memories.

Jim

 

 

2 hours ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

Amen. Back when I was growing up as an Air Force dependent in the 1970s there were demilled early jet fighters in practically every Air Force town playground or park that we ever lived in.  Good memories.

Jim

 

When I was a kid in the 80’s we had a Grumman F9F at our local park. The engine was removed and we used to crawl through the air intakes and mess about. The F9F came from the MInnesota Marine Reserve. About 10 years ago I met a pilot that flew that very plane. He said In the late 50’s the MN Wing went down to participate in nuclear testing. He said he circled that plane around several mushroom clouds only 4 miles from ground zero.  Apparently they wanted to see how the radiation  effected the plane and electronics.  I love that when it was time to retire the plane someone thought, “kids would love this thing, let’s drop it in a park”. 

Im glad they did. I did love it.

cheers, Dan

[BKlott]

9 hours ago, Steve W said:

The story, as I've heard it, is that this plane was sold, but before the sale went through, went for maintenance, had an engine failure ended up at Corvallis(KCVO) and has been sitting ever since. It was on the FBO ramp but when the eclipse came through they moved it out to a previous taxiway. 

 

A de-registered M20A...

[Wildhorsesracing]

This one was at a local private airstrip - Wilgrove (8A6) - contacted the owner, he thinks it's still worth $60k and plans to put it back together when his business picks back up...

[DaV8or]

1 hour ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

Amen. Back when I was growing up as an Air Force dependent in the 1970s there were demilled early jet fighters in practically every Air Force town playground or park that we ever lived in.  Good memories.

Jim

 

I have similar experiences. I grew up in Santa Barbara, CA and back then if you traveled north on the 101, you would pass through the village of Gaviota and there they had a schoolhouse called Vista Del Mar Union School and on the grounds was  a North American F-86 Saber. It had it's engine, guns, avionics, etc removed, but you could climb on it and there was a way to climb into where the engine was and make you way to the cockpit. Every time my family took a day trip north, we would stop in Gaviota. The Schoolhouse is visible from the 101 freeway and so was the Saber. The school closed in 1986 and the Saber soon thereafter disappeared, but I still look over there when I pass by today and think about it.

Also when I was a kid and in the Boy Scouts, our troop arranged to go camping in the desert at Edwards Air Force Base. This was the '70s and you could still do cool things like that. One of two things that really stand out from that trip, was hiking to see the rocket sled track where they did all those experiments to do with humans and G forces that everyone, including me at the time, had seen those black and white films. We went down in the concrete bunker where they ran the experiments and looked out through the thick, blast proof glass. You don't forget this stuff.

The other was hiking over a hill and coming across a B-58 Hustler in the desert. As we got closer, we realized that it had been torn to sheds with bullet holes. It was clear it was a ground attack practice target. It had lots of sharp, jagged edges sticking out, but did that stop us? No. We climbed all over and in that thing. It was so cool and it was one of my favorite planes at the time as I had just finished a model of one. We were kids, so it never occurred to us that they might come back and shoot at it again while we were there. It was an adventure...

Anyhow, those were the days.  

[gsxrpilot]

11 hours ago, xcrmckenna said:

Paul if I get to ride around in your 252, I'll drive you to the airport...


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It's a Deal!

[MooneyMark]

This is N100HQ, left to rot years ago in plain view of the family M20K 252 at our home base Teuge (EHTE). I try to cover her eyes and tell her not too look, when we taxi past, but the hard questions always come sooner or later, sometimes even right during the take-off roll. Then I tell her to be the pro that she is, and adhere to the sterile cockpit policy and save the questions for cruise, and often but not always she has forgotten already.

[MooneyMark]

Some stories have a happy end tho... The US 1.000,00 Cherokee

I follow the blog written by the owner: this old cherokee

Edited October 26, 2017 by MooneyMark

[Raptor05121]

Wow, its a shame to see that J model sitting there.

[ujhan]

VH-FUN

Found outside a petrol station in Toowoomba, Australia

[MooneyMark]

1 hour ago, Raptor05121 said:

Wow, its a shame to see that J model sitting there.

Isn't it? Googled the registration and found very little, but someone wrote about flying with N100HQ to Templehof (Berlin), just before the airport closed for good in 2008.

[DaV8or]

Don't we have some Sacramento, CA members? I know there's some dead Mooneys up at Sacramento Executive rotting under those covered tie downs and also on exposed tie downs.

[DaV8or]

3 hours ago, MooneyMark said:

Isn't it? Googled the registration and found very little, but someone wrote about flying with N100HQ to Templehof (Berlin), just before the airport closed for good in 2008.

At least it sounded like it had interesting adventures before retirement.

[RobertGary1]

2 hours ago, DaV8or said:

Don't we have some Sacramento, CA members? I know there's some dead Mooneys up at Sacramento Executive rotting under those covered tie downs and also on exposed tie downs.

I think most are gone now. Late this summer more than 1/2 the planes in the shade hanger area disappeared.

 

-Robert

[thinwing]

20 hours ago, DaV8or said:

It is too bad that a bunch of these derelict airplanes (not just Mooneys) couldn't be rounded up and made into a playground area for kids at the airport. I would have loved that as a kid. I suppose liability, lawyers, insurance, etc... 

Back in mid 60 s some kid won a cereal contest giving away a f-86 which ended up oakdale elementary .It was mounted with gear up ,no engine in a sandbox.Lasted thru 3/4 years of vandals before they hauled it away

[thinwing]

48 minutes ago, RobertGary1 said:

I think most are gone now. Late this summer more than 1/2 the planes in the shade hanger area disappeared.

 

-Robert

There's one in pieces behind Exec Autopilots...a really cruddy example 

[Bug Smasher]

This old bird was abandoned in Brookings, OR (KBOK) many years ago. It's a 65 C. Registration was cancelled in 2013. The harsh coastal climate is not doing it any favors,  but hey - at least it's covered! Rumor mill says it came into town and suffered a mechanical issue. 

[Raptor05121]

1970 Mooney M20C at CPK (Chesapeake, VA). Has been sitting idle for many years. Some guy came by to knock all the wasp nests out of it and try to get it running before buying it to restore and and flip it, which he apparently does as a side hustle. Even he walked away once he got to looking at it closely.

 

---------------------------------------

1968 M20C in Bellingham, WA

[cliffy]

 

2 short items:

As a young child (8 yrs old) my Dad brought me to a military display (don't know where) that had an F-86 on a trailer. I got to climb all over it and even down the intake. Have never forgotten that evening.

When in HS and doing my penitence as a gas boy and washing airplanes we had a P-39 derelict sitting in "the jungle" on the east side of KVNY. This was the early 60s. Used to go climb on and sit in that many many times firing the cannon with the stick switch. 

Found out only a few years ago (long after "the jungle" was paved over with commercial buildings) that it was resurrected and flown by astronaut Frank Borman. 

Don't know where it sits now.  

[DaV8or]

12 hours ago, cliffy said:

 

2 short items:

As a young child (8 yrs old) my Dad brought me to a military display (don't know where) that had an F-86 on a trailer. I got to climb all over it and even down the intake. Have never forgotten that evening.

When in HS and doing my penitence as a gas boy and washing airplanes we had a P-39 derelict sitting in "the jungle" on the east side of KVNY. This was the early 60s. Used to go climb on and sit in that many many times firing the cannon with the stick switch. 

Found out only a few years ago (long after "the jungle" was paved over with commercial buildings) that it was resurrected and flown by astronaut Frank Borman. 

Don't know where it sits now.  

See, your story right there about the P-39 illustrates what could happen eventually to some of these Mooneys. In the early '60s that P-39 was nearly worthless. At that time flying P-51s were available pretty cheap, why would you want a second rate fighter? The cost was too high.

In time however, as demand for all things WWII grew, suddenly the value of that P-39 grew to where it was worth spending the money to fix it up and fly it again. These old Mooneys might become more desirable one day too, but for that to happen either there needs to be more pilots an therefore airplanes, or there needs to be less flyable airplanes available, or there needs to a change in the economics of fixing up old airplanes.

I don't see any indications that becoming a pilot is going to be the new in thing, or fad, (except maybe in China) so the first is not likely. The second is slowly happening. Accidents, mother nature and economic hardships are causing more and more planes to fall off the registry faster than they are replaced. If this trend continues, eventually these "reserve" planes might actually become valuable enough to be fixed in some cases.

The third case would require a huge shift in the regulations regarding certified airplanes. If there were to be a way to turn these certified planes into experimentals that could flown under the same regs as the E/AB category, I can see some of these derelicts becoming viable projects for the kind of people that like projects. It's not likely to happen, but it might. One never knows.

[RobertGary1]

Are old planes dieing faster than they are replaced? I delivered a new T206 from the Cessna factory and they’re cranking single engine airplanes out. 

 

-Robert

[BKlott]

Those old military planes were all zinc chromated airframes. Most GA planes are not. Once corrosion starts eating our airframes away, I doubt it would be economically viable to restore them. Just look back at the airframes we’ve seen taken out of service on this website due to corrosion issues over the past few years. No one was willing to spend the money fix them and some of them otherwise looked like nice airplanes.

[DaV8or]

48 minutes ago, RobertGary1 said:

Are old planes dieing faster than they are replaced? I delivered a new T206 from the Cessna factory and they’re cranking single engine airplanes out. 

 

-Robert

Good question and a difficult one to answer. I believe that last year just over 1000 new, certified piston aircraft were sold from all brands including LSA. I'm not sure how to find out how many new flying E/AB planes became operational in 2016.  

[DaV8or]

4 hours ago, BKlott said:

Those old military planes were all zinc chromated airframes. Most GA planes are not. Once corrosion starts eating our airframes away, I doubt it would be economically viable to restore them. Just look back at the airframes we’ve seen taken out of service on this website due to corrosion issues over the past few years. No one was willing to spend the money fix them and some of them otherwise looked like nice airplanes.

Actually, some of the early Mooneys are zinc chromated, mine is. I also thought the factory has returned to this practice at some point, has it not?

[rbridges]

11 minutes ago, DaV8or said:

Actually, some of the early Mooneys are zinc chromated, mine is. I also thought the factory has returned to this practice at some point, has it not?

Not sure, but zinc chromate is hard to find.  When I was trying to find some, zinc phosphate is what is more readily available.  Of course, that's for consumers like us.  I'm sure manufacturers have better access.  

[Raptor05121]

I've heard zinc chromate has stuff thats bad for the ozone. I found a few cans at a boat shop and thats what is covering the entire interior of my plane