An Absolutely Horrible Day!

[donkaye, MCFI]

Dr. Bob Achtel, a very good friend of mine once quoted someone else that "an Annual is a time where you take in a perfectly good airplane and get one back that doesn't work".  Today was that day.  While accidents do happen, why did it have to be my airplane???

While I didn't get the full story, sufficed it to say that while doing the inspection, the nose of the airplane was dropped.  Several blades of the prop were bent and the nose truss was destroyed.  I was informed that the engine is a tear down.

Looks like several months before it is back together again.  Out the window goes our trip to Don Maxwell's event.

There may be an upside.  I'm considering a new engine.  I don't want a tear down and rebuild.  Definitely a new prop.  But no airplane for months!!!

[MrRodgers]

Dr. Bob Achtel, a very good friend of mine once quoted someone else that "an Annual is a time where you take in a perfectly good airplane and get one back that doesn't work".  Today was that day.  While accidents do happen, why did it have to be my airplane???
While I didn't get the full story, sufficed it to say that while doing the inspection, the nose of the airplane was dropped.  Several blades of the prop were bent and the nose truss was destroyed.  I was informed that the engine is a tear down.
Looks like several months before it is back together again.  Out the window goes our trip to Don Maxwell's event.
There may be an upside.  I'm considering a new engine.  I don't want a tear down and rebuild.  Definitely a new prop.  But no airplane!!!

Oh no Don. I am so sorry to hear this.



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[kaba]

We’re so sorry to hear that happened.......
Our sympathies.....
We always feel vulnerable when our Mooney is down.


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[ArtVandelay]

You are a CFI, so I assume at least you’ll be doing some flying.
I know you have a sweet panel, might want to call Garmin and suspend your DB subscriptions.
Sorry about mishap, hopefully they make it right.

[Boilermonkey]

I think it is time for you to move to Australia....those with kids will get it.

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[Robert C.]

Ughh....my deepest sympathies. Now you have me worried about my annual which starts in 4 weeks!

Good luck with the repair. May want to consider the 4 blade MT prop while you’re at it and someone (else)’s insurance is paying

Robert

 

[McMooney]

OUCH but bright side, insurance or shop will pay for your overhaul 8)

[jetdriven]

I would press and ask for the full story.  And I would weigh that heavily on whether they repair it or I had someone else do it.

 

A factory new engine is somewhere more that 100K.  Rebuilt exchange is substantially less.

Edited September 28, 2018 by jetdriven

[TomR]

Oh man that’s a shame. Honestly no bright side to this, new engine notwithstanding. In any case good luck 

[aviatoreb]

Oh no! 

What?  This was a non-moving in the shop incident?  Did it fall off the jacks or something?

[Lance Link]

Very sorry to hear about this Don.  When we go to the trouble and expense of owning an airplane it is hard to have them grounded for whatever reason, especially for long periods of time.  Here's some good news though....I will gladly pay you to fly mine with me and teach me to fly it better!

[Cruiser]

your insurance should cover a replacement airplane during repairs, perhaps a new model from Kerrville.

[Raptor05121]

Just curious- did they lift the engine or tie down the tail?

[donkaye, MCFI]

4 hours ago, teejayevans said:

You are a CFI, so I assume at least you’ll be doing some flying.
I know you have a sweet panel, might want to call Garmin and suspend your DB subscriptions.
Sorry about mishap, hopefully they make it right.

Thank you for the idea!  I'll call them tomorrow.

 

[donkaye, MCFI]

2 hours ago, jetdriven said:

I would press and ask for the full story.  And I would weigh that heavily on whether they repair it or I had someone else do it.

 

A factory new engine is somewhere more that 100K.  Rebuilt exchange is substantially less.

I will probably go with a Reman.  Not sure what the backlog is.  Definitely don't want my current engine torn down and rebuilt.  I don't trust any shop to do that.  I want an original Lycoming, period.

[donkaye, MCFI]

1 hour ago, aviatoreb said:

Oh no! 

What?  This was a non-moving in the shop incident?  Did it fall off the jacks or something?

Yes, it fell off the front jack, probably inspecting the donuts.  Luckily, I have an instrument student tomorrow morning and I get to choose where we go.  We're going over to Stockton to practice.

[donkaye, MCFI]

34 minutes ago, Raptor05121 said:

Just curious- did they lift the engine or tie down the tail?

Fell off the front jack.

[RobertGary1]

3 hours ago, McMooney said:

OUCH but bright side, insurance or shop will pay for your overhaul 8)

Probably not. They’ll probably only pay for inspection. You’d be in the hook to make it an overhaul. And they’ll likely charge “betterment” for the prop.

-Robert 

[RobertGary1]

23 minutes ago, donkaye said:

I will probably go with a Reman.  Not sure what the backlog is.  Definitely don't want my current engine torn down and rebuilt.  I don't trust any shop to do that.  I want an original Lycoming, period.

That’s what I did after my engine disassembled in flight. I don’t regret getting the reman and the 2 year warranty was nice. 

-Robert 

[FoxMike]

Not sure this will help but I had my Bravo fall off the front jack many years ago.  The airplane dropped but the jack caught the engine mount so the prop. did not hit the floor.  Mooney makes a standoff that screws into the front jack point.  The standoff had a longer threaded area than the jack point had threads.  The standoff when screwed in tight would not allow the bottom of the standoff to contact the jack point.  Result the standoff broke at the end of the threads.  I was about to get  under the airplane as I was replacing the nose wheel donuts.  My insurance company paid for a new engine mount and labor to install it.  I got off pretty easy  but it was an agonizing problem. 

If I had to decide on an engine repair or replacement I guess I would see how much the insurance will allow.  Lyc offered me a rebuilt engine at OSH this year for $59,000.  Next step up on pricing is $65,000.  The insurance company will likely consider this a betterment and offer less.  Overhaul by a local shop might be a lot less as it may only take an inspection and a few parts.  Good Luck.

[M20C_AV8R]

Be sure to take pictures and document everything, save all emails, vmails, texts etc, I’ve been through something similar and it can go very wrong when it’s time to sort out who pays for what. I would hold the shop accountable to pay for everything including the time your plane is down, hangar costs etc, accidents happen, but it’s on them, they own the mistake, I would hope that they would also be filing an insurance claim, this is not going to be cheap, as well I would do the same with my own insurance carrier just to have that extra input, IMO it’s  better to have that representation sooner vs later. I am sorry to hear this, I know exactly how this feels, hopefully this is a great place you work with owned by a responsible and accountable owner. This is just my opinion.

[whiskytango]

Really sorry to hear about this.  I agree with AV8R that both insurance companies need to know about the loss.

A buddy of mine had a similar incident when his Cirrus fell off one of the jacks when he was getting a main gear tire replaced.  The jack punched a hole through his wing!  Cirrus engineers had to design a repair for the wing.  He was out of business for months. 

 

[jaylw314]

Yup, your day was worse than mine.  I am sorry to hear about that 

[JohnB]

Yikes! That's scary. Mine is going in for annual tomorrow. Hope nothing bad happens to any of our Mooney's.  Seems like since it's the shops fault, the shop's insurance should pay for a new engine.

[Bravoman]

Very sorry to hear that it happened. I can only imagine how it makes you feel because it is apparent that you love your plane and take great pride in her. Make sure you make the claim for diminished value as that will most certainly help cover the cost differential for such things as any so called upgrade on the prop and the factory reman. On the latter I wouldn’t be so quick to accept the insurance carrier’s standard spiel that a tear down and rebuild puts you in the same position as you were in immediately prior to the loss. Argue that a factory reman does that for the reasons that you indicate, and highlight safety concerns because the specter of exposure always gets their attention. On the diminution claim it is important to have an expert (working for you) in the valuation of these aircraft weigh in on the delta to the mkt value that the AC and you have suffered as a consequence of the loss.