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Mobile Mooney A&P in Tucson Area?


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I just got off the phone with Hartwell.  While he no longer works on Mooney, he gave me plenty of good advise.  Hartwell also mentioned that it would be challenging to perform a good inspection on-site.  After all, A&P will need to put the airplane on jacks to inspect the landing gear.  

Since this is the second seller that insist on an on-site pre-buy, I wonder if this is a norm.  

Thought?  

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Nothing normal about it, as a buyer...

The PPI is for the protection of your wallet, from the unknown...

That includes the things that are unknown to the seller...

As a machine buyer... I would want to test every function the machine has... up to the point where it cost more to test than it costs to fix...

Where this idea takes interpretation...

  • When the plane costs as much as your house... an expensive PPI is used...
  • When the plane costs as much as your car... a lesser expensive PPI may be used, knowing your level of risk has increased.

Have you ever bought a house and sent it through an engineering inspection?

Have you ever bought a used car and only took it for a test drive?

 

If the plane is the one for you, and the PPI is the only thing standing in the way... a sit down discussion with the owner makes sense...

Write down the price, the deliverables and what needs to be done... when it is all completed as expected... pay the man... start the TT...

 

Have a serious plan in place for things that fail the PPI... who fixes it, where, that kind of thing... AW issues are the most important ones... the other things are part of buying a used machine...

PP thoughts only, not a used plane seller...

Best regards,

-a-

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19 hours ago, corn_flake said:

Does anyone know a mobile A&P that is familiar with Mooney in Tucson or Phoenix area?  I'm looking for someone that can assist with on-site Pre-buy inspection.  

I'm happy to take a quick look at it for you and let you know whether I think it is worth investigating further. If so, maybe we can negotiate with the seller to get it to a proper shop. If that's not possible, I'm sure I can find a competent A&P to take a look at it for you.

I take it you've already gone through the logs and it appears to be a good candidate ?

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Ken, 

Thanks for the offer.  I have not gone through the log books.  I will be flying into Phoenix tomorrow morning and driving to Tucson to see the plane for the first time and review the log books.  If you happen to be available tomorrow, perhaps we can arrange a time.  

I'll send you a PM with my cell number.  

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8 hours ago, corn_flake said:

Ken, 

Thanks for the offer.  I have not gone through the log books.  I will be flying into Phoenix tomorrow morning and driving to Tucson to see the plane for the first time and review the log books.  If you happen to be available tomorrow, perhaps we can arrange a time.  

I'll send you a PM with my cell number.  

Good luck! An initial log review would have saved you a lot of time and potential disappointment.  Even if this plane meets your expectations do not buy it until a qualified person does a PPI.  The expensive items are hard to see for the unknowledgeable person.  

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I would be very confident taking Ken's advice on this. And you're fortunate he's in Tucson. Without his help, I'd be passing on this one and leave it to someone else to be the sucker and buy it without it going to a proper shop for a reasonable pre-buy inspection.

An owner who won't allow the airplane to go to a shop for a PPI, I would assume has something to hide and isn't the owner I'd do business with. It's as important to "pre-buy" the seller as it is the plane. And this seller just failed the pre-buy.

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19 hours ago, corn_flake said:

I just got off the phone with Hartwell.  While he no longer works on Mooney, he gave me plenty of good advise.  Hartwell also mentioned that it would be challenging to perform a good inspection on-site.  After all, A&P will need to put the airplane on jacks to inspect the landing gear.  

Since this is the second seller that insist on an on-site pre-buy, I wonder if this is a norm.  

Thought?  

It would give me pause as a buyer if the seller insisted on an on site inspection. The seller I bought from was willing to fly it to an MSC for me to have an inspection done. Just one of the many positive things I learned about the seller when researching the plane. 

26 minutes ago, kmyfm20s said:

Good luck! An initial log review would have saved you a lot of time and potential disappointment.  Even if this plane meets your expectations do not buy it until a qualified person does a PPI.  The expensive items are hard to see for the unknowledgeable person.  

Agree, the seller should be able to email you the log books to review. If they don't have them scanned it's easy enough to take pictures of the pages with a phone and send them. If you don't know what to look for then send them to someone else for an opinion. 

@KLRDMD was a great help to me when I was looking. I think I bounced 3-4 different planes off him and traded numerous emails with him, I learned a lot in the process. 

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1 hour ago, kmyfm20s said:

Good luck! An initial log review would have saved you a lot of time and potential disappointment.  Even if this plane meets your expectations do not buy it until a qualified person does a PPI.  The expensive items are hard to see for the unknowledgeable person.  

We're meeting in about 90 minutes and I'll walk him through what needs to be done today. I would have recommended the course of action be very different than what it is, but we'll see if we can salvage this, if it should be salvaged.

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36 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

I would be very confident taking Ken's advice on this. And you're fortunate he's in Tucson. Without his help, I'd be passing on this one and leave it to someone else to be the sucker and buy it without it going to a proper shop for a reasonable pre-buy inspection. An owner who won't allow the airplane to go to a shop for a PPI, I would assume has something to hide and isn't the owner I'd do business with. It's as important to "pre-buy" the seller as it is the plane. And this seller just failed the pre-buy.

It certainly looks that way at the outset but maybe there was miscommunication along the lines somewhere. Since the airplane is at my home airport, that may make things easier. Regardless, we'll know more in a couple of hours.

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@corn_flake, please let us know what you decide on this one. I'm sure you got some good advice from Dr. Ken. The collective wisdom on this forum is that no one knows more about how to find and purchase a good Mooney than Ken. It is so easy to think one has found a great deal on a Mooney only to end up spending double the value of a good plane, just to get a bargain to be legal and airworthy. You're lucky to have someone like Ken who's in the area to look and give advice.

Keep us posted. We'd just like you to get a good one that you'll enjoy and therefore become a regular member of our group. And also stay away from any Mooney that will land you on my infamous list.

Following...

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Just got back home a few hours ago.  Ken was able to meet me at his home airport, which the Mooney I'm considering to buy just happens to at the same airport.  As it turns out, the seller simply preferred the PPI to be done in a local shop instead of in a shop that is local to me.  I'm glad Ken was there to facilitate and suggested a shop that is agreeable to the seller.

At this point, I'm planning to have the recommended shop performing a PPI in the coming days.  I'm anxious to see the PPI report.  

Thank you all.  I look forward to become an active member of this group.  It's amazing to see everyone came together to help.  

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This is an example of why I love this website and all of the awesome members. It really is a great representation of the aviation community.  People willing to help ,no questions asked for people they have never met. I have learned so much since I started living here. 

The only down side , is now I want a K . And I used to want an E.

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12 hours ago, Dan208 said:

This is an example of why I love this website and all of the awesome members. It really is a great representation of the aviation community.  People willing to help ,no questions asked for people they have never met. I have learned so much since I started living here. The only down side , is now I want a K . And I used to want an E.

I know a guy that is getting ready to sell a K. He's moving to a Rocket. I helped him find this 231 a couple of years ago, did his transition training in it and just did a flight review in it for him a couple of weeks ago. It will be on the low end of the market for a K due primarily to the engine time. Let me know if you're interested.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/23/2019 at 1:19 AM, corn_flake said:

Does anyone know a mobile A&P that is familiar with Mooney in Tucson or Phoenix area?  I'm looking for someone that can assist with on-site Pre-buy inspection.  

Any update to this ???

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Hello Everyone, 

Sorry that I went dark for a while.  I didn't want to make any public announcement until things firm up a bit.  I wasn't able to get on the schedule with the shop Ken originally suggested.  Fortunately, Ken suggested another shop that was willing to do a pre-buy.  The shop even allowed me to help with the pre-buy.  I learned a lot in the process.  

Fast forward a few weeks later, the seller was able to resolve all airworthiness issues found during the pre-buy and we were able to come to an agreeable price.  I'm now in the process finalizing the transaction and hope to get the airplane back to central California this weekend.  

Thank you all for your help.  Especially Dr. Ken.  

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On 4/19/2019 at 8:33 PM, corn_flake said:

Fast forward a few weeks later, the seller was able to resolve all airworthiness issues found during the pre-buy and we were able to come to an agreeable price.  I'm now in the process finalizing the transaction and hope to get the airplane back to central California this weekend.  

I noticed yesterday that it is gone from its tie down spot. I don't know when it left for sure or who flew it out or under what conditions.

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Yep, the Mooney is now in my hangar!!  

Quite a ride back from Tucson.  The trip almost didn't happen due to a dead battery and me flooding the engine by leaving the boost pump on too long.  The only surprise during the trip was the wire holding on the hood vent scope snap loss 2 hours into the flight.   It made a loud bam.  The CFI and I thought we may have hit a bird...  

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/23/2019 at 7:42 PM, corn_flake said:

Yep, the Mooney is now in my hangar!!  Quite a ride back from Tucson.  The trip almost didn't happen due to a dead battery and me flooding the engine by leaving the boost pump on too long.  The only surprise during the trip was the wire holding on the hood vent scope snap loss 2 hours into the flight.   It made a loud bam.  The CFI and I thought we may have hit a bird...  

It has been a couple of months, how's the airplane ?

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