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Looking at a plane in Chandler, AZ...


afward

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... if anyone is free Saturday morning and would like to meet up.  The plane is at Stellar Airpark and I should be arriving at PHX at 7:45a.

I'm not publicly sharing much about this one yet, so PM me if you're interested.

I'll probably also need an A&P in the area for a PPI, but there's a relatively recent thread covering that so no worries.  The plane has been maintained at the Chandler MSC off and on so I'd like to look for someone else.

Here's hoping. :)

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6 hours ago, carusoam said:

Can you say which model you will be looking for?

:)

The suspense is building...

-a-

Hehe, yeah.  It's a '66 E.

 

33 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

Frank (Chandler Aviation) is the only Mooney guy in this part of town. My plane is up on jacks for annual so my Mooney time is taken. You might contact @ragedracer1977 And @EricJ They have both found Mooney guys at Deer Valley.

That's cool.  Hopefully they see your tags and respond here.  There's also the other thread with A&P suggestions that I'm reading through.

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There's a resident A&P at Stellar that is probably familiar with the airplane.   I met him once, seems like a decent guy and I think he said he used to own a Mooney if I remember correctly (he was commenting about my J at the time).    I can get contact info if that helps.

 

Edited by EricJ
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5 hours ago, afward said:

Did this A&P used to work for the Chandler MSC?  The seller's A&P/IA is at Stellar and apparently left the MSC to do his own thing a couple (few?) years ago.

I think there's really only one guy at Stellar, so that's probably him, but I'll double check on a name.  

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18 hours ago, afward said:

... if anyone is free Saturday morning and would like to meet up.  The plane is at Stellar Airpark and I should be arriving at PHX at 7:45a.

I'm not publicly sharing much about this one yet, so PM me if you're interested.

I'll probably also need an A&P in the area for a PPI, but there's a relatively recent thread covering that so no worries.  The plane has been maintained at the Chandler MSC off and on so I'd like to look for someone else.

Here's hoping. :)

I might be able to stop by. Where exactly at Stellar and what time will you be there ?

Edited by KLRDMD
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Well, the airplane is pretty nice overall.  Cosmetically in very good shape with a few (most very minor) squawks, flew really well (rigging seems very good and performance on a hot day was good; 150+ IAS on 25/25, > 200deg ROP, 4000', forward CG), everything seemed to work very well, and it just generally seems like a very nice E.  Unfortunately the logbooks were apparently at the A&P's house and the A&P was out of state for the day.  No logbooks, no offer.

That said, the seller wasn't in PHX until late Thursday and has a lot of family stuff going on, so I can excuse a little lack of preparedness in ensuring the A&P had them in the right place.  I got to see quite a few pictures of the plane while it was being worked on (annuals, strip & paint, interior replacement), so there's not an overall lack of transparency or anything.  My feeling is that the seller is being pretty honest and I can safely make an offer contingent on logbook inspection and PPI.

 

The good: Skybeacon, very few squawks, nice paint, nice (cloth, which I prefer) interior, flew well, stated 230 SMOH & 3900 TTAF, stated all ADs C/W or terminated except prop hub, includes pre-cut 6-pack panel (needs powder coating), includes two homemade fuel selector T-handles, includes lots of notes, did I mention really clean?, tanks stripped and resealed in 2015, mechanicals all visually appear to be in very good shape.  Manual gear & flaps. 968# U/L.

The (subjectively) bad: Seller doesn't know SPOH offhand,  trim on & around door needs work (dang heat! but still minor), door seal missing, the glare shield isn't really affixed, side windows are very fogged, the throttle cable needs lube, and the flap retract rate is high (needs adjusting).  The gear pucks are probably past half their lifespan (I could be wrong here; they aren't cracked or grossly bulging, but certainly aren't new; I didn't look closely enough to read the date code [oops]).  Altimeter may be off (showed 30.10 when at field elevation, metar archive from Chandler says 29.90 at that time).

The ugly: One missing screw on top rear corner of the right check cowl panel (?!), glue on door has degraded and looks really bad in a few places,  Aaand the seller couldn't produce the logbooks (and seemed to think taking pictures of the whole set would be too much work).  Oh, and the CFI that flew with me floated the landing after I'd already commented on being a bit fast... :rolleyes:

The debatable: It's a nav radio-only IFR plane; No GPS, no A/P, no HSI, and PC is disabled (heck, it doesn't even have DME or ADF).  Two piece windshield (I'd really like a SWTA-modded plane, but it's not a dealbreaker).  No cowl mods.  No shoulder belts.

 

So, should I run away (possibly screaming) or consider making an offer?  Feel free to speak your mind here; it's really a sanity check for my own thinking.

If I make an offer, should I offer a little more ($1k?) to get the EDM-700 and E.I. F-5 the seller has on the shelf, given I'm planning an EDM-9xx install next annual?  I'd think not, but I'm open to suggestions...

If I do buy it, I plan to put in an IFR GPS and a G5 stack at some point, as well as a GFC500 once approved and finances allow (that gives Garmin a couple years or so before I'm anywhere near ready for it; if they aren't done yet, that's just more time to save up for it).  Somewhere along the way I'll also terminate the prop hub AD (probably with a new MT 3 blade prop).  We'll see...

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Well, the seller replied to my initial offer by saying that the logbooks will be back at Stellar tomorrow and added "no contingency".  That doesn't help me due to distance and the seller's refusal to scan them, and frankly the tone tells me he's really not interested in trying to work out a deal, so I won't be purchasing this one.

Continuing the search...

Edited by afward
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If it isn’t too much trouble...

Review the log books, take good notes, and use the experience for comparing to the next Mooney...

If the Stellar Mooney isn’t as stellar as the next one... you made a good choice to move on...

If the Stellar Mooney is really stellar, you may want to circle back in the end...

Mooneys seem to be turning over at higher rates than any time in the last decade...

Best regards,

-a-

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9 minutes ago, carusoam said:

If it isn’t too much trouble...

 

That’s what I thought I remembered...

The first Mooney that you go through all this effort with, is a tremendous learning experience...

When the right ship comes in.... you want to have the learning curve already taken care of...

You’ll know when your ship has come in... and you will be ready to make it happen...

Best regards,

-a-

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4 minutes ago, afward said:

Good advice.  However, I failed to note that I have no access to the logbooks as I'm over 1000mi away and the seller refuses to digitize them...

If you're still interested I may be able to meet the seller this weekend and scan the logs for you. It won't take an hour. Last weekend just didn't work out.

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55 minutes ago, afward said:

Good advice.  However, I failed to note that I have no access to the logbooks as I'm over 1000mi away and the seller refuses to digitize them...

I just can't fathom, in this day and age, that a seller won't scan logs?!?  What are they thinking?

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3 hours ago, MikeOH said:

I just can't fathom, in this day and age, that a seller won't scan logs?!?  What are they thinking?

Many possibilities here, ranging from innocent to nefarious in nature...

anything ranging between

 -not good with tech

-doesn’t own a scanner

-doesn’t feel the need to

 -trying not to show something in the logs

ive always been a big proponent of more information is better- but not all sellers can be bothered, I guess.

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16 hours ago, rpcc said:

there has to be a young person a the airport with some spare time and and iphone that you could pay $50 to photograph them for you.  perhaps he would agree to that.

EXACTLY!

Assuming the seller actually wants to SELL, then I just can't imagine being so lazy as to not get the logs scanned.

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16 hours ago, rpcc said:

there has to be a young person a the airport with some spare time and and iphone that you could pay $50 to photograph them for you.  perhaps he would agree to that.

Stellar is a tiny airport with a lot of the usual old grumpy aviators.   Right now there isn't even any transient parking, as in *maybe* one space if you're lucky.   I don't think I've ever seen the sort of person you are describing there.  ;) 

I wouldn't read anything nefarious into somebody not wanting to digitize the logs.   People are just like that for potentially many reasons, as has been described.

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On 6/6/2019 at 6:18 PM, ragedracer1977 said:

As @EricJ can probably attest, good luck getting one of the DVT guys down there.  It's hard enough to get them to come down 3 hangar rows

You are not kidding, it took me months just to get IA and Avionics Tech to work on my C, and unfortunately, it has taken months since they started.  The Avionics portion was complete a couple weeks ago, but the A&P portion is dragging on.  

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