A mooney in sad shape at gladewater 07F

[Will.iam]

Gladewater had the cheapest price for 100LL in the DFW area and i needed to fly my mooney for at least an hour anyways so i went out there to load up on gas for preparation to fly to oshkosk next weekend and saw this mooney sitting on the ramp. Sad to see one neglected, maybe Allen Fox could use some parts for spares as it looks like it would be more expensive to fix than to scrap. Anybody know the history/story behind N3509X?

unknown owner and last flew in 2009 up by chicago  long ay from that point and surprising how bad it looks after just 12 years since last flight.

 

[ArtVandelay]

Wow, and someone removed (or stole) the fuel cap, so the tank probably corroded from water.

[N201MKTurbo]

In airplane ads they usually rate paint on a 1 to 10 scale. I think we have found the zero.

[Guest]

What a shame, it looks like they were adding loads of mods to the airframe.

Clarence

[Will.iam]

Yes both fuel tank caps were gone all three tires are flat have no idea what year or model this one was but felt sad that someone just shoved it out to the pasture to rot away. Looked like it had been there for decades but was flying in 2009. Maybe it needed a paint job then already who knows. 

[LevelWing]

The FAA has it listed as a 1966 M20F that was last registered in 2015. Sad to see aircraft like this sitting there rotting away. It would be a great project if someone wanted to undertake it, but it's likely not worth the money required to fix it.

[ArtVandelay]

Is there no tie down fees? I see this with boats as well. I don’t understand why, if you stop using it then sell it.

[PeteMc]

We had a short body on our field sitting for years.  Father died and the family apparently partially did not want to sell it because of the memories and partially because they really didn't know what to do.  So the Estate kept paying the tie-down.

Airport recently did a shuffle of the ramp giving a huge chunk to one of the FBOs for jets.  Part of the process to relocate the planes from the lost tie-downs was to move out non airworthy planes.  Not sure how they did it (fixed enough for a ferry permit, hauled away, etc.), but something like 8 planes were removed. 

 

[aviatoreb]

Wow.  That is one of the worst shape airplanes I have seen, at least for sitting on a tarmac.  With the fuel caps removed, there is probably gallons and gallons of rain water sitting in the tanks.  That airplane is probably even beyond possibility of an eager project plain since the corrosion is probably epic.  Very sad.  Planes like that sometimes have a story behind it.  There is a piper Cherokee sitting on the tarmac at my airplane for must be close to ten years.  It was in good flying shape when it was last parked, but the owner passed away suddenly and I don't think the family knew what to make of the airplane and so it sits.

[kortopates]

we had a minus 10+ out of 10 paint abandoned old Mooney A model with wood wing. So bad that most of the top wood skins were gone - eaten or rotted away - exposing the wing bays. Its doubtful any salvage valued remained. Story i heard was similar to above in that the family was making the tie down payments till they found out there wasn’t anything left of it.
Sadly there are way to many of these across the country!


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[Bravoman]

And many sitting in hangars that haven’t been opened  years also.

[Igor_U]

Yes, this one is in a bad shape. it's a early 67 model (670047) and beyond salvage, IMHO. It has a 201 style yokes, ironically.

Sad is there are many planes on ramps like this. Around here (SEA) there are few at my field but somehow a lot at KPLU in even worse condition. And some didn't move in 15 years. Sad.