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Posted

Does anyone have comments on any of these NE MSC’s for using as a pre buy shop?

1) Infinity Aviation - Nashua, NH

2) C&W Aero Services - Fairfield, NJ

Air Mods is not being considered due to recent work.

Any other shops within an hour from NYC?

Thanks!

 

Posted

So if Air Mods did an oil change, replaced a tire or did an Annual recently their opinion on the plane now is no good.  I’ve rendered lots of opinions on airplanes that I take care of currently for a new owner.  In fact I have numerous airplanes on their third or fourth owners, I’ve done all of the maintenance including PPI’s.

 

Posted
6 minutes ago, M20Doc said:

So if Air Mods did an oil change, replaced a tire or did an Annual recently their opinion on the plane now is no good.  I’ve rendered lots of opinions on airplanes that I take care of currently for a new owner.  In fact I have numerous airplanes on their third or fourth owners, I’ve done all of the maintenance including PPI’s.

 

Clarence,

I value your opinion and your experience carries a lot of weight with me. However, I’m a rookie at this and am only going by what I’ve read as best practices. Air Mods has done several of the recent annuals, actually 5 in a row, right before a very expensive one, exceeding $12,000. Based on that, I feel I should take Mike Busch’s advice and take it to a shop that has no prior experience with it.

Chuck

Posted

He consulted with me when I was shopping.     I could not get the airplane to him for the prebuy, but he worked with the shop that did it, and recently did my first annual.   

  • Like 1
Posted
5 hours ago, RoundTwo said:

Air Mods has done several of the recent annuals, actually 5 in a row, right before a very expensive one, exceeding $12,000.

I'm going to venture to say that if Air Mods has a $12,000 annual after a number of prior annuals, the previous owner differed a lot of items until they couldn't be differed any longer, or there was just a major issue that was just discovered.  There's also the issue of cost of parts these days, pending what the issues are.

Do you know what items are driving up the cost of the current work to $12K? And does it make sense why the cost is so high?

And I get the concept of taking the plane to someone that hasn't worked on it before.  So from a NYC prospective, I'd probably go with C&W.  But where is the plane now?  I'd still put Air Mods at the top of my list (my plane is there now for the Annual), but if you happen to be at FRG or out on LI, you might give Ventura (Air East) a call.  One of the original owners (that may be retired) is a Mooney owner.

 

Posted

C&W gets great reviews…

No surprise that they are pricey…

They sit on an airport right outside NYC… where the cost of living is just expensive….

 

If the plane has gone for regular maintenance including annuals at AirMods… going back to them would not be very independent…

where one of the ground rules for wallet protection is to take it to a shop that is independent of its recent regular maintenance…

 

There is also an MSC on the east end of PA that gets mentioned a few times around here with good ratings…

+1 for Byron at RPM aviation at KGAI aka @jetdriven

 

Other non-MSC shops I have used for Mooney Maintenance… Alan at South Jersey Regional… and Kenny at Princeton…. Both shops see a fair amount of Mooney traffic…

 

PP thoughts only, not a mechanic…

Best regards,

-a-

Posted

It also comes down to who is available to even do the PPI, all the good shops are busy.  Since the Continental engine SB came out on Monday, I’ve picked up 6 SR22’s to do the SB on and their ongoing work, with another new on coming for a PPI and importation from the US.

GA seems to be booming.

Posted
4 minutes ago, M20Doc said:

It also comes down to who is available to even do the PPI, all the good shops are busy.  Since the Continental engine SB came out on Monday, I’ve picked up 6 SR22’s to do the SB on and their ongoing work, with another new on coming for a PPI and importation from the US.

GA seems to be booming.

That’s a great point that may change everything.

Posted

Any thoughts on FlightLevel Norwood in MA?

Henry Weber in Lititz, PA is another possibility.

Everything else up that way is booked up and the Continental SB/AD isn’t helping either.

Posted
24 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

Isn't that one in Norwood MA the one that missed the rear spar corrosion? 

Yup. New owner hired them to do a pre-buy inspection. He bought the plane December 20, 2021.  He asked the same MSC to continue the pre-buy into an Annual.  20 days after doing the pre-buy the same MSC comes back and says that the Lower cap on RH wing stub spar assembly inside inspection panel area directly behind RH gear wheel well has heavy intergranular defoliation corrosion. Metal has flaked away. He asked the MSC how come that they didn't find this on the prebuy, he said that is not something common for a prebuy inspection,

14 months after the corrosion was discovered, I think it is still being worked on by a different shop although they may be close to finishing - AFIK the owner has not yet been able to fly the plane since purchase in December 2021.

 

Posted
6 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

Yup. New owner hired them to do a pre-buy inspection. He bought the plane December 20, 2021.  He asked the same MSC to continue the pre-buy into an Annual.  20 days after doing the pre-buy the same MSC comes back and says that the Lower cap on RH wing stub spar assembly inside inspection panel area directly behind RH gear wheel well has heavy intergranular defoliation corrosion. Metal has flaked away. He asked the MSC how come that they didn't find this on the prebuy, he said that is not something common for a prebuy inspection,

14 months after the corrosion was discovered, I think it is still being worked on by a different shop although they may be close to finishing - AFIK the owner has not yet been able to fly the plane since purchase in December 2021.

 

I’m very familiar with that story as that was one of the first planes I was interested in. I think this is a good enough reason to remove them from consideration.

Posted
14 hours ago, RoundTwo said:

Any thoughts on FlightLevel Norwood in MA?

Henry Weber in Lititz, PA is another possibility.

Everything else up that way is booked up and the Continental SB/AD isn’t helping either.

If you are going to Lititz, I would fly the extra 30 minutes or so and go to Byron at KGAI.

Posted
7 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

If you are going to Lititz, I would fly the extra 30 minutes or so and go to Byron at KGAI.

I will be trying for sure.

Posted (edited)
11 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

14 months after the corrosion was discovered, I think it is still being worked on by a different shop although they may be close to finishing - AFIK the owner has not yet been able to fly the plane since purchase in December 2021.

Still waiting on the plane, the shop that is currently working on it email me 2 weeks ago to go and pick it up but three days after they called me to say they have flown the aircraft and it was pulling to the left and they need to check the rigging. Two weeks after that, still radio silence, so I don't know how many weeks, months or years is going to take to rig the airplane.

BTW: I'm starting to truly believe that GA industry is totally broken. I'm not talking about parts availability or things that are hard to fix, but customer service is a disaster, my two experience so far, one of which is with a highly renowned shop for Mooneys, is crappy in regards of customer service. Total lack of communication, and I'm not talking about daily communication, I'm talking about not answering emails or not giving an estimate on when a job is going to be finished or even started after they have had my aircraft for 10 months now. My point is that it doesn't cost money to fix customer service, it's just replying an email, having a schedule for the shop and giving precise information.

Edited by redbaron1982
  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, Pinecone said:

There ARE good shops and companies.

Our own Byron (JetDriven) is one.   My local FBO is another, but not Mooney centric.

Agreed, a shop with broader experience is better in my opinion.  One trick ponies are just that.

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