How long has your plane set?

[N601RX]

As a follow on to the discussion about internal corrosion, what is the single longest time your plane has ever set without being flown for any reason. This is not the how often you normally fly it, but the single longest period it has set without being flown for any reason. Repairs, weather, medical, just didn't fly ect.

[carusoam]

My M20C sat for about two years outside prior to me buying it in 2000.  It had been an outdoor plane most of its life.  Most likely it's cabin was covered.  No significant air frame corrosion was found.  It had one issue in it's first 15 hours of my ownership, a stuck / bent valve shaft....

My flight instructor was under paid for the experience he gained that day.

 

Fly them often....

Best regards,

-a-

[Shadrach]

Mine sat idle for nearly 3 months when I pulled the engine in 2010/11. My owner assisted annual is taking longer than expected this year because of other obligations. It's been down for a month so far, and I expect it'll go another 2 weeks unfortunately. I sure hope it doesn't rot in 2 months.

[John Pleisse]

Mine has never sat for more than 4 weeks... it usually flies once a week min. 1 trip a month flat out. I only comment becaue my greatest fears are engines that sit. They don't have to sit long, especially in SE and Mid Atlantic. They corrode easily from the inside out. I am less concerned with an airframe that sits.

[Seth]

When I had my shoulder and knee surgeries in December 2009, I self grounded myself for a period of about three to four months.  Once I got use of my arm back to work the Johnson Bar on my F Model, I went up with an instructor to make sure I could actually operate it again.  So, the 1967 F model did sit from December until around late March without a flight.  In hindsight, I could have asked the MSC on the field to run it for me once a week or at least once a month just to keep the engine working. 

My Mooney Missile was down for the engine overhaul from the test flight prior to purchase in Mid July 2011 to a few days before pickup to fly home either Sept 30th or Oct 1, 2011.  Besides that, flown regularly, maybe sitting once for 20 days, but other than that, flown usually weekly.  Sometimes multiple times per week, sometimes missing a week here and there.

-Seth

 

 

[randypugh]

I own an airport and know of several airplanes that have sat for years then someone gets them out and going again with little or no problems. I here about the corrosion issues on Mooney space all the time and how many would never buy an airplane that sat but I have never witnessed the problem. Maybe location has a lot to do with this. We had a 400 Comanchee that sat for 5 or 6 years and never moved. Got a fresh anual and went back to flying. 200+ hours later and still no problems. My point is, I think that there are a lot of planes that sit more than you think.

[kris_adams]

3 weeks other than when doing the engine last year.  It took 2 months from beginning to end for that. 

[Jeff_S]

My plane has a period (I think 2 years) where there's no annual in the logs, so I assume it was sitting somewhere during this time. This was before the prior owner bought it, and he spent a great deal of money fixing it up and it's flown regularly since then.  The engine seems to be performing quite well...Blackstone said of my last oil analysis "that's one good looking Lycoming engine."

[David Mazer]

The infamous Coy Jacobs had my plane for an expected 6 weeks that turned into over 3 months while only doing 2/3 of the work.  The plane had just come out of annual when he received the plane with all 6 cylinders in the 70s and using about 1 qt of oil per 4 hrs of flight.  He didn't turn the engine over once and it sat in Venice Fl right on the Gulf of Mexico.  When the pllane returned it was using 2 qts of oil per 1 hr of flight.  The oil consumption came down after about 5 hrs of flight to 1 qt per 2 hrs and the engine had to be rebuilt at the next annual.

[David Mazer]

As a side note, I have a friend that allowed an Arrow to sit for 3 years at KSFB.  When he finally decided to do the annual and start flying again, the plane was totaled.  The engine was shot and the fuselage had corrosion everywhere.  As they say in real estate - location, location, location.

[Jerry 5TJ]

My plane has sat in the same hanger for the past 37 years.   It has been in and out frequently, however, with the longest interval not flying being 5 months while waiting for parts one annual.

 

[kortopates]

I don't have much first hand experience with engine corrosion, but A&P school went into this in some detail. The main points were that the lycoming cam shaft and lifters, being at the top are the most vulnerable and that it typically takes 2 to 3 years before the cam and lifters will deteriorate from an extended period of lack of use and lubrication. 

This thread piqued my own curiosity about how long my current engine has gone between flights cycles. Since I have all my data in Excel it was easy to take a quick look at the real data. Although most of my flights are weekly with the occasional weekend or two off, I was surprised to see an outlier of 42 days as the biggest break (while vacationing in Europe) and 3 other month long periods – all over a 8 year period.  But as the plot shows below, my engine gets regular use with the majority within a week. 

 

[jetdriven]

Aviation consume did a test with metal coupons heated and dipped into oil.  Straight oil had rust spreading on it at about 14 days.  Camguard treated oil could go as long as 30 days.   Anyways, if ours was sitting coming on 14 days I would go run it 20 minutes.   Not as good as flying, but still.  spreads the oil around.   John h hit the nail on the head, it's the engine that suffers.  It appears to be a lycoming  problem an a recent one at that.  

 

Its serious as well.  A cam spalling event is going to be 7k minimum, at worst a 25-30k overhaul.