Eating Our Lunch
When we bought our airplane, we paid for a pre-sale inspection that we had hoped would uncover any big airworthiness issues. It did find several, though none of the big stuff that’s hitting us now during our first annual. It is true that if the pre-sale hadn’t caught what it did, we’d be paying two thousand more. The previous owner, Eugenio, was quite upset with what Bill found; the airplane had been through an annual only three months previously. We all know now that the quality of that annual was not very good at all.
We’ve had a few more surprises, and each one seems to cost us eight hundred to a thousand dollars. Along with having to replace the windscreen (not totally unexpected), we are having to replace the nose strut (due to corrosion) and have the engine mount repaired (rubbing into the tubing by a mismounted carb heat cable). We’re probably in the four to five thousand dollar range, twice what we were hoping for. While we probably can generate the cash to cover it, it’s causing us to re-evaluate whether owning an airplane is something we can afford to do. Adding to that scenario is a fair amount of financial insecurity; I work for the shuttle program and my job might disappear at any time and my wife’s up for tenure at her university and could not be granted it.
The airplane has been down for a month now. The new windscreen is here and a new nose strut is on the way. I haven’t heard anything about the motor mount, but my mechanic was supposed to check last week. I’ll check tomorrow to see what progress has been made. I hope to have the airplane back in the air by the middle of the month.
My plan is to make the first flight or two after the annual “test flights”. That means I won’t be allowing any passengers and will take the airplane through its paces, performing stalls and steep turns in the air and every type of landing and takeoff I know. Once I’m satisfied that everything is working the way it’s supposed to, I’ll let the wife and dog in the airplane. Hopefully, Connie will start on her license soon after. I’d also like to get my IFR currency back, and I’ll feel the airplane is ready for IFR after all this.
We’ve had a few more surprises, and each one seems to cost us eight hundred to a thousand dollars. Along with having to replace the windscreen (not totally unexpected), we are having to replace the nose strut (due to corrosion) and have the engine mount repaired (rubbing into the tubing by a mismounted carb heat cable). We’re probably in the four to five thousand dollar range, twice what we were hoping for. While we probably can generate the cash to cover it, it’s causing us to re-evaluate whether owning an airplane is something we can afford to do. Adding to that scenario is a fair amount of financial insecurity; I work for the shuttle program and my job might disappear at any time and my wife’s up for tenure at her university and could not be granted it.
The airplane has been down for a month now. The new windscreen is here and a new nose strut is on the way. I haven’t heard anything about the motor mount, but my mechanic was supposed to check last week. I’ll check tomorrow to see what progress has been made. I hope to have the airplane back in the air by the middle of the month.
My plan is to make the first flight or two after the annual “test flights”. That means I won’t be allowing any passengers and will take the airplane through its paces, performing stalls and steep turns in the air and every type of landing and takeoff I know. Once I’m satisfied that everything is working the way it’s supposed to, I’ll let the wife and dog in the airplane. Hopefully, Connie will start on her license soon after. I’d also like to get my IFR currency back, and I’ll feel the airplane is ready for IFR after all this.
posted by Andy Foster at 5:44 AM
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