Propeller Availability Rant

[farmrjohn]

Well, welcome to the non-flying hangar paperweight club. Pulled the propeller in early May for the annual for inspection and re-finishing (over 1800 hrs. on it) and it failed the inspection due to corrosion in the mounting holes. The shop indicated 10-12 weeks for a new prop which I ordered and paid for May 30 since I was unable to find a used one. Checked with McCauley June 26 to check on progress and they advised about 8 weeks out. Checked today and was informed April 2025. WTF? Anyone know of a useable DCM 69/xx prop? This is for an O-200 that was installed via a 337 field approval as a replacement for a C-90.

The engine has fresh oil in it with the only time on it for leak checks after the oil and filter change. How do I store the engine if indeed I need to wait until after April. (There could be further delay since I"ll need the new prop re-pitched because I ordered a 69/48 due to the claimed delivery time vs. "next year sometime" for a 69/50 which the 337 had.) This annual is going to wind up costing close to 1/2 the current value of the plane since the magnetos were due their 500 hour IRAN. With the cost of a new prop, how does one go about disposing of a propless airplane? The engine is past the 1800hr/12 year tbo point.

Just curious, does anyone know who owns McCauley and where they get their aluminum?

 

[hindsight2020]

I empathize with your troubles and AOG frustrations. It's insane how some apologists still booster these dynamics as a "thriving" hobby. It's crazy. fwiw, you wouldn't have this problem if you weren't tied to some anachronistic TCDS/STC hamstringing, that's a fact. Make that what you will/pivot accordingly. Good luck to ya.

"Disposing" of a non-flying plane is not impossible. I did so in 2023, in 20 days.

 

[TCABM]

We went thru this earlier this year. It sucks and added two months downtime to our OH.

 

[farmrjohn]

I'm now thinking about going "all in" with the added down time and getting a full engine overhaul since the engine is past both TBO benchmarks even though it was running fine with the exception of annoying oil leaks. Of course that will really put the cost well beyond the value of the plane but taking a look in the cylinders revealed what looks like flash rust on the walls. It's still annoying to be told initially up to 3 months then have another 8 tacked on, sigh.