traumamed
Pre-Flight
Longtime lurker, first-time poster. I hoped my first post would be something more positive, but I need some advice. I think I'm being run through the ringer by an A&P shop. A plane I bought eight months ago hasn't once left the ground with me in it yet. I bought it sight-unseen (bad mistake, lesson learned) on the other side of the country. I hired an A&P shop local to the area who had experience with this experimental type to do the prebuy, and the previous owner flew it to them. They found a few little things here and there, nothing major. I closed the deal. I then hired this same shop to fix what they had found and to do a $25K avionics upgrade.
Almost immediately, more stuff started turning up. Somehow they hadn't noticed the nose wheel was severely corroded, or that the wheel fairings scraped the wheels. Ok fine, fix that too. My pickup day arrives (five months ago) so I fly in. When I get there, they inform me the engine is leaking from the front crank seal, the landing light is inop, and the cowl flap motors are inop. None of this was in the pre-buy or had ever been mentioned to me before. The mains are both nearly flat. The left aileron scrapes the wing because the tolerance is too tight. There is a gaping hole in the panel where they had pulled an old component as part of the avionics upgrade, but didn't do anything to cover the resulting hole. The top of the dash fell off in my lap when I pulled on it because it wasn't affixed to the airframe or instrument panel. I fire it up and discover the throttle sticks and tries to spring back to ~1600 RPM whenever trying to close it beyond that. The charge system voltage is reading high. Neither COM radio works (and a GPS/NAV/COM was part of the upgrade). I notice the flaps are set to be fully retracted, but aren't aligned with the wing trailing edge.
I deem the plane unairworthy. I ask them how they missed all this stuff on the prebuy and they tell me "it wasn't apparent." I didn't even bring up the shoddy panel work. Reluctantly, I hire them to fix most of this stuff, because, well, I can't fly it anywhere else. More stuff starts popping up as the weeks go by. They say the brake system has multiple issues and needs a complete overhaul. Ok fine, rebuild the entire brake system. Pickup day #2 was supposed to be this Monday, but after booking travel, I get a call two days ago that the brakes "catastrophically failed" on a taxi test and the plane won't be ready. "And oh by the way, the right-seat PFD is having bootup issues now. We'll call you with more details tomorrow." Two days go by, no follow-up call.
I'm exasperated. I'm out several tens of thousands of dollars beyond my purchase price on a plane I probably wouldn't have bought had I known its true condition. That's water under the bridge I guess. The question now is how do I deal with this shop? The plane isn't airworthy to fly somewhere else.
Almost immediately, more stuff started turning up. Somehow they hadn't noticed the nose wheel was severely corroded, or that the wheel fairings scraped the wheels. Ok fine, fix that too. My pickup day arrives (five months ago) so I fly in. When I get there, they inform me the engine is leaking from the front crank seal, the landing light is inop, and the cowl flap motors are inop. None of this was in the pre-buy or had ever been mentioned to me before. The mains are both nearly flat. The left aileron scrapes the wing because the tolerance is too tight. There is a gaping hole in the panel where they had pulled an old component as part of the avionics upgrade, but didn't do anything to cover the resulting hole. The top of the dash fell off in my lap when I pulled on it because it wasn't affixed to the airframe or instrument panel. I fire it up and discover the throttle sticks and tries to spring back to ~1600 RPM whenever trying to close it beyond that. The charge system voltage is reading high. Neither COM radio works (and a GPS/NAV/COM was part of the upgrade). I notice the flaps are set to be fully retracted, but aren't aligned with the wing trailing edge.
I deem the plane unairworthy. I ask them how they missed all this stuff on the prebuy and they tell me "it wasn't apparent." I didn't even bring up the shoddy panel work. Reluctantly, I hire them to fix most of this stuff, because, well, I can't fly it anywhere else. More stuff starts popping up as the weeks go by. They say the brake system has multiple issues and needs a complete overhaul. Ok fine, rebuild the entire brake system. Pickup day #2 was supposed to be this Monday, but after booking travel, I get a call two days ago that the brakes "catastrophically failed" on a taxi test and the plane won't be ready. "And oh by the way, the right-seat PFD is having bootup issues now. We'll call you with more details tomorrow." Two days go by, no follow-up call.
I'm exasperated. I'm out several tens of thousands of dollars beyond my purchase price on a plane I probably wouldn't have bought had I known its true condition. That's water under the bridge I guess. The question now is how do I deal with this shop? The plane isn't airworthy to fly somewhere else.