What to do with downtime?

Challenged

Challenged

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Apr 4, 2011
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Challenged
I think I'm getting close to taking possession of my new plane. I signed the sales agreement on it more than 2 months ago, but the shop doing the annual hasn't been able to get to it. Normally this would concern me, but since I was trying to sell my Sierra I didn't really care, since I didn't have hangar space for the new plane. In addition, the shop itself has a stellar reputation, so I can give some leeway there to feel a little better about the plane once I get it.

Here's the really annoying part. About a week after I'll be taking possession of the plane, my airport is closing down for 2 months due to do a runway rehab project. Hangars are hard to come by in the area, and I'd hate to just let my plane either sit in my hangar for two months or sit out on a ramp at another local airport. So...

I don't really care for the paint job on the plane, so I'm contemplating just flying it to a paint shop and let them paint it for me instead of having it sit in my hangar and being unusable. How long would that generally take? The interior is pretty good already, but could perhaps use some small work as well, which would take an additional small amount of time.

The other option I have is that the engine is over TBO (~400 hours). Do I just bite the bullet and do a major overhaul since I have some time to kill? Another thread I started on this issue seemed to think it's generally better to just fly the plane until you need an overhaul and not to do anything preemptively.
 
My advice is don’t do anything to the plane until you have it and can fly it for a while to figure out what all is wrong with it.

Will the airport possibly allow you to take off and land on the taxiway during construction? Or is there another airport reasonably close that has some ramp space or a community hangar you could tuck it in for a few months?

Now if you must do something...

I really doubt you’re going to find a paint shop worth taking a plane to that has an opening on such short notice but I could be wrong.

The engine overhaul option might not be a bad one if your preferred shop has the time to help. I’d guess a project like that would take a couple of months to complete if you’re overhauling the engine on the plane now. If you’re exchanging it the downtime may be less.
 
Taxiway and runway are both being worked on, so I won't be able to takeoff from the taxiway unfortunately.
 
Wondering what plane you bought? Why are you selling the Sierra? I do like the small Beech airframe, slow but built like a brick sh*t house and easy to work on...:)
 
The agreement is on a V-Tail Bonanza. I enjoyed the Sierra a great deal, it was a solid, reliable airplane. That said, my family will certainly enjoy the additional speed and baggage area in a V for trips. I also just sort of wanted something different, so kind of just scratching an itch with a new plane.
 
You could post the airport name and someone nearby may offer to help.

I know that when 52F got resurfaced many refugees came over to T67. I had one in my hangar and arranged for @SixPapaCharlie to be 2 doors down. I think Bryan paid with beer. I got beer and Scotch.

If you have time you can drive around some the nearby places and ask. You'll likely get everything from "Get lost" to "Sure, bring it over" to "Okay, $750/mo.
 
I bet you will miss the door on the pilot side..:( All the performance up grades will help ease the pain of loosing the second door..:)
 
I guess if it were me I would forgo the paint and have the engine work done. That way you start out with a strong power plant. Having the engine overhauled would most likely make you feel more comfortable traveling with loved ones.
 
I'll miss the pilot side door for sure, my wife was actually disappointed in that too since it helps us all efficiently load the plane. I wish I had the scratch for an A36, financially can't make that happen unfortunately. I'll probably still be stuck looking at Trade-A-Plane every night even after purchasing this one and making it my own.
 
Why rebuild engine if it is running fine? Unless you just like wasting money. Well cared for engines could go substantially beyond TBO
 
If the annual hasn’t been started yet, and if the annual isn’t due for some time yet, why not fly the wheels off of it. Would give you a lot more knowledge on what to do repair/ upgrade wise.

Of course if that’s not possible, I would recommend finding a way into another bo temporarily so you can do some initial training/ recurrent. I believe simcom has bo training. Can never be too trained or confident when flying precious cargo
 
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