Prospective Buyer Questions

[edasmus]

If the plane is parked outside, on my airplane the danger spots are:

1) FUEL CONTAMINATION..... The airplane left the factory with thermos bottle type caps. Mine are less than a year old now but that accident report has been written many many times. The caps have a high probability of letting water in. This would be a HHHHUUUUGGGGEEEE concern for me on an airplane living outside. I do believe there is a retrofit kit that completely changes that fuel cap configuration to solve this problem. I would look into this as I am not educated to it. My airplane never gets wet.


2) AVIONICS ACCESS PANELS located in front of the windshield. I learned this lesson the hard way at Oshkosh back in 2003. There is a service bulletin dealing with this. I have complied with this but would never trust it. This panels will leak eventually and avionics will get WET.


3) DOORS AND WINDOWS... not really a safety issue but not good for the air-frame. Corrosion will eventually begin. This could likely be resolved with big efforts in replacing all windows and associated seals but I doubt that any air-frame of any model aircraft can be made completely water tight. They are old and hand made and no two airplanes are the same. The stuff never fits perfectly. Just my opinion.


Also, on this date, my old engines are still good. They have about 1670 hours since factory reman or about 170 past the recommended TBO. As mentioned, I will keep running them until I lose faith or they show a sign of distress. Preferably that sign of distress would occur in the shop and not in the air. I guess that's where the "faith" part comes into play. Infant mortality seems to be the greatest risk of all to new or recently overhauled engines. I'm in no hurry to go there. My IA's 75 hour SMOH with brand new factory cylinders is having valve trouble. That sucks.....

Good Luck and I'll help if I can.

Ed