Wish everyone was as honorable to deal with as you Adam. We’ve all had cases where that’s not what happened. (Clapping hands).

Yes. +1

I tell our clients we need three things to make a good deal, a good airplane, a good agreement and a good SELLER!

Many buyers have lost exhorbinate amounts of time and money because the seller couldn’t or wouldn’t do what they said.

Same is true of bad buyers... they might be even more prevelent, but we make sure our buyers are honorable and able, if not we won’t represent them.

Looks like it will fall out of escrow now. I've done my bit. I'm kind of happy about it, to be honest. Always wanted to keep her after all I've spent on her and the voes we've had, just underestimated how much money a startup eats.

Plan is to fix the most pressing stuff in Oregon, then ferry her back here and try to do as much as I can locally and at a slower pace. Wish us luck.

Good luck, Adam. I admire your persistence and determination. I hope to meet you and see her in person some time!

Was the pre buy being done at Aero Air?

At this point would it not make more sense to just fix everything and be done so you can fly her and enjoy, rather than putting yourself through more pain with continuing the slow approach?

Yes sir.

Aero Air is good and will get it fixed but they are not cheap. I did some heavy maintenance on my 500B there (gear and boots). They did a good job but it definitely set me back. What is remaining to be done?

Agreed. They do things right there, but they're pretty strict with stuff, which is great and is as it should be, but when you have an old airframe it can sometimes be like bringing an old house up to the latest building code.

The big items are:

1. 3rd stage T-wheel needs replacing for a used one on one engine. Cycled out.
2. New boots on main wing.
3. Needs pressurization leaks chased.
4. Needs props inspected (this is an SB, so optional).

Then there's a lots of smaller niggly stuff, but it adds up. The fuel bladders have now been repaired and hopefully they'll not leak anymore. One less thing to deal with. The scary one is the turbine wheel. I have an estimate for that that's manageable, but when they open the engine up it could get worse. Trying to avoid it becoming a full hot when it doesn't need to be.

Keeping these old turbines flying can be a bit frustrating and expensive, but they sure are great to fly:-)

The PT6 is in many ways a better engine when you run them over TBO or to do hots on them. They seem to be a lot cheaper in general to hot and it can in most scenarios be done on the wing. TPE's need to be cradled and sent off, which adds time and money.

The PT6 is in many ways a better engine when you run them over TBO or to do hots on them. They seem to be a lot cheaper in general to hot and it can in most scenarios be done on the wing. TPE's need to be cradled and sent off, which adds time and money.

Boy howdy, am I ever with you there, brother.

Not just money, but time too.

Good analogy, and very true.

Out of all the things on your list one I would defer is the boots. The boots on my 500B were comically old, with all kinds of patches and repairs. But they still inflated and kind of shed ice. I did the whole plane and expected the brand new boots would shed ice much better. But in the end they performed about the same. And the best anti ice on a turbine is all that horsepower, so I would defer boots if you need to save money.

Yes the turbine wheel does sound scary. If you can find a used one that sounds like a great idea. I'm not sure a PT6 is all that much better. Yes, it's easy to get at the hot section and you can do it on wing. But PWC has really strict criteria for the CT blades and all kinds of inspections you need to do based on TT, condition, etc. And they cost like $600 each (58 per engine) so not cheap if you have to replace.

Your pressurization doesn't make full differential? Are you sure it's caused by leaks and not the bleed air valves? I know nothing about TCAC bleed air valves but I think they all include some kind of regulator which could also be the problem. Having Aero Air fix that would probably be best because they know exactly how to troubleshoot and where to look for the most common problems.

As for the props, a commander is the one airframe I always thought was best to have well maintained props. If you lose a blade, it could go right through the cabin. It happened at least once that I know of and killed someone.

Good luck man. Sucks especially since you had to endure MK for a while before figuring out it was time to bolt.

Different shops can have different philopophies while both maintain the plane to standards. Some are all about eliminating down time with expense a secondary concern. Others, can take more time to fix, shop for parts etc. and be more reasonable. Hard to change how a shop does things. Better to find one more in tune with one's operating philosophy.