Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes Help me find the owner!

Yippee for you, David! Looking forward to hearing about all your new experiences!

You've been at this for a little while David...so I'm glad you found your bird...well done.

Hopefully I'll be able to join you shortly.

What a horrible day yesterday. Me AND a friend took off of work to go pick up the plane yesterday afternoon since Thurs and Fri weather were/are going to be crappy around here and the owner wanted it gone by Sat. Got there, everything looked in order, paid the man, got my Bill of Sales and I was on my way ?so I thought.

First, the gas pump was locked and there was nobody at the po-dunk airport to unlock it for 45 mins (mind you storms were rolling in from the West). Finally got gas. In the mean-time had done a thorough pre-flight and run the engine up. All looked good except the primer leaks when you pull it out (o-ring replacement on plunger?).

Welllll, finally ready to go and realize we're having radio problems in BOTH planes (storms getting much closer ~ 15nm West of us by now). Realized it was a faulty transmit switch in my buddies plane (solved by using co-pilot switch - good enough for way home). My #2 nav/com (RT-328) was still having problems (#1 Com is out of aircraft for repair). Could not transmit or receive. Troubleshot for another 30 mins before I finally had to give up or get rained/t-stormed in for 2 days. Left the plane there with a not-so-nice message with the avionics folks who had just installed an intercom and confirmed the 328 was fine. Got off the ground in some light rain, still east of the storm and had no problems getting South of it (it was moving NE, we were heading S). A 30kt direct headwind made it a long 2 hr, frustrating flight home. ...not to mention the C-5 (!) Dover approach passed 1,000' below us in low vis w/o ever giving us a heads up. I had just started to calm down over having to leave the plane there, then saw the gigantic C-5 coming at us 1000' below (didn't appear that low from 3 nm) without ANY heads up from Dover Approach who we were both speaking to.

Anyhow, it's just frustrating. Little problems, but it was an expensive complete waste of time going up to NJ and back. We'll see what the avionics shop says after they start looking at it this morning.

The ink is barely dried on your Bill of Sale and you're experiencing the "joy of ownership" already.

Just heard word from the shop. Apparently there was nothing actually wrong with the radio, it just wasn't getting enough power. I was not aware of this, but apparently the old RT-328s need almost 14V to work properly. All of the trouble shooting we were doing was engine off or engine at low idle (<1000 RPM). It appears the radio wasn't getting enough power at those conditions. The problem was repeatable when the avionics shop tested the radio engine off. Idling above 1,000 RPM, it transmits/receives fine. They said that's about the best I can expect from the old radio. The MK-12D goes back in at the end of the week.
Hopefully I can find a new o-ring from the fuel primer before I go back up there but even if not, it's no biggie. The biggest problem is getting a ride back up there!!

Glad to hear you made it back safe... i can accept older designs like our 150's that are well maintained, old combustion designs like our O-200's, etc... but with the price of used avionics, I would be swapping out 30 yr. plus radios.... If your radios are newer, then never mind, but if you just need a basic com/nav, the used prices are good... I personally like the SL30 nav/com...if I could find a good used price on one...

Keep your chin up. I was at the brink of selling 4JY in january 07 (purchased it 12/06) because of the BS and small problems. I still have some of the problems but after 30 hrs of flying my own plane I don't let it get to me. Stick with it. if you have 1/2 of the fun I have had it is well worth it.
Best of luck
John KLWM

Well I finally get to end this thread! Got her back home on Sunday dispite all the ice up in NJ. Thanks to all who helped out in the buying process! (and thanks for putting up with an 11 pg thread!) I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. It feels great to be able to make an informed decision buying my first plane. Couldn't have done it w/o all of your help.

Next stage is to re-do the pannel overlay and some other small cosemetic stuff. I'll be sure to post pics of the process.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the air!

Thanks again!!

David, Looking forward to seeing you in CLINTON !

Ron

This has been a great thread to follow... I never understood the Title though?