Paul Anton wrote: > > Hello All: > > I have to add a comment here. My A&P and A.I. have made two > trips to my plane to get the estimate together. I asked Jim where > we were sitting on his fee so far. He replied that he wasn't really > worried about it--he was more interested in trying to save > my plane--- $50.00 should do it to date. > > NOW how about quitting the dumping on ALL mechanics!! > > Cheers: > > Paul > N2409H > > __________________________________________________________________________ ______ > To unsubscribe from this list please send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > _______________________________________________________ > Follow the U.S. presidential race on our Politics list! > http://www.topica.com/lists/politics
Okay Guys-n-Gals,
I was going to stay out of this one but I guess it's about time I
'fessed-up' and told my story. It seems like it will fit right in with
this current 'string' of comments and remarks.
Way back, in the spring of '98, I had a really good annual done on
my
coupe, including new mags, new ignition harnesses new plugs, etc.
I wanted to convert to Clevelands and get away from those phony
Goodyear things that some people refer to as 'brakes' but I couldn't
afford both the Clevelands and the mags at the same time and I really
needed to go with the mags so I could (at a later date) install a radio
since my unsheilded harness made it impossible to use my hand held due
to ignition noise.
In the 13 1/2 years I've had my coupe I've been flying it like
back in
the olden days before airplanes had radios in them. (How many of you
remember those days, when you could land on a dirt road and taxi up to
a filling station to refuel, fly under bridges and land on ocean
beaches?)
Anyway, the very next time I went out to fly my coupe after this
extensive annual, I got a little damage on the leading edge of the
right wing. Not very serious but it dented the metal in the leading edge
and scuffed the fabric.
Here (very briefly)is how it happened. I pulled it out of the
hangar
and washed it in preperation to fly along with another coupe for our
monthly fly-in. Because I was running a little late and still had to
walk over to my car and put on dry shoes and socks I decided to pull the
coupe away from the wet grass and start it up and let it idle to warm up
the engine and the oil for the few minutes that it would take me to
change my shoes and socks. Upon starting it, the oil pressure came up
and everything looked fine so I pulled the parking brake out as hard as
I could and turned it to lock it properly, pulled the throttle back to a
slow idle and started for my car which was approximately 100 feet
away. Just before I got to my car I sensed that the sound of the
engine had changed a little (as in 'moving'). I turned and looked over
my shoulder and sure enough, it was moving. As the temperature went up a
little so did the RPM and those worthless Goodyears didn't hold. (Okay,
don't flame me and rub it in. I know, I should have also 'chocked' the
wheels but I didn't.) I feel stupid enough as it is, how many times
have I told people that you NEVER leave a plane with the engine running
without either 'chocking' the wheels or having a "QUALIFIED" person in
the cockpit to hold the brakes, or both. (Actually, I probably should
get 'flamed', I deserve it!)
I ran over to the coupe and as I stepped up on the left wing and
grabbed the rear edge of the window sill (I'd left the windows down) my
"WET" shoe slipped off the rear of the wing and now the coupe was
dragging me along at the unbelievable speed of perhaps 2 MPH (sort of
reminds me of the old 'Keystone Cops' movies). I let go of the
windowsill and jumped back up and just as I got up on the wing again and
started to reach inside the right wind hit a fence post and we stopped
moving. I shut off the engine and looked at the parking brake handle and
it had not slipped, it was still all the way out and locked. (BTW, we
checked the brake 'pucks' during the annual since I had decided to go
with the new mags instead of the Clevelands and they still had a lot of
thickness left and the disks were in good shape.)
I pulled the plane back away from the fence and examined the wing
and
it had done enough damage that I didn't want to take a chance on flying
it and maybe having the wind rip the fabric off during flight. Luckily,
it hit 'between' the leading edge ribs and just pushed in the soft metal
about an inch or so. Anyway, I didn't feel comfortable flying it so I
put it back in the hangar and about that time my buddy did a low fly-by
to let me know that he was fueled up and ready to go. I motioned for him
to land so he did and I told him what had happened. I couldn't ride up
with him as he had another passenger so I told him to go ahead and I'd
fly my 'Caddy' up the freeway and meet him there as soon as I could get
there. Well, my old Caddy will cruise faster than my coupe will but
unfortunately the law doesn't allow it so I got there a little late.
And, of course, by the time I got there everyone knew that I had
'crashed' my coupe. (That's what 'buddies' are for, right? Rub a little
salt in your wounds to make them feel better.) :-))))
Okay, that's the background, now here's how I'll tie it in with
the
current topic.......
The next day I started looking for someone in the area who could
do
good fabric work and since my wings had been down back in '83 or so I
decided rather than to try and patch it, to get a new leading edge from
Univair and completely recover the wing and also inspect it really good
for corrosion.
I called a very well know airplane designer/builder and airshow
performer who lives in this area and asked him if he had time to take
care of me and he said that he was swamped with work but he referred me
to someone. So, I assumed that this other guy must be good or my friend
would not have recommended him to me. I called him and he said yes he
could do it for me if I'd order the material with my Visa. He told me
who to call and what to order and how much of it. (Fabric, dope,
thinner, etc.) And of course I called Univair and ordered the new
leading edge and had it shipped to me via "motor-freight" (which cost me
about the same as the leading edge did).
I also told this guy that while he had it apart to call me as I
wanted
to look for any sign of corrosion. In a few days he called me and told
me that it was all apart so I drove over to his town and the wing looked
like it had just been built yesterday. All bright and shiny new looking
metal with absolutely no sign of corrosion at all (this is the original
wing). I was really happy to see that so I asked him to 'zinc chromate'
it while it was apart and he said he would. Some time later he called me
and said that it was finished but he had gone over the estimate a
little. Well, that didn't surprise me to much and the over charge was
only about $100 so I said I'd have the money and be over to his house on
a certain day.
I called him back before I drove out that day to be sure he was
home
and he said that he had moved my wing out to another nearby airport and
put it in his hangar as he needed the room in his shop for another job.
So, we met there at his airport and he wanted the money in the parking
lot before we walked over to his hangar as his buddy was with him and he
had to leave and go pick up some material for his other job. I gave him
the money and I drove my pickup over to his hangar to get my wing. Then
I knew why he wanted his hands on the money first. (Yeh, I know, I
messed up again, but I trusted him because of the guy who referred him
to me.)
The shade of yellow was like what you see on a "Ryder" Rental
Truck and
my other wing was about like a J-3 Cub. Both are yellow but not at all
alike. I wasn't very happy!!!
He told me he had enough left over to make my other wing match it
and
he'd paint it for me for only $100 labor and then they would match.
(Yeah, right, then I'd have TWO ugly wings.) Anyway, we loaded the wing
and drove it over to my airport and he helped me hang it on the coupe.
(Now I had an ugly wing with a pretty yellow shiney aileron that didn't
match at all.)
Now that the wing was on the plane I looked it over closer and
found a
couple of runs in the pain and the screws that go into the ribs stuck up
about twice as high as the ones in the other wing. Fine, this will
effect the airflow over the wings differently and create an 'unequal'
amount of lift. Right? Well, I was getting more and more unhappy as the
conversation went on. Then I looked underneith to be sure that he had
put the 'swiss-cheese' effect in as I told him to (I told him to save
the bottom of the old fabric in one big piece and use it as a template
to get the holes in the correct places as he knows nothing about
Ercoupes). This was the only thing he did right, but he hadn't cut them
out and also he forgot to paint the inspection covers to match the
color. Oh, by the way he didn't zinc chromate my wings either, he used
some sort of stuff that he had on hand that is real dark green, almost
black. He said nobody uses zinc chromate anymore that's old technology
and this is the stuff that replaced it. B.S.!!!!
By now I was forseeing a big hassle coming so I just opened my
briefcase and said "look, just sign it off and leave before we have a
real problem here". Then the proverbial "other shoe fell".
He couldn't sign it off because he doesn't have an A&P license!!!
I
said, "you mean I've spent over $3000 for you to make me an illegal
airplane that I can't even fly?" His reply was for me to "just not tell
anyone that it had been repaired and not to worry about it because
probably half of the planes flying around aren't legal anyway". This guy
doesn't have another job, this is what he does for a living!!!!
Oh, I just thought of another thing, he used the 'blanket' fabric
method rather than envelopes. He didn't want me to order the envelopes
since "they usually don't fit right anyway".
Then upon inspecting the wing I see he ran the fabric from
wingroot to
wingtip rather than from front to back. This way if I ever hit a bird or
something and get a rip, the wind will take the whole piece of fabric
off instead of just one width of it and 'maybe' allow me to make it down
with out spinning in due to the lift of only one wing.
Well, (remember this was in the summer of '98) so now what do I
do. I
can't fly it and I'm broke, and I'm MAD! I waited for about a week or so
and cooled down and had a lot of convrsations with myself about how
could I be so stupid as to let all of this happen to me just because I
wanted to wash my plane before going to that fly-in.
Here's the latest....I looked around and found an AP/IA who I've
used
before to do annuals and he said that he also does fabric work. Why
didn't I think to ask him in the first place???????
I ordered all new material, ENVELOPES, Aerothane, Stits, etc. and
am
having both wings redone from the bare ribs out, to have a set of 'like
new' wings and to heck with letting a computer match the color for me. I
ordered a set of color chips and I picked the one that matches my old
fabric perfectly.
Now, remember the $3,000 that I threw away to get an 'illegal'
wing?
This guy is doing BOTH wings AND including a fresh annual (because it's
expired while it's been sitting) for $1,000 and I pay for the materials.
The reason it's taking so long is that this guy, (the REAL A&P)
works
at an A/C company that is about a two hour commute each way so the only
time he can work on mine is on the week-ends and it's taking FOREVER to
get it done. If he gets it finished by about May or June it will have
been two years since it's been in the air. Of course I go out to the
Airport about every month or so and start it up and bring all the temps
up so the engine will be okay.
Well, the moral of this story I guess, is don't start your plane
and
leave it running. Don't let anyone work on your plane until you're sure
that he is an A&P, and don't trust someone to work on your plane who was
referred to you by someone you know and trust without checking him out
first.
I heard later that the guy who referred him to me didn't know that
he
wasn't an A&P. Since he's been doing so much work on other planes he
just 'assumed' that he was licensed.
Now, I'm not bad mouthing A&P's nor slamming them for their fees.
The
one I have now is probaly going to make about ten cents and hour by the
time I get back in the air, just because he's a 'good ol' boy' and feels
sorry that I took such a 'screwing' (pardon me ladies) on this whole
deal.
You think A&P's charge to much? Well, maybe some of them do sort
of
'pad the books' a little. But by the time I get all finished counting
my credit card purchases for the material and the labor I'm sure I'll
have over $5,000 in a recovering job. AND I STILL DON'T HAVE MY
CLEVELANDS OR MY RADIO!!!!!
I'm right back where I was in '98 before I washed my plane, except
that
I haven't flown in two years. Ye gads, I may have to take flight
lessons again! The only thing that's current is my medical, I've kept
it up to date. Let's see, where was that master switch located?
Sorry to make this so long, but maybe my boo-boo's will prevent
someone
else from making the same mistakes that I did. I don't mind eating a
little more 'crow' (I'm getting used to it) if it will help someone
else.
Fly happy and think of me while you're up there. ;-)
Bob "grounded" Saville
N3396H (I think) 415C
Eugene, in the car, OR
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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