Another Plane Purchase Thread - Say Hello to my little friend.

Tampico Trauma

Tampico Trauma

Line Up and Wait
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Mauled Formerly known as Tampico Trauma
The Saga of purchasing a new airplane... or how not to do it!

While our esteemed celebrity 6PC continues to document his saga of finding the replacement for the big red handle...let me sing you the song of my people.

So I got my PPL in 8/15 in my Socata TB-9...a great airplane, but lacking in a few columns nonetheless.... I put well over 200hrs on her in my first year, but we were dying for more performance....

I started looking at other options in mid '16...seeing the writing on the wall that I needed more useful load and more utility. We had several trips to and from Northern CA in our TB-9 before I realized it was time to start looking at other options.

Speed was a factor, but more importantly, a better useful load and a more flexible platform overall. My wife isn't a fan of high-wings...in fact she gets claustrophobic in high-panel Cessna's... but I finally convinced her to look at any and every airframe in our budget.

She gave me a hard stop at $100k....so some early SR-20's were in the mix originally, but she works in television--so she's constantly sending me stories of big red handles and GA crashes...so she quickly ruled out the -20.... so we were looking at more familiar airframes...the PA-32, TB-20, and numerous others...but she's an '83 model, and one of her firm requests was an airframe newer than herself...so that really factored into the narrowing of choices.

I've always had a soft spot for Maules..they're undervalued and underappreciated... my kind of plane. But since she's got a serious hatred of all things high-winged we had a major journey in front of us.

We took our daughter to Disneyland for her fifth Birthday on 8/12/16...upon departing Fullerton at near Max Gross on a 90 degree day...on climbout she suggested we get serious about looking at upgrading. We had recently sold our boat that we kept in Northern CA, so we had a bit to work with, but seeing as traveling to the boat was our main mission, we had to redefine our scope quite considerably....

Little did she know, my best friend who is partners in a C-177 and I had gone to look at a MXT-7-180 a week prior in Los Angeles... a clean plane with some higher than desirable TBO time, but nonetheless a clean example...and after flying it, I knew that was my destiny.

So I did what any good husband would do....beg for forgiveness and pleaded my case....
 
I talked her into flying up to Placerville to look at a myriad of planes at Skywagons... C-180's, PA-32's, a creampuff MXT-7-180 and a C-210....and maybe a PA-28 in the meantime.... She couldn't find a single one that didn't make her motion sick after sitting in them. Well....shiat...back to square 1....

After showing her the utility of the Maule and talking with Jeremy at Maules.com, I finally convinced her to sit in a MT7-235 with the skylight and patroller doors.... she fell in love, finally. Unfortunately, that was a $150k plane that had a single com and transponder and that was it!

So battle #1, conquered.

But, hey, I had to sell my Socata TB-9 first......

So I listed her..... We scheduled an appointment to look at another MXT-7-180 sans skylight, but she was on board.... low stall speed, short field performance, increased cruise speed and impressive useful load... It was the first MXT-180 I looked at and flew a few months prior.. listed with a broker I'll refer to as "Harley" of "Aule air Texas" (identities protected for safety).....

Well, we couldn't see the plane for another week, so we decided to head over to the airshow at Paso Robles (PRB) that morning.

Well, as fate shows, we landed at PRB, and after being chewed out for parking near (And subsequently walking across) the Young Eagles ramp (guess that's a no-no...fk em...) we walked into the show and sure as shiat...there's an MXT-180 at the show....with a for sale sign in it.....

Fate.

We had just listed our TB-9 on Barnstormers and TAP that morning...so knowing that it was a long shot I engaged the owner who offered to take the Mrs. for a ride after the show.

Well, she fell in love.

That was October 1, 2016.

We were in a flying mood, and the WX was good, so we decided to fly over to San Luis Obispo for a Socata Club fly-in breakfast the next morning.....

We arrived early and were greeted as we walked up the stairs by a couple... the man asked me if if my plane was a Grumman. I politely explained to him what a TB-9 was...he was enjoying breakfast with his wife...he told me he was close to his checkride but having issues finding a new CFI and plane to finish up... I gave him the keys and invited he and his wife to go down to the ramp and open it up and check it out...

A week later, he came over again. This time, I sent him up with my CFI for some air work. He was hooked. Its just him and his wife and a couple sets of golf clubs, so the -9 was a perfect fit.

While I was in Hawaii for work, I got a call from the buyer, he was ready to close.
I wasn't flying home for two days, so I went back to the plane I wanted--the MXT at PRB. It was under contract and about to go into a pre-buy.

I was heartbroken, but I widened my search again and started calling on other planes I was considering..

Flew home on a red eye, climbed off the plane and drove to the other airport... Six weeks to the day of the meeting, I met him, filled out a bill of sale and voila...I was plane-less.

It was an empty feeling.

I started the process with the bank to book out a few different airplanes and got some insurance quotes.... By the way, Lori Moen at Red River State Bank in MN is awesome, as is Bill White Insurance in Corona, CA.... Top notch operations that make this whole thing easy.

I finally called "Harley' the broker and started talking through a few of his planes, while looking at another one in MS... the one in MS was an ex-Mexican Border Patrol plane.. Single 530 with A/P and GPSS. 58 SMOH, slight damage history, 2800TTAF and a fresh recover job in 2012. Quite a bargain, but the plane did show some signs of wear inside from the pictures and I wasn't exceptionally excited about it, considering it was a 1991.

I also went back to considering the '98 in Los Angeles...the original one I looked at. But at 1275TTAFE I was staring down the barrel of a loaded O-360 overhaul in less than five years. And at $73k with an old Garmin 300XL and Century A/P...it wasn't getting me excited... and the owner's ex husband put a pinup version of the seller on the rudder and it wasn't going to come off easy...so a likely recover.

listing_8288image7---s.jpg


Yes, it's not pretty.... but hey, performance.

But the broker kept on telling me about this creampuff down in Orlando. $85K firm. Patroller Doors and Observer Window... Twin 430W's with Terrain and Traffic.

So I finally decided to buy a ticket to MCO to go look. The broker of course wanted a deposit, but I wanted to see the plane in person and look at the logs before I went any further. He finally agreed.

I show up at the airport.. the plane was advertised as 674TT...Well, it was actually 725 by the time I got there. As I started to go through the logs... I noticed it shipped from the factory in 3/1995 and there weren't any log entries from late 1996 until 2010. Might have been nice to know that before I flew across the country. The story goes that the original buyer defaulted on the note and hid it in a hangar in TX for 15 years. He then sold it and the new buyer had the cylinders done in 2010 and brought it back to life....

After going through everything I flew there thinking I'd likely end up with the plane...but I wasn't excited about it once I left. Meanwhile, I passed 6PC somewhere mid-air as he was enroute doing the same damn thing.

I sent everything off to the bank Friday afternoon before catching a flight home and Monday, they called me back with the book value--it only booked out at $82,000. Asking was 85. He was unbearably firm on that price. I was having serious issues... I could come out of pocket for the additional $3k... but I still had to cash flow a pre-buy and a ferry flight clear across the country... and the "Tall pilot seat" included with the purchase would be required for me to fly it and it was missing the rear bracket... So by the time I got the plane home I would be into it for nearly $90... and frankly it was more than I wanted to spend.

Monday morning I got a text message from the one in Paso Robles. The seller had backed out.

I instantly called the mechanic that did the prebuy-- aviation is a small world and he's a friend of the guy who bought my TB-9...and he helped me out with a quick prebuy on a Musketeer that I almost bought before the -9.... He gave me a complete rundown of the prebuy and was shocked that the buyer backed out.

But... the bank couldn't get it to book out. Even at 70K, it was much higher in bluebook, but v-ref was only showing a value of $61K. The seller wouldn't come down...and I can't blame him..so I went to bed Monday heartbroken.

Tuesday morning, I called a couple other lenders. They were able to get the plane to book out, but I wanted an easy close. So I called my bank back one more time...my loan officer was on vacation and the VP of aircraft lending took my call. She booked it out one more time and saw that the other loan officer had it listed as an MX7, not an MXT-7.

Voila. She booked out.

I called the seller to tell him I was on my way. I kicked my boss out the door (he was in town visiting when I got the call..) He told me not to call him back until I had an airplane.

I arrived at PRB two hours later (driving sucks) and we took her out for a little flight. Everything was just as expected... I love when a seller suggests we fly the plane first...

Logs were immaculate and normal for a 571 hour airplane.

Sure, she was a fixed pitch and only had a single nav-com, but with 925 lb useful load she checked every single one of the boxes, including an S-Tec 30.
Loan docs signed on Wednesday, Thursday I couldn't contain my excitement while I gorged on turkey, and Friday, the wire was sent and the weather couldn't have been worse. Saturday, my CFI was taking a well-deserved day off and the weather wasn't much better, but I found a local CFI who knew the plane who agreed to do the insurance checkout.

Of course, the weather cooperated temporarily..we signed the bill of sale, I taxied her over to the fuel pump and waited for the CFI to finish his lesson.

We went and did slow flight, stalls and three bounces.... and it was a lifechanging experience in a Maule.

But as we taxied back, I noticed a huge cell over my home field...some moderate precip and it was starting to head towards dusk. Considering we were over on the coast for thanksgiving with family, it was no additional stress for me to decide to put her back in the barn and try for Sunday.

Sunday was a windy ass day. 25kts at both airports, some light precip, and ceilings were improving. My friend picked me up in his Cardinal and we took off for PRB. It was cold as hell, a bit breezy, but that plane came off the runway like a homesick angel and once I levelled off and put the -7 flaps in, I was on my way home...even had some time to play with the autopilot and get some air-to-air photos to bring home.

Friends, meet N9NA...
IMG_1991.jpg

Moral of the story... I sold my plane to a guy I met at an airport and I bought my plane from a guy I met at an airport.... both flights we almost didn't take....but we're sure happy we did!
 
Congrats, and cherish the short tail number (although it's a syllabic tongue-twister)!
 
paflyer said:
Congrats, and cherish the short tail number (although it's a syllabic tongue-twister)!
Click to expand...

I'm already learning that--- I'm going to get a lot of "full callsign please"

Of course Tampico 30470 was often transposed to 37470...all the time.



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Sweet! Congrats! Have experience with Maule and instructing in them. Nice handling plane and built like a tank. Put down a date to Moultrie GA and go for a factory tour. Great people and very friendly. Years ago they actually flew one out of the hangar and zoomed up once clear of the door. That's the famous picture, see if I can find it. A friend was a T38 IP and they used Moultrie as an auxiliary strip back in the 60s-70s and he witnessed it.
 
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Congrats! She looks like a beauty! And thanks for the names of some financing companies. I may need to make use of them in the next couple of months!
 
Thanks for your story & congrats! I'm completely unfamiliar with this Maule. What kind of numbers do you see in cruise on the 180, kts and gph?
 
Great story. I usually can't stay focused long enough to read more than a few paragraphs. Lol. Hope you enjoy the plane. Btw, what kind of cruise do you expect?
 
iflyvfr said:
Thanks for your story & congrats! I'm completely unfamiliar with this Maule. What kind of numbers do you see in cruise on the 180, kts and gph?
Click to expand...

Too early to tell.. hope to get a few hours this weekend. I was seeing 110 IAS at 2350rpm on the way home at 4000... but it was a short hop and I was too busy playing with my first autopilot to know....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
November Niner Nice Airplane! ;)

mscard88 said:
Not sure if this is the one but you get the idea.

View attachment 49502
Click to expand...

There's a write up somewhere taking about how they did that shot... there was a 4x4 laid across the floor inside the hangar in the shadow that allowed the pilot to bounce the mains over it and get the airplane airborne to help let it accelerate, as I recall.
 
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