172driver wrote:
ENVA is essentially desert climate, much like Arizona or inland California
I wish 
My club’s mechanic is refurbishing a C-172 now (as a private hobby kind of thing). The plane was a wreck. My club had it several years ago, sold it for “nothing”, a token lump of money. Since then it has flown a couple of times perhaps, and then grounded somewhere for more than 10 years. He bought it for nothing I would think. He is now in the process of taking it apart as much as can be done. He said it will take him around 500 h, and when finished it will be as “new”. New parts and paint will also cost something, but IMO he will get himself a very OK C-172 for less than €50k and that includes a zero h engine.
It looks to me that just about anything is possible to save. A C-172 is easy to get parts for, maybe that is more difficult with a TB-20, but in the right hands.
Yeah – that’s an early TB20GT. No EDM700 but has the KFC225 so not one of the first GTs. The 2×GNS430 was one of the two options; the other was KLN94+KMD550 which is what I bought (superior for VFR).
Most likely, what will happen is that a dealer with some cash will buy the lot, clean them up, get some cheap and nasty engine overhauls done by some local shop in Europe so he can sell them as “zero timed”, and sell them off. I’ve seen that done with other similar cases e.g. the Israeli Air Force TB20 engines, which somebody bought as a lot and shipped them to the US.
There are also TB10’s. Just saw one on the pic in Peter’s post and checked. 3 of them advertized.
As Peter sais, GT’s are rare airframes. This whole thing could be a rather interesting proposal for someone with the facilities to make those airplanes fly again. All in all, it looks like 3 TB10, 3 Seneca V and 5 TB20 if I counted correctly. And heaven knows what else is lying around in those hangars.
Via this link there are pictures of quite a few airplanes which are now for sale, some with cockpit views.
TB20 cockpit
Looks pretty standard with the KFC225, 2x GNS430 (probably non WAAS) and the usual standard stuff. Possibly even Mode S
Seneca Cockpit
STEC-55x, GNS530 and some moving map display. No FD, but otherwise also not a bad cockpit.
TB200 Cockpit
Basic IFR with GNS430, DME, ADF and Mode C transponder.
If those planes are still fully equipped, someone who knows how to make them fly should have a closer look.
If I was the one selling them, I’d go there with a bunch of guys and a Kaercher and clean them outside, check them up one by one and then upgrade the adds. Actually, I probably would have done that even before posting pics.
Airborne_Again wrote:
You mean LPEV. ENVA is very far from having desert climate.
Yes, you are of course correct. I meant LPEV (no idea why I wrote ENVA…..age, I guess….), which I know and it IS a desert climate.
172driver wrote:
ENVA is essentially desert climate, much like Arizona or inland California.
You mean LPEV. ENVA is very far from having desert climate.
The paint will be well faded, and the IO540 cannot be inspected internally without a lot of work – unless you do this which almost nobody knows about.
Bird crap is really corrosive and eats through the paint. I had some on my cowling and it did a lot of paint damage. Fortunately the problem in the hangar got so bad that eventually they got an air rifle and shot the seagulls, and it’s ok now. This will need a repaint
What amazes me is that these expensive planes (today they go for 150k plus even in a basic condition) were not even covered. If nobody cared at all, then obviously nobody cared about anything else about them. And with so many airframe hours, I doubt the mechanical condition will be good.
But, there is always somebody around the corner, so those with an engine, which starts, will be bought by somebody who doesn’t worry about a prebuy.
What is interesting is that most are GTs, and GTs are not easy to find.
I don’t think Trondheim is a “desert” climate. I have a customer there and it is almost impossible to plan a flight to ENVA with a few days’ duration, because the wx is mostly rain, and moderate/severe icing conditions, interspersed with brief periods of VMC
ENVA is essentially desert climate, much like Arizona or inland California. I doubt corrosion is much of an issue in this case. The airplanes look like they belonged to the KLM school that was operating there last time I visited, about 12 years or so ago.
LeSving wrote:
A couple of engine/aircraft experts came from the US. They checked and fiddled with the engines until they started, then flew to the US It was all done in a couple of days.
Quite sometimes airplanes look much worse than they are and can be resurrected quite easily. We had the case of a PA28 which had been sitting for almost 17 years. A friend asked me for assistance and I asked the overhaul company Cermec whom to send to look at the engine. They had an expert they use for such things and sent him to see the plane. The engine had no damage whatsoever and did not need any massive work safe from a good annual and new hoses. They ferried the plane a few days later and it got resurrected within a week or two of reaching the maintenance shop.
On the other hand I know the case of another airframe which had sat for 2 years and had amassed so much corrosion that it and the engine were scrap metal.
On youtube there are some rather impressive videos of planes and cars which look like the TB20/Senecas in Portugal. They then get washed. The results are often totally stunning. In other words, you can’t know what is under the birdcrap before someone uses a Kaercher or a similar device and cleans it.
There was a King Air at ENVA. It was just sitting there for a couple of years, Finnish register I believe. Don’t remember the details, but it eventually became an insurance case. What happened was an American bought it from the insurance company. A couple of engine/aircraft experts came from the US. They checked and fiddled with the engines until they started, then flew to the US It was all done in a couple of days.
Dahlbeck wrote:
Maybe they’ve been in some kind of legal limbo that has taken years to sort out?
That is quite likely. I know several such cases, including some airliners which are sitting blocked over decades until all you can do with them is throw them away.
