Sad 980

[donv]

Here is a 980 project, if someone wants to take it on...

http://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/1442491/1980-commander-1000

Probably could be put back together, but how reliable it would be is the question.

I took a very brief look at this airplane back in 2011, before I bought mine, and at the time they claimed it had 4600TT and one freshly overhauled engine. I never actually saw it in person, though. It seemed a bit sketchy even then.

[Adam Frisch]

OMG, like a moth to a flame I'm always drawn to things like this, even though it's always a bad deal! Can't help myself, haha. Don - can you tell me more about the numbers they quoted you at the time - times, money they asked etc?
 
Curious minds want to know. 

[donv]

Pretty much what I said. 4600TT, one overhauled engine, one with about 1500 hours since overhaul. As I recall, it came out of South or Central America, which is not ideal, at least for me. The price was just "make offer"-- I never went beyond that.

[Bruce Byerly]

OMG, like a moth to a flame I'm always drawn to things like this, even though it's always a bad deal! Can't help myself, haha. Don - can you tell me more about the numbers they quoted you at the time - times, money they asked etc?
 
Curious minds want to know. 

I last looked at it about the time Don did. Or maybe it was a couple years before. In New Mexico.  I don't know.  Buuuuuut, anytime you see a "wj" number, I think about Bill and Don, quite the colorful characters.  One of the wildest stories ever, especially for a car and plane guy.  They supposedly landed planes on the back straight of road Atlanta, which they owned.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/racecar-drivers-don-and-bill-whittington-drug-smugglers-and-cia-helpers-6394730

[donv]

Yes, Don Whittington was the contact I had for the airplane back in 2011.

[Bruce Byerly]

I couldn't help it and called. No logs. Engines in pieces.  I think it's only viable use is for parts. Shame because someone has the logs in their closet for ransom I suspect.  I just can't see any way to get from A to B on a plane like this even if it were free.  But, maybe Don or someone has the books and can get it going. For $650k I can buy a mid time 980 - needs some TLC but it's flying just fine.

[Adam Frisch]

They want $650K??

As it is, this is a $200K plane at the most.

[donv]

Did they give you any indication why the engines were off? That's the curious part, to me. Damage, perhaps?

[JimC]

"Engines have been quoted for repair and airworthiness" - did you get the engine numbers?

[Adam Frisch]

Called as well. Couldn't get any hint on what price they'd accept, but he said they've had multiple offers. So I'm not sure Bruce's $650K was in reference to that or something else. Engines have been off and sent to National for costing. One engine has 9000hrs on it, apparently, so that's way due for O/H. The other is supposedly mid time-ish. They have logs from 2010 and onwards, but nothing before that. So, that's where it's at.

[donv]

They probably sold the low time engines which were on it in 2011, and put these on it (or just paired it up with these).

I suppose I should find out if it has a Sundstrand ECU in it-- wouldn't be a bad idea to have one of those on the shelf, if the price were right.

[Bruce Byerly]

Called as well. Couldn't get any hint on what price they'd accept, but he said they've had multiple offers. So I'm not sure Bruce's $650K was in reference to that or something else. Engines have been off and sent to National for costing. One engine has 9000hrs on it, apparently, so that's way due for O/H. The other is supposedly mid time-ish. They have logs from 2010 and onwards, but nothing before that. So, that's where it's at.

Didn't mean to confuse.  This 980 is a $25k parts plane.  I was saying you can buy one for $650 that actually is flyable and mostly legal.  I'm NOT suggesting you can buy a cream puff for that, but there's just no economical way to take one of these south of the border specials with NO LOGS YOU CAN TRUST and make it work.  The engines alone are $300k a piece in you're lucky without traceability and/or needing overhaul.  This plane may have something redeeming but it didn't take long for the broker to figure out I might have a clue and tell me it was a parts plane period.  Someone else may buy into the dream.   

[Adam Frisch]

Yeah, it's gonna be the engines. AD traceability is probably manageable, time on airframe I think there's a factory program for that that will allocate the airframe a TT, as I've been told. Props seems done. But like Bruce was saying, at $300K/pop this is hard to make sense of.

[donv]

Just out of curiousity, how much would a pair of used, mid-time engines (or even engines with 3-400 hours to go to overhaul) cost to buy?

[Bruce Byerly]

Just out of curiousity, how much would a pair of used, mid-time engines (or even engines with 3-400 hours to go to overhaul) cost to buy?

Good question Don.  Quality mid time 511K engines should be $200K each but there really are few to none available. Runouts who knows.  I can't recall a good salable set of 511k's in years.  Likely Better off buying the engines with a plane attached. 

It's really painful to see a 980 of any color and think it's not practical to recover. Such a great plane.  If you consider the total envelope, it's about the best plane ever built !