Update:
I spent another weekend in TN and while getting a few things done, still don't have a plane. I've been biting my tongue and finally let loose on them yesterday. I was told the plane was ready to go and they only needed to replace gaskets in the mags as they got new sealant they wanted to try. I was expecting this to be done before I got there but as usual it was not. Not a big deal though, we'd get it done Saturday morning and be flying by afternoon. Ya, right.
When I arrived the door was off the plane as they were also supposed to put a new seal on it that didn't get done either. I did this myself and started working on the mags. I also rigged up an ipad mount in the plane that worked out really nice if anyone is interested.
Upon our first taxi I was having a really hard time keeping the plane straight and commented that it was strange that it was taking so much RPM to even get it to move. Of course, the laughing and joking started, claiming I was a newbie and didn't know how to taxi a Commander, but after a few minutes it quickly became obvious something else was going on. Turned out the brakes on both sides were dragging and the right side especially. This is where my attitude starts to change because they had told me they taxied the airplane already and that everything checked out.
https://youtu.be/HRf9UydC-REVideo of the initial start and taxi...
The left mag on the right engine was also leaking so badly that it was blowing oil all the way down the side of the plane. This was going to require further inspection on Sunday and we also had zero RPM. Sunday I discovered the cannon plug almost completely unscrewed and got it tight again. This fixed the RPM problem for my second run but then the 3rd run it stopped working again. One would think a shop seeing such a serious problem would inspect it and get it fixed since the plane can't be flown that way...
I came back to the shop Sunday and worked all day by myself on the plane to get some shims added to the brakes and to replace the gaskets on the left mag. Upon removing the mag I discover there were 3 paper gaskets, 2 on top of each other, one wasn't over the stud and was instead crumpled up and instead of 2 o-rings like the manual said, they had only 1 larger one which clearly was wrong. In fact, I had gone in to ask how it worked before I got the manual out because it made no sense to me.
My prop levers are also very stiff and not adjusted properly as they don't go all the way forward. I haven't been able to run the plane up yet so not sure if they feather properly but will definitely need to test that before I go fly. Why they told me that I should be able to fly the airplane this weekend I have no idea.
I'm also going to comment here on a few things that I usually try to stay away from but feel you guys should be aware of in the future:
I purchased a tail cone from Gary in TN that does not fit the airplane. I'm going to have to bring it home and get someone there to try to beef it up and get it to fit properly, but his mold wasn't made properly and getting my money back doesn't seem an option. Another purchase that I'm even more upset about is the exhaust deflectors STC Gary has. I was told by him and Andreas about how awesome these things were and how they made the plane look better and so on. Turned out Andreas was talking crap as he had never even seen the things before and for $1700 I got what amounted to $20 worth of bent stainless steel. And when I say bent, 1 is bent at 30 degrees or so and 2 pieces bent at 90. Literally just 3 2-3" wide metal bent in a simple press and handed to me in a UPS box. Angle Iron should do it for what you're buying.
Another thing that got to me was Andreas and Gary were both trying to sell me an Air Conditioning unit for the plane with Andreas even telling me that the air unit on my plane never works and I would have to get one eventually. I ended up backing out of that purchase (thank goodness) and now all I hear are all the horror stories of them trying to install these things and all the problems they have with them because they are never installed with the proper parts. I finally told Andreas over the weekend that I was blown away that he was trying to sell me the thing for my plane knowing that they were crap. Doesn't say much about him taking care of his customers.
Andreas is one of the nicest kids I've met and he is hardworking. His problem is he talks too much crap about stuff he really knows nothing about and he takes on too much work. Right now he has 2 Commanders (one needing major work) (not mine) and a 421 that needs and annual and about 5 other planes sitting waiting for various things. He has one other AI that works for him and he can't get to everything that needs to be done. As a result he's taken a potentially good customer (me) and put me in a state of mind that I will NEVER take my plane and leave it at a shop EVER AGAIN!!
To say I am having a bad experience is an understatement. To say that I feel taken advantage of by Andreas and Gary would be a massive understatement. They are both nice people and I don't have any ill will towards either one of them, but I'd be careful and do a LOT of research before buying anything from them. I hope Andreas gets his shop in order as he is a smart kid, but we're going on 5 months of my plane sitting in his shop to get an annual done and I'm already over $20k in labor and haven't gotten his last bill yet.
Not happy but still hopeful :-)
Glenn
