·:[ Darryl's Coot Building Journal ]:·
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A couple of months ago, my Coot-building buddy, Russ Milham, and I were visiting Dave Wheeler and Northwest Aviation at their new location at the Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO). In one corner of the shop, we spotted some type of Grumman four seater.

We looked over the plane, an early AA5 Traveler, as Dave Wheeler explained that his shop was assessing the plane’s value for an estate. As it happens, Russ and I had been talking about a partnership in a 4-seater of some type. The AA5 family was definitely on our list. We took a closer look:

Don’t get me wrong…I love my Yankee, and it satisfies my mission about 80% of the time (solo local, solo cross-country, two-people locally). But the Yankee’s limited endurance with a passenger, limits on passenger weight, and limits on passenger height (to about 6′2″), sometimes gets in the way.

Anyway, Russ and I made a deal with Dave…we would do much of the labor required to inspect and assess the plane. That would give us a chance to do our private valuation, and the estate would get a less-expensive valuation. If we liked what we found, we would make an offer. Oh…I should mention that Russ is an A&P mechanic.

N5814L is a 1972 AA-5 Traveler, serial number 14. Based on on-board paperwork and logbooks, the plane has not flown since sometime around 2001. The interior is…well, old:

The panel is pretty basic and very dated. We didn’t evaluate any of the avionics, except to note that the ELT was missing.

Russ and I spend a couple of weekends opening up the plane and performing inspections. Our squawk list was long. There was a potentially un-reparable left aileron. Both fuel tanks leaked, a problem that requires an enormous amount of labor to repair. Shops charge may thousands of dollars per wing for resealing these tanks.

The engine needs an overhaul. It had had a field overhaul in 1994, but we had no paperwork whatsoever, aside from an insufficient log entry—no yellow tags for components or record of dimensional inspections. Either way, the engine has been sitting for eight years and is past Lycoming’s TBO of 12 years.

We made an offer to the estate. Dave Wheeler had assessed a similar value, and everything got passed onto the to estate. For several reasons, it took about five weeks for the estate to accept our offer and ensure a trouble-free transfer of ownership.

Last Saturday Russ and I bought the plane. We will do much of the work to return 14L to service ourselves. For starters, Russ is rebuilding the engine, and I am going to work on resealing the fuel tanks. (Of course, we’ll be shipping engine components out for proper measurement, inspection, and rebuild.) Most of the plane goes to Russ’ shop, whereas I get one wing at a time, and sort some of the components in mine.

Next installment…dismantling for trailering the plane.