[Michael Bletsch]

Tracy,

Thanks for taking the time to write this amazing story and process you with through to get N9683U back in the air. I could not imagine the trials and anxiety you went through pocket book wise and wondering what’s under the “next rock you uncover”..

I’ve just purchased my first Tiger after about six months of flying and studying various models and feel I made the right choice after talking with several owner/pilots. I’m new to this board and this is my first post.

I bought a 2002 AG-5B (N924TE) that only had about ~980 hr TT last month. She had been sitting in a hangar in Indiana not flown much at all. She was perfect but I had concerns about engine corrosion. LONG STORY short I HIGHLY recommend a thorough pre-purchase inspection by someone the knows these airframes.

I had John Sjaardema of Excel Air Services (excelairservices.com) out of Rensselaer, Indiana (RZL) do my pre buy. The seller and I agreed on the sale on condition to pull the #1 and #3 cylinders to get a good look inside. Unfortunately we found some pitting and rust on cam, cam followers, lobes and top of cylinders. At this point I had already flown up to Indiana from Houston to initially look and demo the airplane and this was my second trip to ferry the plane from Evansville (paid a ferry pilot seller was comfortable with) to RZL for the pre buy. So you can imagine I already had a lot of time and money invested in the deal and we found this. My wife kept telling me don’t get emotionally attached, but I knew this was the right plane after looking for 6 months. She said Mike you “got to know when to hold’em and know when to fold’em”.

So after a few anxious days the seller and I came to an agreement to remedy and I bought it! After long debate instead of a top overhaul we decided to do a complete overhaul by Penn Yan. It’s about twice the price of a top overhaul, but if I went the cheaper route it would go in the logs as a repair and not overhaul.

I would like to give a special thanks to John and crew at Excel for fitting me into their schedule. It was amazing when we got there his crew look like the Indy 500 crew on a race car on the plane.

I will post as things progress with and anything I learn along the way of my annual and major overhaul. If anyone has any question feel free to email me and I can offer my advise on the experience. I hope to have her back in Sugar Land (KSGR) in early June. I’ve been trying to be patient! I guess they say good things come to those who wait-right?

Where are you based at?

More to follow

-Mike
N924TE

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