The Aerostar fever has hit a new high.
I spent two days early this week in Dothan, AL at Aerostar World, Inc just being near Aerostars. Sitting in them, smelling them, touching them, asking the mechanics about them, asking
anyone about them. I fell asleep at the motel each night with the POH in my hand, like a complete schoolboy after his first kiss. Thankfully, the owner Don Smith is a veteran Aerostar instructor and A&P and was very patient with all my silly questions and no amount of them fazed him.
What could possibly be better than a gaggle of Aerostars on the ramp?
The particular object of my affection is N79SR. She's got a ratty interior, engines over TBO, props that need overhauling, avionics from hell etc. But she has a price I can almost, just almost, afford. I came to see her and I only had eyes for her.
Avionics from the Victorian era.
The others dolled themselves up, pranced around and lifted their wings trying to get my attention, but I knew they were gold diggers and troublemakers. They were beauties, for sure, like models, but you just knew they'd take you to the cleaners and escape with the yoga teacher. I could see through their fleeting youthful good looks like a bat with a Raytheon radar in his back pocket.
This is one of the prancing 700's. Immaculate, but an expensive date.
79SR was true. She was real. A divorcee and a little bit neglected, but you could tell she'd been a beauty in her younger days with a good heart. Plus she had a lot of the good core stuff you needed - de-ice boots, hot props, pressurized, electric windshield, inconel exhausts, some Machen conversions and a brand new annual. Hell, even an old Bendix weather radar. She didn't have the intercoolers unfortunately, but they can always be added later. 3500hrs, which is not much for an old executive transport lady.
Would she be my new companion? N79SR is a cute 1979 Aerostar 601P in accountant/dentist white. With the ubiquitous midriff accountant/dentist trim line in two-colour.
I was smitten. Yes, I can hear you all - it does make more sense to buy one that's already done up, where the engines are not past TBO and all that. But only if you can afford that outright - for me it makes more sense to get in cheaper and upgrade as you go. Another thing is that California levies a so called 'user tax' on aircraft. It's a bit like stamp duty in the UK on a house - a one time sales tax due on purchase. It's a substantial amount - 8% of value (bloody bastards). So it makes more sense to buy cheap and then upgrade within California, rather than buy a dolled up one for more and get stung immediately.
Mind you, I haven't bought her yet. Just
seriously considering it. I fall asleep dreaming of Aerostars each night, so I'm afraid I have the fever quite bad at the moment. Hopefully it will pass. Maybe if I lie down and drink a big scotch it will go away... But do I want it to pass?
I convinced Don to let me fly N79SR back to Wichita Falls, TX with him to pick my repaired Commander up. It would cost me more than to airline it there, but it would be much more convenient and most importantly - I would get to fly her. He could teach me one or two tricks on the way. Said and done. Fuelled up and fired up.
Passing trough the clouds going out, the airspeed, VSI and altimeter were motionless in solid IMC. Don switched to the alternate air intake without much difference. Cool as a cucumber he said
"We got some water in the static lines. No big deal, will drain that when I get back". I would probably have fallen out of the sky inverted if that had happened to me! Thankfully we broke out on top soon after. This meant I didn't get any reliable climb or takeoff speeds for N79SR, which would have been good. We had a headwind all the way, but got a pretty solid 170-180kts depending on winds. Oil consumption was just 1qt for the whole 4.3hr trip to Wichita Falls and pressurization worked fine, so the engines seem to be in pretty good shape. There are no visible oil leaks at the bottom of cowlings either.
Humming along at 180kts on 32gal/hr over Texas.
N79SR doesn't have the GAMI injectors, so one can't really run her Lean Of Peak. Fuel consumption was 32gals/hr, but with GAMI's the fuel can be dropped down to 25gph for a TAS of about 200kts. Like I always harp on about - that's real fuel economy for a twin. That's what my Commander burns going 140kts and that's almost what some Corvallises/Cirrii and souped up Bonanzas burn...
I got two landings in, and they just feel rock solid these airplanes. You drive them down and they just land with a firm thump - like a little jetliner. Don't want them to get slow, so it's blue line all the way. Around 110-120kts for approach and pattern and then reduce a bit on final and finally walk the throttles off in the flare. I was surprised at how effective the Fowler flaps were. They don't look big, but up close they're almost 2/3 of the wing. Add to this the pushrod controls, and you have a direct feel like I've never experienced. They feel very direct and tight.
I topped off Don and he took off on his own back to Alabama in the night. I checked him later on Flightaware and he'd flown the 690nm back in 2hrs 59mins - average of 228kts at 15000ft. He got to Alabama just a little later than I got to my destination 228nm away in the Commander...
Don was one of the early employees at Ted Smith Aerostar in the mid 70's before Piper bought them. He's got 17500hrs in Aerostars alone and has been around them all his life - he only does Aerostars. Great guy.
A prebuy was made by one of the members at the Aerostar Owners Association for another buyer that didn't end up buying her in the end. He said it's a solid little plane with known quantities - you know you need to do the engines at some point, the props need to be done pretty much immediately and the turbos should at least be looked at. Just like it said on the tin. No mysteries. So, will it be me and her? Too early to tell. I want to have her, Don wants me to have her, but I'm still a couple of pennies short and I don't want to borrow.
But let's hope she's still waiting for me with water in her static lines when I find that penny!
