[ericr]

Originally Posted by Mister Moose

OK. Not real old, but old for me...

It was about 1983, and we had taken a 1960 CE 210 in trade. Not by me.

For reasons I can't remember, I flew it once. Avionics repair, ferry flight, I don't remember. Garish maroon velvet interior, old paint, radios leftover from the Hindenburg. Pre flight was ok, flew fine. The 1960 was essentially a 182 with 260 hp, the most convoluted retractable gear ever, and a bulbous nose gear door that made the airplane look like a pelican in flight.

The airplane doesn't sell, and we have to give it an annual. Once all the panels are off, the lead mechanic calls me over.

"You gotta see this"

First stop is the engine bay. There is a plastic shell 2 D cell flashlight laying inbetween the 2nd and 3rd cylinders on the left side. It's been there long enough to partially melt into the gap.

Next stop, the floor between the seat rows. He has me look though the open inspection plate and down amongst all the hydraulics and cylinders and downlocks is a shiny chromed combination wrench.

Then he says "operate the mixture control." So I do. "Now go look in the engine bay while I do it"

OMG.

The cable where it exits the housing is frayed, and when he pushes it to full rich the frayed portion bends about 90 degrees (It should stay rigid and straight) and looks like its going to separate in 10 flight hours. Maybe.

As we walk around the plane further, he say something like "this plane is so f'd up, I bet the spar is cracked" and he wobbles the horizontal stabilizer. His face goes white. There's just a little too much wobble. "It is" he whispers. Can't be. I wobble the right and left and compare them. Scary. One is rigid, the other is attached, but springy. Ugh. De skin the entire surface and replace the spar.

Pencil whipped annual inspections are real. It had flown 15 hours since the last annual. And he didn't even up the empty weight for the flashlight and the wrench.

2nd oldest airplane I ever flew.

One of Dad's friends from a prior generation claimed that he rode on the Graf Zeppelin back in the 1920s, I don't know where he boarded it. He claimed that the Germans added some substance to the hydrogen to give it a smell for safety reasons; though I have never read that anywhere. Anyway he said you could smell hydrogen all over the ship and he couldn't wait to get off of it.