I was wasting time on Barnstormers, and came across an ad for a "low time" Twin Commanche. The ad isn't very specific and doesn't have any pictures, but says the plane hasn't been annualled in 20 years and has always been hangared. It got me thinking about the practicality of picking something up like this in the future to get my multi and build time in.

So my question is, how much of a project is this likely to be, assuming it hasn't been used for parts for the last 20 years? Obviously the engines would need to be checked for corrosion, pitting, etc., and hopefully it wasn't used as a rodent hotel, but would there be any systems, like the retracts/hydraulics, that would need to be overhauled simply due to age, or would hydraulic hoses and such hold up OK?

I'm not looking to purchase anything in the near future, just trying to build a knowledge base for the future.

I'll start the ball rolling and I'm sure the rest of the peanut gallery will chime in as well.

For starters, All the hoses will be hard as a rock, so you can expect to replace all of them. If the engines have not been pickled for storage, almost guaranteed the cams and lifters will be rust and pitted the nless the aircraft is from a very dry place. Steel cylinder (non chrome) bores may be rusted. Almost every Lycoming that I've seen that sat with old oil and then was woke from a long nap ends up eating a lobe usually after a short time. Most of the gyros after sitting that long will eat their bearing cartridges from the lube drying up. Then of course there is 20 years of uncomplied with a/d and s/b s.- So it's probably not economically viable. It's usually cheaper to buy an airworthy aircraft than resurrecting a fixer upper.

What he said.

If they offered to give it to you, run away.....

MTV

Dad and I bought an Apache that had been sitting for 6 years a few years back. It was very cheap so we took some time and flew out to give it a once over. Ended up spending 5 days on inspecting the airplane, which included pulling a jug off each engine to check for corrosion. We decided to buy the airplane because it was so cheap and flew it home. That machine gave us about 250 hours of mostly trouble free operation and bagged me 2 ratings. We ended up selling that airplane for a pretty tidy little profit.

I tell you all this so you will know why I can't recommend buying an airplane like that, we used up all the luck!

Seriously though, like others have stated be very wary of such a deal. Odds of it working out are extremely thin, unless of course you have a big checkbook you like to use.

Twinco's are complex aircraft and restoring it to flying condition would be very expensive. Parting it out may be viable, but I don't know how soft the market is for their parts these days. The sale price for a PA-30 in good condition with midtimes and a 430 is probably about $60K. There are currently 20 on sale right now on Trade-a-plane. The only thing the aircraft has going for it is that they were all primed. To the items previously mentioned, add IRAN the props and new bladders, and the radios are likely junk. Twin Comanches are great aircraft (I have about 2600 hrs in one), but I'd suggest getting one that's already flying. They're already expensive enough starting with a maintained aircraft!

I saw a mid time Piper Apache for 17k a few weeks ago in Annual, that might be cheaper then the risk of the other. Fly the crap out of it then sell it to the next time builder. Pay it forward type plane, haha!