So dear friends, I suppose the title gave it away but let's start the story from the beginning...

This spring I got a call from the FI with whom I did my tailwheel rating. He informed me that a 1/3 share of a Morane (actually Socata) Rallye MS 893 was for sale and if maybe I was interested even though no tailwheel unfortunately.
Well, it is an interesting plane for going into (shorter) grass strips and so I contacted and met with the owners who turned out to be really nice people. Turned out that all of them want to sell their shares... but more on that later.
First we agreed that I would fly with two of the owners to Belluno as a passenger (but also got some right seat time on the way back). Enjoy the pictures of the flight from Innsbruck (LOWI) to Belluno (LIPB), flying through the dolomites. This was on May, 10th.

Climbing out from LOWI (1900ft) towards Brenner pass (4500ft), one of the most important passes in the Alps.



High over the Brenner highway, between Brenner pass and Bolzano.






Langkofel, 10400 ft



Over Sella pass, the cableway on Piz Boè, 10300 ft


Nort side of the famous Marmolada almost 11000 ft


Over the Piave river


Approaching Belluno (1240 ft, 800 m gras) from the east


Belluno, a typical Italian gras field, uncontrolled, easy and friendly atmosphere. There is a flying club there and they also launch gliders. As mostly the case in Italy, nice restaurant with great food too.


To be continued...

A week later I took my 6-year-old daughter (middle one of the three) on her first flight. Just a short local flight over the border with Germany in one of our club's Aquila that I usually fly.

Lake Walchensee, always need to look out for gliders here.


Isar river (the river that flows through Munich later) valley near Wallgau.

Some details on "Snoopy" or the "old french lady" as we sometimes call her, but mostly she is referred to as just "the Morane":



As I mentioned in the first post, it turned out that in the end all three of the previous owners wanted to sell out and after some calculation and negotiation I started to get accustomed to the idea of owning the plane alone. But then, surprisingly another local pilot (commercial and glider, CFI(I), DPE, much more experienced than I am), showed interest and we quickly agreed to buy her together.
So we met with the owners again for a closer look and to get her washed before the annual that was scheduled for later in June.






We agreed that all three of the previous owners will also continue to fly the plane. Having them on board for the future with their experience was an important part of the deal for me as a first-time owner.
Another important factor was that we could keep her parking at her current spot which is on the northern side of the airport where the flying clubs are and where the access is (relatively) easier and the atmosphere friendlier than on the south side with the GA and airline terminals. She will continue to live outside most of the year but it is an all-metall plane and she comes with a full set of heavy-duty covers, including some hail protection. I was thinking about buying a Super Cub or similar before but having a fabric plane outside all year didn't seem very appealing even with good covers and even then a good tie-down spot was not easy to find. And the cost of a hangar space was prohibitive...


To be continued...

Cool plane, like the tuck and roll seats

Interesting they track starts on a piston plane

NineThreeKilo wrote:Cool plane, like the tuck and roll seats

Interesting they track starts on a piston plane

Most of the interior has been rebuilt in the past. The (front) seats are surprisingly comfortable, there is a fiberglass shell beneath the upholstery and they slide on tracks like a car seat. There is lots of car parts in this plane, the brakes used to be drum brakes from some Citroén, luckily the previous owners replaced them with Clevelands...

You are right, that's a mistake in the document above, it should say landings, not starts (they aren't logged).

And on the story goes...

After landing in Innsbruck coming back from Belluno (first post) we checked the compressions and were surprised that one cylinder failed the test. So we pulled it with help from our local mechanic and I took it to a maintenance shop (which luckily is not far from where I work) for overhaul. We could have done this during the annual as well but this way it was cheaper and the plane wouldn't need to stay in Schärding (where the annual was going to be done) for a week or two. After reinstalling the cylinder, I was allowed to come along for the annual/100hr so that I could check out Snoopy even more and maybe save on a pre-buy inspection (although certainly my assessment can't really replace that).


So by the end of June, one early morning we took off for Schärding (LOLS), a little more than an hour away. Note the huge elevator and rudder for authority down to slow speeds.


Crosswind leg during departure from LOWI.


Overhead lake Chiemsee, Bavaria. Some showers in the background.


Inn river which here creates the border between Austria and Germany and is a tributary to the Danube river a few kilometres downstream from here.


I am really interested in what your thoughts are on the plane, the setup, the purchasing and co-owning process and so on. So please join in, I'm happy to answer all questions.

To be continued...

Very cool, excited for you. Owning your own airplane is very satisfying...mostly. It unlocks an element of flying that's not possible with renting. You feel like if you have at least your toothbrush and credit card you could just not go home and keep going...do some odd jobs for a farmer for a meal. Make new friends at a far away airport. Fake your death and not have to go back to your unsatisfying life back home and the kids and wife that never stop talking and constantly interrupt your thoughts.

Then one hiccup and you're on the phone with your mechanic back home longing for your nice leather chair that your wife spent too much money on, petting the cats that are scratching the shit out of it, happy for the desk job that pays the mortgage and now the partial top overhaul on your airplane.

Stoked for you! Nice scenery, beautiful region.

Zzz wrote:Very cool, excited for you. Owning your own airplane is very satisfying...mostly. It unlocks an element of flying that's not possible with renting. You feel like if you have at least your toothbrush and credit card you could just not go home and keep going...do some odd jobs for a farmer for a meal. Make new friends at a far away airport. Fake your death and not have to go back to your unsatisfying life back home and the kids and wife that never stop talking and constantly interrupt your thoughts.

Then one hiccup and you're on the phone with your mechanic back home longing for your nice leather chair that your wife spent too much money on, petting the cats that are scratching the shit out of it, happy for the desk job that pays the mortgage and now the partial top overhaul on your airplane.

Stoked for you! Nice scenery, beautiful region.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it! I was hoping to be able to give back a little to you and this forum by sharing this story. I hope to share some more trip reports as well in the future.

I totally know what you mean, knowing that feeling (of getting away from everything) from overlanding trips in my Landcruiser (before kids, feels like it was in a former life now).
Anyway, I am happy now to have a co-owner (and one or two of the pre-owners) with whom I can share the downs. And what you say, seems the plane could make me like my desk job more in the future...?

We do have great scenery here for sure (especially the dolomites) but also too many regulations and too many people. I sometimes really miss Alaska, Canada or Scandinavia...

When we arrived in LOLS, a very friendly and knowledgeable IA awaited us and we could start taking off fairings and panels right away.

Corrosion can be an issue with these planes but this main spar looks good.


The Moranes are unusual in some ways with interesting details like the sturdy landing gear with trailing links. A member of my flying club complained about how rough the gras strip in Belluno was after landing there with an Aquila. In the Morane it was barely noticeable. Note the tracks of the large fowler flaps.


Seats/covers removed. Part of the flap handle is visible between the seats. By the way, she can be flown with the canopy open.



One weak point on these planes allegedly is the nose wheel which can cause vibration that can damage the attachment and/or engine mount. Even though there is a shimmy damper built in, the nose wheel has to be kept off the ground as long as possible on landing. The IA increased the nose wheel tire pressure as it was set too low and according to him this can also lead to shimmy.

The previous owners also invested in a new battery as the old one was slowly starting to get weak. So nice of them!
Otherwise the inspection went smoothly and Snoopy was signed off as airworthy once again.
After the day's work the inspector joined us for a cold one and we had dinner at the airport restaurant before spending the night in the local flying club's bunkhouse right next to the runway for a bargain price.

To be continued...

Congrats on your first airplane and an "uneventful" annual.

The name "Snoopy" sounded familiar to me, and the tow hook made it sound even louder.
I think I saw it years ago at an airfield or at a gliding competition.

Do you happen to know where in Germany the plane was based and got its nickname?

Cool plane! Looks like a beautiful place to fly!

Didn’t notice the trailing link, by far the best gear design

Thank you.

According to the logs, this Morane was based at a glider field called Büren (near Paderborn in Germany) for many years and probably in Worms before that. For about a year she was then based in Slovenia before finally arriving here in Innsbruck LOWI in 2014.
Somewhere along the way she got the current paint job and it says "styled by Wolfgang Wiegand" on the tail. I suppose that at this point somebody placed the "flying Snoopy" as well, but I don't know any details.

I believe Innsbruck is special for flying in some ways:

It's just a short hop to Germany (15 mins flying to the border) or Italy (20mins) with the dolomites, nice gras strips (with excellent food) and people much more open minded to aviation. Also, we can fly to the mediterranean within about 1.5 hrs.

LOWI is a (small) international airport with airline traffic and glider activity right next to the runway. I don't think there is many places left where this works.

Learning to fly here means mountain flying from day one. There are 8000+ ft peaks only 2-3 miles from the runway.

And then there is the Föhn, a catabatic, southern wind that requires a special checkout for commercial pilots because it can get quite strong (40 kts at the airport are common, plus strong gusts) around here. Small planes usually don't fly in these conditions but the gliders do as it creates strong updrafts on the northern side of the valley.

If any of you happens to be in the area (Munich or Salzburg are each just 2 hrs away by car), let me know and I'll be happy to show you around.

We had planned two days for the annual but with three of us helping with the oil change, doing basic maintenance stuff and all the removing and putting back of the panels, the IA could focus on his checks and we were done within one day easily on such a simple aircraft.

For Thursday, the forecast contained showers and possibly some thunderstorms later in the morning so we tried to take off early after finishing the paperwork and some last checks. We still had to wait for the fuel pump and the airfield to open but we still managed to have an uneventful flight back home before the storms hit.



Above Innsbruck on the final for 26.



Touchdown. Note the slats which deploy and retract automatically.



A couple of days later we met at one of the previous owner's house and signed the contract over some very nice food and wine. It was so nice to be welcomed into this group and find new friends to fly with and share the adventure.

We are currently waiting for the registration paperwork to return from Germany so we can start flying again. Unfortunately that seems to take a couple of weeks due to understaffing/bureaucracy... But at least we could get the RH magneto out for the 500 hrs check and reinstall it without additional downtime.

I had never heard of this aircraft type, but it looks awesome. Trailing link gear, slats, and your model has an O-360?

Sierra7 wrote:

NineThreeKilo wrote:Cool plane, like the tuck and roll seats

Interesting they track starts on a piston plane

Most of the interior has been rebuilt in the past. The (front) seats are surprisingly comfortable, there is a fiberglass shell beneath the upholstery and they slide on tracks like a car seat. There is lots of car parts in this plane, the brakes used to be drum brakes from some Citroén, luckily the previous owners replaced them with Clevelands...

You are right, that's a mistake in the document above, it should say landings, not starts (they aren't logged).

My initial reaction to the cockpit photo was “ hey, those are buggy seats. I bet those are comfy”.

Fun plane.