What would it cost to get something like this reassembled and returned to airworthiness?

Barnstormers listing

Same plane listed on a different website.


1984 H-700  Helio Courier - us registration clear title ,tio 540 Lycoming ,1200hrs TT aircraft and engine from new, excellent compression NO propstrike .Ac is in fair condition needs restoration stored in dry hangar 20 years, no damage history no dents, needs assembly ,paint & restoration .Stored in a 30 ft. Race trailer . A&P disassembled 3 years ago new parts include windshield ,Aluminum gear, 120 gal fuel bladders, ( 2 left and right alerions pro recovered) $15,000 for the 2007 Hallmark 29 ft race trailer. $75,000 for the complete aircraft package deal only!  located in US Colorado

Let’s assume that the engine was properly pickled and doesn’t need a complete overhaul.  Let’s also assume that a complete overhaul/ modernization of the panel will be done later and not part of the initial cost to get flying.

Huge assumptions to make.  Sitting 20 years is going to do bad things to that engine.  Pickling is supposed to be redone after a certain number of years, and I don't recall the number off the top of my head, but I'm fairly sure it is in the single digits.  Add 1200 hours being on the engine before it was pickled (or not pickled), and odds are that trying to get a couple hundred more hours out of the engine is going to end up being expensive, whether you decide to tear it down before putting it on the plane, or not.  And don't forget the prop.

Same problem with the panel.  Instruments can go bad while sitting on the shelf for 20 years.  They might look OK initially, but then start showing issues after you start flying with them.  If you are looking at things like ADS-B compliance, it might work out to be less expensive to redo some of the panel from the beginning, instead of trying to make the old stuff work.

I spent over a decade in a shop where we occasionally had a customer bring us a plane that they had got "a real bargain" on, because it was out of annual.  They bought it knowing that it was time to replace the engines and props, and they had planned for that in their budget, along with the ferry permit to get it to our shop.  We did enough engine changes that we generally could have the plane out on the ramp doing the initial ground run with the new engines about two weeks after the plane was brought into the hangar.  The problem was always the annuals.  Usually the big problem that management would not be happy about, would show up after we had the old engines off (since that took less than a day), but before we had the new engines ready for the initial run.  Management would start complaining at us about how the customer had already paid the deposit on the engines and props (which is not cheap when you are talking about two TIO-540s or two IO-550s) and had been expecting the additional cost of a typical annual, which was not going to be covered by what we had found after opening up the airframe.

It really seemed like management viewed the problem as being our fault, even though we had repeatedly pointed out that taking jobs like this never ended well, and that our salesman needed to quit trying to "sweeten the deal" by offering a discount on the airframe inspection, because there is ALWAYS a reason that the plane ended up out of annual.

Short answer:  It's a gamble, and that plane can easily end up costing you several times more than you expected it to.  If you can't give up on the idea, find a mechanic that has enough experience working on that model to be able to remember the expensive ADs that apply to it, then have them go over the logbooks and the airframe, because replacing the engine, prop, and panel might not be the most expensive thing that plane needs to make it airworthy.

I forgot to mention that I worked on a Beaver that I was told was mostly back together, so it probably wouldn't take much for me to finish up the project.  It hadn't flown in years, the engine had been replaced with an overhauled engine before I started working on it, I had helped install an overhauled prop, and it had already been repainted, so it shouldn't take more than some panel work, a new interior, and a few other things, right?

Nobody had done an AD search on the plane.  Every AD I found that could involve replacing structural components, ended up requiring those structural components be replaced - I did save some time on one of those ADs, because it called for doing a dye penetrant inspection of a spar section, but I was able to see the cracks (plural) as soon as I got things opened up enough to do a visual inspection.  So much for the new paint job.

I guess I should have been more clear.

I said to exclude the engine and panel because I already have an idea what they can cost.

Airframe, no idea.

And as I previously stated


Without going over the airframe logbook, doing the AD research, and inspecting the airframe, all I can say is that there is likely a reason the plane hasn't flown in 20 years.  The plane being disassembled at some point, and then not reassembled, is not a good sign.  When things get to that point, you tend to end up hunting for parts that somehow went missing.

@JPN

I do appreciate your previous replies.

It’s a shame really Helios are such cool airplanes.  That one probably doesn’t have much future. The 1980’s built airplanes are super rare. Only possibility 18 built.

So I figure minimum 50k for the engine. Then panel, as much as you want to spend. Prop, paint, interior.  Better find a mechanic who has experience with Helio Couriers. It just never ends…

I’ve been in aviation maintenance, mostly G.A., for 40+ years.  A Courier is a bush plane and after 40 years, I’d bet money it has damage, perhaps not RECORDED damage, but it has probably had quite a few hard landings in rough terrain, and maybe a few ground loops.   Perhaps that is why the current owner obtained new landing gear.

After 20 years, those new fuel bladders are likely dry rotted, unless someone has been coating them inside and out with preservatives every few years.    All the plastics and rubber components are likely rotted and need replacement.  Same with much of the wiring.  How old is that new windshield?   It has aged, even just sitting in a box.

Where are you going to get parts for it?   Hell, Textron isn’t even supporting the Cessna 172 much anymore.   There are a lot of S.E.L. planes rotting away for lack of parts  at the numerous fields around me.

Where are you going to find a mechanic with recent Courier mx experience?

It was disassembled because it could not fly anymore.   That is a drastic step to take, so whatever problem grounded it was pretty serious.   Some aircraft do not disassemble easily, leading to cut control cables and wiring, and sometimes even critical structure being damaged beyond repair.

I’d do some serious research on it, and find a structures mechanic, not an ordinary A&P, to look it over.  I once did an annual on a Baron that had just been purchased by the excited new owner.  After finding substantial airframe damage, including the spars, he ended up scrapping it.  It had new paint and interior but no accident history in the log books.   I googled the N-number and found two major accidents, with photos.   What an idiot.

Some major repair stations give the owners the logbook decals detailing major repairs, and the owner is expected to affix them to the books.   Guess what usually happens.   I know of several aircraft that have had major accidents, and there is likely nothing in their books documenting it.   Numerous times I’ve pointed out airframe discrepancies that strongly indicate a gear-up landing, only to have the owners vehemently deny it.  

Potential  aircraft owners like to believe that every aircraft is maintained to factory standards and the logbooks are sacrosanct.   In reality, buying a 30+year old airplane today is like going to an auto salvage yard, buying a junker, pouring a ton of money into it, and THEN finding out if it was a good financial decision.  Yeah, people lie about their used airplanes as much as people lie about their used cars, and logbooks are fudged just like many other documents.

Gooood luck with a pre-purchase inspection.  So many are absolutely worthless because the mechanic has no liability.   There are two newly arrived aircraft at my station that had pre-purchase inspections done by an unbiased mechanic.   These aircraft are so bad they will cost a fortune to get legally airworthy, and most likely will get scrapped for parts.  

I have met a fair number of guys that got suckered into one of these aircraft project deals, who thought hiring a moonlighting mechanic would get them an airworthy aircraft for little money.   Most dumped  thousands into their projects, got stuck for a variety of reasons and eventually sold them for parts.

Sorry for the reality check, but I am tired of seeing newby owners getting their dreams absolutely crushed, and me being the one to break the news to them.   Some shops will close one eye on the first annual, to keep the bill less than astronomical, on the theory that it is marginally safe to fly, and the un-repaired problems can be corrected during future annuals.   The owner will still end up paying out the wazoo, just over a longer period of time.   If he takes it to another shop that pencil-whips inspections, he can save money but the mechanical problems will continue to grow in severity and cost, reaching a point where he often stops flying an unsafe plane, or finds some newby sucker to buy it.

I’m not a mechanic, but a low time pilot that rehabbed a twin Cessna that was a business asset. We hadn’t flown it for 3 years as use in the business dwindled and our on staff pilot retired. It took 2 years to get it airworthy and sold. Some of the issues were due to deferred maintenance on pencil whipped annual inspections at the end of our lifecycle with the plane.  The majority of issues were supply chain driven and the general state of aviation MX timelines.  I’ll never….EVER, let a plane go idle like that again. Airplanes fall apart if you don’t use them, and it happens quickly.

Run away OP.

I'm not in a position to buy a flying airplane, let alone a massive project.

I'm just fascinated by Helio Couriers and this one is interesting.