Six $!%&@# Weeks Later

It has been six weeks - an entire month and a half since I flew 4TV home, and as of today, my airplane is still propellerless, and is still unflyable.  I'm beyond livid, but there's really nobody to be livid at other than the gods of general aviation that work overitme to make sure nothing ever works right.

Ramp queen

As I detailed in my previous post, the prop had a dent in the leading edge that my A&P was concerned about, so I agreed to have it it sent off to his prop shop.  That was one week down.  Then it sat at the prop shop for the next three weeks while I waited to hear from them as to whether it could be fixed or whether I'd need a new propeller.  In the meantime, I had found a couple candidates for recently overhauled propellers in case it came to that.  By the fourth week of hearing nothing, I called the shop myself, and had a conversation with their mechanic.  They could repair it for $1K, but they noted some previous repairs and spots that, while not a concern, showed the prop's age.  They offered to overhaul it for $2K, which I agreed to.  When asked how long that would be, I was told a week to a week and a half.  After two weeks I called again, and was told they were finishing it up and it would be delivered to my A&P on that Wednesday.  I texted my A&P on Wednesday to inquire as to whether it had shown up, and he indicated that it had just arrived.  No indication of when he would put the propeller on the airplane, but it was at least there.

By Friday morning I was growing concerned about an evolving weather situation.  A potential tropical system was taking aim for the Carolinas, and I was annoyed by the thought that I might end up in a situation where I needed to move the plane and couldn't on account of my propeller still not being on the airplane.  I texted my A&P again to express this concern and get a sense for when it might be ready.  He responded that he was going to try to get to it that day.  I drove up to the airport that afternoon to find my airplane still tied down, with no propeller.  Yay.

I did leave the prop log in the glove box and texted my A&P again to let him know that it would be in there, but didn't see a response.  Now I assume that it won't be put on till at least Monday.  As of now, the storm is projected to arrive in South Carolina on Tuesday, but weather conditiosn may mean the airplane is stuck anyways,  I just hate the fact that I have no control because of how inefficient aviation maintenance has become.  I'm pissed, but the reality is that my prop sat for three weeks because of the demand for such services far outweighing the number of folks who can do it.  Same with my A&P - I have no doubt that he wasn't just backed up with other airplanes to fix.  Still, it sucks.

Oh you're about to get your airplane back?  Let's make sure you still can't fly it.

The whole situation continues to play with my mental health.  I put a deposit down to do the annual early in November just to have the plane thoroughly taken apart and examined before I start really putting through its paces, and now I'm questioning whether I'll even get a chance to fly it by then.  I had hoped to be well into transitioning to the right seat and practicing CFI lessons - instead, I'm waiting to fly my airplane for only the second time.  

Sometimes I really wish general aviation would die out and put us all out of our misery, but until then, I'll continue to let it beat me up.