T-6/SNJ Owners - ups and downs of ownership?

[Fearless Tower]

Well....I think I have a good handle on the 'ups', but looking for a realistic picture of what to expect from an ownership standpoint.

I'm contemplating buying a T-6. I have a good handle on fuel consumption, oil, hangar fees, insurance, etc, but wondering what other 'gotchas' in the annual and maintenance side I might be getting myself into.

I currently own a Cessna 170, so I'm familiar with the money sucking aspect of aircraft ownership, but obviously not on the scale of the care and feeding required of a 600hp warbird.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[51fixer]

Well....I think I have a good handle on the 'ups', but looking for a realistic picture of what to expect from an ownership standpoint.

I'm contemplating buying a T-6. I have a good handle on fuel consumption, oil, hangar fees, insurance, etc, but wondering what other 'gotchas' in the annual and maintenance side I might be getting myself into.

I currently own a Cessna 170, so I'm familiar with the money sucking aspect of aircraft ownership, but obviously not on the scale of the care and feeding required of a 600hp warbird.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Depends on what you start with.
An A/C that has had a total restoration in the last 15-20 yrs should give you a decent A/C depending on who did the work and that they did a total strip down and insp along the way.
I've seen a number of strip and paint everything restorations but they didn't check and lube bearings or change out bolts that act as a bearing, ect.
You also need a good prebuy inspection.
Items that typically take a beating in normal use are exhaust and landing gear. Of course the engine and prop.
Warbirds have an "Old Airplane Syndrome" that happens. Things you find wrong while you look for something else.
I've dropped the stress door on a T-6 to inspect the down lock linkage and found the center rib had been squished in the past and had wrinkles and such that it needed to be replaced. You deal with a MLG system issue and then have to pull fuel tanks and do major sheetmetal replacement in the center section. This ended up with new MLG legs and down lock pins and recievers as well. It was a SAAF A/C that had been rebuilt after receiving some wing damage and was retired by the SAAF. This was long before they sold off all the T-6 A/C and parts. The MLG system had been beat up.
I've had another T-6 that came from the SAAF that wouldn't fly straight. It would always turn to the right IIRC. After I found a crack in the steel tube at a wing attach cluster I had to disassemble the A/C and I sent the tube fus to Ken Dewelle who had a jig to repair it. When it returned I sighted down the 2 attachments for the control stick torque tube. The rear one was a short steel tube welded on and it was aimed about 3-4 inches off to the right of the fwd attach point which was also a small tube welded in place. I ended up putting a KS type bearing which has a self aligning swivel instead of normal K type solid bearing and then it would fly straight. The mis alignment of the attachment points for the torque tube put a bending load on the torque tube so that it wanted to sit off of center. With no cables connected it would spring to a position slightly right of center.
All these A/C have a personality.
Good luck and I hope you find a good one.

[F4U-1]

The upside--- it's a Warbird.
The downside--- it's a Warbird.
Don't over analyze it, jump in with both feet and just enjoy pumping gas, buying oil, cleaning and working on it.
Chuck

[Lynn Allen]

Depends on where you are and the T-6 of your dreams is, but Nelson Ezell shop would be my choice to do the pre buy...

[Cherrybomber13]

Considering some of the extensive work they have done on the T-6 I would concur with Lynn on this. Give Nelson or Chad a holler and see what they think.

[bdk]

How much are you looking to spend? Find the best one you can afford and then buy one for $25K more.

Whatever you do, don't buy a project!

[Ollie]

We've been flying ours sporadically for the past 25 years, and now that we are flying her more, we are finding some minor stuff to fix. We do a little bit every year, but there is not a year where we don't find something that sees us scratching our head.

Last year both tubes in the tyres went bye-bye while the aircraft was in the hangar, we now have two new tubes. This year we have declared the many oil leaks public enemies and we've found a couple of place where simple remedial actions would see less oil being thrown around.

[Stoney]

What BDK and Ollie said, after having one for 24 years that's my thoughts. NATA is a good info source.

[snj-5]

How much are you looking to spend? Find the best one you can afford and then buy one for $25K more.

Whatever you do, don't buy a project!

Could have used your advice years ago bdk! At least I don't know what's been on TV for the last decade
or so and the "other woman" tends to keep me out of most of the taverns around here....

Bela P. Havasreti

[Ollie]

Stoney is right, NATA is a very good source on info on flying, maintaining and finding parts and services for the airplane.

You can see what we're doing this year to ours here:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45435

[Fearless Tower]

Whatever you do, don't buy a project!

Ain't that the truth...I was very fortunate....I learned that lesson when I bought the 170 as a 'project' airplane. Definitely don't want to go through that hell again on warbird scale.

[bdk]

I think that both Bela and I may have already joined the 20 year club on our T-6 restorations...

[snj-5]

I bought my 1st project in 1996 (so I'm at 16 years). But I didn't learn enough from that one, so I bought another project in 2009. As Foghorn Leghorn would say, "That boy is about as sharp as a bucket of wet lemons....".

Bela P. Havasreti

[F4U-1]

Whatever you do, don't buy a project!

Ain't that the truth...I was very fortunate....I learned that lesson when I bought the 170 as a 'project' airplane. Definitely don't want to go through that heck again on warbird scale.

How much are you looking to spend? Find the best one you can afford and then buy one for $25K more.

Whatever you do, don't buy a project!

What's ya guys mean?!, ... Projects are the only way to go!
Did my T-28C in 48 months, 10,000 man hours( kept a daily log) still had a "real job" at the time.
Did the SNJ-5C in 52 months, screw the hours, didn't matter any more... Finished building the house, had 2 kids, also worked on another Warbird for 8 months. Went to airshows...bla bla bla.

Now working on 2 projects. Got smart, hired help!

Nobody told me I could actually buy a flying Warbird. Gezzz, I'm always the last to get the memo.

Chuck

[N3Njeff]

Whatever you do, don't buy a project!

Ain't that the truth...I was very fortunate....I learned that lesson when I bought the 170 as a 'project' airplane. Definitely don't want to go through that heck again on warbird scale.

How much are you looking to spend? Find the best one you can afford and then buy one for $25K more.

Whatever you do, don't buy a project!

What's ya guys mean?!, ... Projects are the only way to go!
Did my T-28C in 48 months, 10,000 man hours( kept a daily log) still had a "real job" at the time.
Did the SNJ-5C in 52 months, screw the hours, didn't matter any more... Finished building the house, had 2 kids, also worked on another Warbird for 8 months. Went to airshows...bla bla bla.

Now working on 2 projects. Got smart, hired help!

Nobody told me I could actually buy a flying Warbird. Gezzz, I'm always the last to get the memo.

Chuck

Then NO EXCUSES on that THIRD PROJECT...................DONT DRAG YOUR FEET!!! I gave you a gift on that one!