Love it, Mike. Thanks for sharing. You have a blessed life.

So cool!

What do you guys look for when considering a 501? I’m looking for “lower” airframe & engine time (<8000 TT), at least 700hrs until OH and recent hot sections. Paint and interior are probably lowest priority on my list. Prefer decent avionics (GTN 750 at minimum, prefer 2).

What I feel unsure about is the big items I should be looking at on the maintenance tracker. What are the items you definitely want to see done or the big items that may be coming due soon that I should keep a look out for?

Beside the engines themselves and avionics, here are some big ticket items that come to mind for me:
Starter-generators
ACM
Thrust reversers, if applicable
Bleed air valves
Hydraulic pumps, actuators, valves

I spead as an engineer, not an owner, operator, or mechanic.

$1600 to OH.


$12K to overhaul the turbine, lasts 5000 hours typically.


I've not had a problem with mine so I don't know the cost.


Somewhat costly to replace.


Salvage pumps are reasonably cheap. Actuators and valves are pricey. There's no way to know what is about to break here.

I would put windows, brakes, and composite control surfaces higher than much of the above list.

Mike C.

Most parts are available rebuilt or serviceable.

As an example my cabin fan went out. New was $4500 but Tarver had a low time clean unit for $2000.

The only part I have not found a used or lower cost solution was a bleed air valve but it was specifically for the williams conversion. It was $25k. Which reminds me I have my old one I need to send off to get rebuilt. Edit- this valve was damaged by a maintenance shop. It did not fail on its own. So not really a normal risk.

Most parts are relatively cheap. Especially when you are part of Tarver’s world

Mike

The only thing I worry about on these airplanes is the engines. Everything else on the airplane is pretty binary, it either works or doesn't and I have zero predictive abilities on when/if it's going to break. Fortunately, the legacy 500 series doesn't have any $100K magic boxes like most of the newer jets do. Parts are priced more like a Ford truck than Beech pricing.

We are doing neurosurgery on a 501. These circuits and relays control everything in the airplane. It’s actually nice to be working on an old airplane with these circuits because the relays can be changed in lieu of throwing the entire panel away. The two relays in blue control the landing gear system and associated warnings.

Oh…and for all you a/c naysayers, we’ve got another 501 blowing ice cold.

Oh your board looks pretty good. We had some issues on the board and pulled it out to find a bunch of wiring issues. Took 3 days of rebuilding it.

That board does have just about every system going through it.

This is a great example of a board that could be modernized with solid state.

Mike

Oh wow, yes it does look like yours required a lot of attention! Impressive!