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Moving my ship from its nice cozy heated hangar back in Wisconsin to Buffalo last winter killed me! For one hundred bucks a month, we had a full bathroom, a kitchen, a movie theater style popcorn machine, a TV, a weather computer and flight simulator, and an automatic bi-fold door. Here, in Buffalo, N8224N would be relegated to the equivalent of a barn. For one-hundred and twenty-five bucks a month, I got a large building with gravel floors, no partitions, no heat, and no power whatsoever…Now I have to slide doors open! How am I going to fly in the winter? I had never had to “cold start” the engine before and I had to consult the POH and some Lycoming people on the proper methods; what a pain! Hmm, how can I remedy this situation without doing the hand-prop-prime-prop-prime-clear-prop-start dance?
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The plane came with a Tanis engine heater in it, but I had never had a need for it and besides, I still would need to have access to some juice to use it anyway….Ah-ha! I remembered those sweet little $600 Honda Generators for sale every year at Oshkosh, I can buy one of those and then get an old sleeping bag from the Salvation army to wrap around the cowling, or perhaps someone on Ebay will be selling a nice engine cover just for my plane.
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It was last March. I thought I should get a feel for the engine cover “market” by surfing Ebay on my study breaks (like this one). Hmm, a brand new, with tags, box and receipt, Tanis engine cover for a Piper Mirage…not quite the airplane the Cherokee I fly is, but maybe I could make it work….99cents, the price was right! I put my bid in for 99cents thinking that the guy wouldn’t cancel the auction if someone was actually bidding on the item! And, like Bill, I psychotically watched the auction, especially those last few minutes when the Ebay players really play.
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Nothing happened! The clock just ticked down to zero and I “owned” a brand new, with tags, box and receipt $454 Tanis Engine cover for a Piper Mirage! I paid the dude selling it $18 bucks to ship it and he did with a note that said something to the extent, “it would have cost me less to throw the thing away.” He was probably right. I wrote him a note thanking him for NOT throwing it out and instead allowing me to purchase it at such a steal of a price.
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Next, was the call to Tanis Aircraft in Minnesota. I called them up and told them that I had a new, in-the-box cover with receipts but no plane to fit it. Knowing that I wasn’t likely to get money back on the difference in prices, I kindly asked if I could trade it in for a new Cherokee cover AND one for my Dad’s 172. Of course there was a restocking fee, and an alteration fee to fit the cover around my Powerflow exhaust, but I didn’t care because it was just coming off the difference in the prices! I ended up getting two new covers for both aircraft for around $200 including all the shipping; of course since I made the deal happen, I got mine for roughly $40 in shipping and dad picked up the difference for his (still a great savings for him!) Eat your heart out! Gotta love Ebay…and Tanis!
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Oh yeah, my wife used her over-the-phone Veto power while I was striking a deal the generator guru at Oshkosh last summer; then the October surprise came and she wished she hadn’t! Maybe she will listen to me next time!? Fortunately, this month I got upgraded to a “barn” with power and now my little bug is wrapped up nice and snug!
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