Another One Gone

[marshallarts]

Just saw a heap of Grob G115-C2s appear on the auction market here in WA.  China Southern pilot training school apparently went into liquidation back in December, and all the assets are now being sold off.  They operated out of Jandakot and also Merredin.  They bought the Merredin airfield from the shire back in 1995 for $1, then spent about a million on upgrading it.  Another Covid-19 casualty I guess - their primary mission was to train Chinese pilots who would then return home to take up a career in aviation.  But with little or no international travel, no students = no revenue = big problems with all those aircraft sitting on the ground.  I don't know much about the Grobs, and I don't know how aircraft auctions go, but there might be some nice little 2-seaters going for attractive prices in the next month or so - 38 of them!  All quite sad to see really.

[440032]

Take a look at the air traffic within in China on Flightradar. Hundreds of airliners in the air at every hour of the day. Hundreds. It did not falter at all during covid, not one bit.

[red750]

I have added a profile of the G115 to General Aviation Single Engine.

[marshallarts]

Thanks Red750, interesting.  For something with an IO360 up front, the performance seems a bit underwhelming.

[onetrack]

Marshallarts, I'm interested in finding the auction listing for these aircraft. Despite a thorough search, and familiarity with all the major auction houses, I have come up with a blank for any current aircraft auctions in W.A.

[marshallarts]

Footnote to my original post...

 

I tracked down the aircraft details as listed by the auctioneer.  It doesn't show their age in years, but most are quite high-time, over 11,000 hours TTIS.  Only about 3 have less than 10,000 hours on them.  A surprising number of them seem to be unserviceable - engines and/or props missing or "incomplete", some with no avionics, etc etc.  Some are situated at Jandakot, some at Merredin.  It's mostly the ones at Merredin that seems to be in bits.  So maybe a few restoration projects in store for someone.  These are composite aircraft, so you'd think the airframes should be sound, almost regardless of age.  If only I were about 20 years younger...😁

 

onetrack, you must have been typing at the same time as me - the list is here -> https://www.slatteryauctions.com.au/auction-catalogue/6151

Edited April 24, 2021 by marshallarts

[spacesailor]

WOW

Very cheap engines in that auction,  Great looking ' flight simulator '  Oh, and those cheap aircraft, need to be there to have a Good look.

Now who lives near there. LoL

spacesailor

[F10]

Interesting, we’re these the same aircraft (Grob) that the USAAF had so many spinning issues with? Not that it seems a problem here....just ban spinning! But like all the yellow ex flying school Foxbats that suddenly came on the market, buyer beware, some cheap ones could have buckled firewalls due hard landings or other lurking horrors. But yes... certainly worth a look...and I mean a “I was physically there, with an L2/3 mate” look. Not withstanding the Grob airframe hours, as an RA, I would hate to see the cost of an IO360 annual servicing, and spare parts costs...? Have you tried starting a hot injected Lycoming? A Stephen King novel is like a child’s story book in comparison!😜

Edited May 10, 2021 by F10

[kgwilson]

18 of these are engineless airframes most with starting bids of $500 to $1000. Of the others the highest bid is now $12,100.00. It has a TBO of 1817 & is 183 since last overhaul with total engine time of 7937. TTIS is 1106.  These are pretty well flogged out.

[spacesailor]

 Yes they are flogged, A lot have prop issues, BUT, Put on a fixed pitch prop ( for RAA when they take Old VH planes ).

But,

How  many Recreational flyers will get through   11199 hr TTR.

 

"  REGISTRATION : VH-ZTA

COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: GERMANY

TOTAL TIME IN SERVICE: 11700.8

TTR: 11199.2 (NOT CERTIFIED) ".

Straight copy. with Identifier rego No.,

11,000 seems an awful lot of hours !. could it be a misprint ?.

I, de like this one @ Pretty Please.

spacesailor