Pumpkin.......ouch!
Quick update for you guys. As noted below, my new plane ended up in Oklahoma as that is where I happened to find a MEI that had good experience in a Skymaster and the plane was originally in Texas. So a few weeks ago I went down there and touched and drooled all over the thing in the hanger while it down poured the entire weekend - no flying. Drove home and on the following Monday - company wide travel restrictions - UGH!
So here I sit, 650 miles away from the plane all bummed out for god knows how long.
But in my small northern Iowa community the stars may have aligned.....I was watching a Youtube video on multi engine training and I saw a video that featured a local guy that is a major player in the Commemorative Air Force. I figured that a guy that has flown a zillion different war birds might have skymaster time. So I reached out to him and guess what, he does! And to go one step further, he is a DPE and said he can do the center thrust rating - but he cant train AND be the DPE so still a slight dilemma.
Enter my neighbor from when I first moved to Mason City 20 years ago. I connected with him on an unrelated topic and low and behold he is a MEI and he has skymaster time as well! So the clouds parted, the sun shined down on me and all is better than it was when I woke up this morning.
So now I have a MEI and DPE right in my back yard. They both said they would go down and pick up the plane and bring it home for me. All that needs to be done now is coordinate schedules and weather.
Hopefully the next update will be a picture of the skymaster squeezed into my hanger - 6" clearance each side of the wing - safe and sound.