Cessna Experts Inspect My Abandoned 310 Airplane.... 

Check out twincessna.org/?aff=jimmysworld and Use CODE jimmysworld to get 10% off any purchase lots of free resources too! learn more owning and flying these wonderful airplanes.

The reality of proper maintenance on older airplanes! Excellent expert Inspection! Thanks for posting!

This bird is now a display item. Great eye candy. Its new life will be in a museum, corporate foyer, mall display, hung from ceiling, something like that. It can live forever and give joy without flying.

I am a 40 year A&P/ IA. I fully respect and support these professionals in this shop.

These hidden little gems on old aircraft make you think twice about buying someone else's problem. There are areas that you would never think to inspect or look at when purchasing used aircraft. Thanks for the insightful and informative video on used antique aircraft maintenance.

That Cessna 310 in Polished aluminum is the most gorgeous Cessna I've seen..

Jimmy, we don't know exactly what you are going to decide on this situation with the 310, BUT this video has been highly instructive and entertaining for us airplane nerds out here. I have learned so much about the inner workings of airplanes that one seldom gets to see, and I hope this provides impetus for aircraft owners to go the extra mile on their routine maintenance and inspections. Thank you for sharing this whole story with us!

Jimmy I can't tell you how much I felt Your pain an aguish watching all your 310 videos. I'm 73 and have owned three airplanes over the past 45 years and was just looking at buying another piper lance one to work on but after seeing what you went through you have convinced me to build a Vans RV-10 instead. Thanks for sharing your honesty and integrity with us all. I recently bought a top of the line 17 year old, low milage Class A Diesel pusher for $85,000 about $20,000 under value. To look at it both inside and out it was a 9/10, but as I begin to fix the squawks I quickly put $10,000 into it and did the work my self only to find out that all four slides were severely rotted between the interior and exterior from sitting out in Florida weather for 5 months a year by the previous owner who kept it very clean but poor roof maintenance and while the exterior fiberglass looked like new it has so much unseen rot and delimitation found which prevented me from closing the slides air time and would have to be rebuilt for a cost of $40-60.000. Needless to say I couldn't sell it to anyone else without telling them what I found out and sold it for $55.000 to a guy that repairs slide outs and knew what he was getting into. my loss was $38,000. thanks again !

This video should be viewed by every would-be plane purchaser, as essential "Pre-Purchase Inspection" video - those Cessna Twins guys really know there stuff. Thanks Jimmy.

Not a problem Jimmy, the wife can always get a second or third job. Silas is old enough to hold down a couple of jobs by now as well.

So refreshing to see the A&P side of the house getting some spotlight. I’m Avionics/A&P and while we take a lot of pride in our work, we rarely get some credit. Love seeing these vids lately. I work at a flight school and we’re dealing with spar corrosion on some of our twins. Not a fun thing to find and definitely a costly job. These older girls take a blank check to keep flying!

My step-grandfather, an accomplished Bush pilot who owned an FBO had among other planes a beautiful 310. I once asked him why he rarely flew it and he said... "I'm afraid of it" .

Ladies and gentlemen, Jimmy has to be one of the most honest people i have ever seen. He is not hiding anything and has put it all out there for everyone to see. well done jimmy. Sleep on it and take your time with the decision. you will make the right one.

The older gentleman reminds me of my great uncle. He was an Airplane Mechanic his whole life. He had forgotten more about airplanes than most people will ever know. He used to build the most spectacular RC aircraft as a hobby in his spare time.

Jimmy, The Alclad is the pure aluminum, and its on the outside to protect the aluminum alloy of the sheet metal. FYI. Thanks for your content. Its still the best!!

After watching this video, the old adage that "if it flies, floats or f***s, you shold rent it" comes to mind.

THE most beautiful machine ever…a functional masterpiece work of art. The polished aluminum just accentuates every beautiful line.

First time I have seen the reality of aircraft ownership shown on RU-vid. And it was on Jimmys World, no less.

Wait for the numbers on the 421. Have a defibrillator nearby .

From "Save the 310" to just send me money so I can have a nice airplane pretty much sums up the channel now. Sorry that's how I feel at this point.

Incredible A&I. Very fortunate to find a inspector/ mechanic like this gentleman

Normally when I take a stroll through Jimmy’s World, it starts with a buzzing in my ears, a swirling mysterious fog, and an insatiable need to watch the video; followed by a serene satisfaction of having spent a wonderful time with Jimmy. But this video was a bit different. While the buzzing and the fog was there, the visit was a bit different. I felt as if Jimmy took my hand and the two of us wandered back in the past and experienced the first sight of the original 310 all covered in dust in that old barn. We watched the engines start and again felt the excitement and anticipation of what was to come. There was the roller coaster ride with the up’s and downs of success followed by disappointment. Together we felt the elation of finding the Silver Bullet and now the crushing realization of how many issues within that gleaming exterior were waiting to be found. BUT, this is Jimmy’s World and I have learned that sometimes the agony of defeat can sometimes be turned into a win for Jimmy and all of us who experience his world with him. I sincerely hope this is one of those circumstances.

"I picked a bad day to quit sniffing glue"

What a fantastic outfit that company is. Should be model standard for the whole aviation industry. Well done.

The 2 by 4 analogy is a classic....What a gem of a guy!

Hi Jimmy, welcome to my world with saving the 340. I’m in my plane about twice what I could sell it for. Having said that….it is mechanically and structurally in excellent condition now. Having said that……there are still things….really expensive things that can and may well go on in the future. Kinda like an old bulldozer. You can break 10 grand worth of stuff just walking by and looking at it sideways. Here is the bottom line. If you don’t trust the machine, don’t keep it! What’s it worth to you, ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) to gain that trust? I am a 23,000 hour DC-10 guy who’s retirement gig is flying an air tanker. I love to fly! I can’t imagine any other job or hobby. I should have dumped the 340 but I didn’t. Shame on me. It’s a great flying plane, (now $$$$$$) and I’m just not going to look back. My advice is salvage out the 310. That one won’t pan out. Good luck with the 421. They are a joy to fly once you can trust the machine. You are a rock star in my book Jimmy!

....that 310 would make a GREAT roof ornament for your garage....

Jimmy, I want to compliment you on your honesty; addressing these problems instead of hiding them may very well have saved lives. My hat’s off to you.

Decades ago the company I worked for as a newly minted A&P did an annual inspection on the same type of 310 with the augmented exhaust. The engine exhaust blew through the stainless tubes and ate through about 30% of the spar. The plane had been flying that way. I found it. My boss called the local FAA FSDO mx and had him come look at it. The plane got condemned. We eventually had to cut the wings off and it was a parts plane. I remember it had good engines and props. I’m glad I’m retired now.

The Cessna twins are a flock of really good-looking aircraft. Always liked them since a boy.

Lots of good lessons for any prospective owners. Metal, wood, cloth, fiberglass - like a boat they always need work and picking the right project for you is the question. Upholstery and paint are the easy ones.

Man, I love airframe repairs. The satisfaction of finding and repairing the various issues. The specialization one can develop learning a certain model or type is simply invaluable.

Form an LLC and get a group of folks like you to fix the 310. Shared ownership

Jimmy, my heart wants to see the Silver Bullet fixed and flying, but my brain says a $125,000 isn't economical. Plus, the fact that one of the engines will soon need an overhaul. The only hope would be to set up a gofund me for it and hope enough of us would throw in enough money to keep it going. Good luck! The video was very enlightening.

Priceless education during this hour and a half. Thanks for posting and thanks to the TAS crew for not holding any punches.

Gosh darn Jimmy and I was just getting ready to buy it. Well good luck with whatever you're going to do with it. You're the man.❤

Fix it and fly it!!!🆒😎👍! All life comes to an end . And then we must carry on

This day will change the way Jimmy inspects the future planes he buys. good all around.

She's a classic and rare. We all started with save the 310 lets keep going .Rally support to fix her then auction her off and get the next going , we are in it for jimmy's world adventures.

Thanks for showing the ups and downs of plane ownership. Also the importance of plane maintenance and storage.

Sometimes there's cool stuff that needs to be kept going against all logic and expense. , this might be one of them. It's a beautiful classic.

That 310 is a flying museum piece! Keep it going! Such a beautiful plane.

It is one of the most informal video/interview I've seen in a long time. Thank you for sharing 💯💯💯💯

I appreciate anyone that keeps these beautiful pieces of history in flying condition.

I feel for you, Jimmy. When I had my 421, I had many similar conversations with Tony and Marla. Always painful, but always knew I had a safe aircraft. Good luck on deciding what to do with the 310. I hope you don't have similar conversations with the 421...But, these are old airplanes......and still lot's of fun!

The cladding is 1100 series alloy. It is rolled onto the substrate material in the mill at high temperature while the sheet is being rolled out from a block of substrate with a plate of clad material on the top and bottom. I would guess the substrate is 24-T3 which is an obsolete material that is equivalent to today's 2024-T3. 2000 series aluminum the primary alloying element is copper. 1000 series aluminum is nearly pure aluminum. what you see in the corrosion is where the clad material was chipped exposing the substrate. The substrate is protected from corrosion by the clad. This is why it is important to clear Alodine after polish. Save the 310, the sequel.

Jimmy, I'd donate to a museum and take the write off before I'd part it out, but that's me. I can understand your passion, a lot of blood sweat and tears goes in to taking and older plane and doing the best you can to make it look and fly well. Sorry the news was so tough, but I had a feeling when I started watching. Good luck on your decision my friend.

Now THIS is the most accurate, and REAL depiction of Twin Ownership, nay AIRCRAFT ownership I have seen...Kudos!

General Aviation. The most expensive way to die.

Jimmy, it makes me sad to see the difficulties being encountered on this aircraft. Surely, the expense to get this girl up to snuff is a real choker. Keep in mind that having broadcast the damage assessment, it will serve as evidence in case the 310 continues flight. Any incident investigation will certainly refer to this video as knowledge of the various deficiencies in the structure. That is the cold, hard fact of restoration. God bless you, Jimmy. You've got a really difficult decision to make about the Silver Bullets future. The possibilities truly break my heart. I love these old birds. But reality is reality.

It’s so beautiful. It’s a show pony. The cost is insignificant if you love it. It will always attract attention at shows and everyone will know it’s Jimmy’s World and where to find you. Keep the dream alive…alternatively, it should be mothballed and put into a museum until a future buyer comes along to save her. It’ll be fine…

So beautiful in natural metal. Stunning.

Maybe I don’t want an airplane.

If you own or are thinking about a Twin Cessna going to one of Tony's seminars is a MUST

Glad Jimmy is getting the 310 looked at. Every time I hear about a 310 crashing it always makes me wonder.

As a GA Pilot I used to think these videos were a distasteful way of earning money of aviation tragedies. However, after watching more of your videos I have noticed myself becoming increasingly more aware of my own shortcomings in areas I need to improve my skills and training. I have no doubt your efforts are bearing fruit and making a difference in Aviation safety. As sad as it is to hear about these tragedies, it would be even sadder if they died in vain and the aviation community failed to learn from their loss. Thank you for your work! God Bless you all. 🙏

Jimmy, I'm really sorry to hear this news. As an American living in England, I've always found a time of rest and enjoyment watching your videos. Especially when you found the silver 310. We are thankful you are alive and well after your inflight scary ordeal. Thank you once again for your enlightening videos and fun sense of humour! An unexpected $110.000 would put a dampener on any happy-go-lucky person's day. We are glad you are safe and sound sir! Looking forward to your future videos regarding this project. Take care!

After watching a number of your RU-vid videos, I'm convinced I'd need to win a Billion dollar Powerball just to afford the maintenance on a small single engine Cessna. This was a tough one Jimmy.

So much better aviation content than the Elvis jet conversion.

Jimmy this was a great, thank you for sharing, I really appreciated your extended patience when getting the run down on the turbo exhausts. I really enjoyed the precision and logic of the engineers’ (sorry lost his name) explanation. I hope to see more of this detailed realism videos again thank you for sharing your passion and intermittent pain. Emil

Jimmy is a gentlemen 10:43 giving the mechanics flashlight back to him as soon as he was done using it. It's those little things that makes a big difference.

The way I look at it is you can always buy a new one! With everything fixed just add it to the selling price. A new Barron is close to two million. Heck a loaded 172 is half million. You can get another one that is “airworthy “ and start all over again. You know that plane, fix it, keep it if you can’t sell it.

SAVE THE 310 Jimmy !! You have to, you can’t abandon her now !! She’s worthy ! She’s a classic!

Wow! Great channel. I maintained many, many, many of these old twin Cessna's when they weren't old. Great videos. Nostalgia city.

WOW Jimmy. . . .what a gut punch. HOWEVER.... its a great video with a realistic look at what it will take if preventive maintenance was not embraced. May God Bless the outcome and you land on your feet.

As an addendum, I’m so glad my aircraft is a homebuilt wooden aircraft called a Corby Starlet. Aluminium and corrosion is not a concern.

OHHHHHHHHHH JIMMY! Dang brother!

Since I was a kid many, many decades ago (I was seven when your 310 was built) I have loved the 310. Sky King...310....310 one of the most beautiful in my book. This episode has been difficult, not as difficult as for you but still difficult. If I were only rich. I don't live that far from you (Land O Lakes, FL) I would love to come see it. You have turned it into such a beautiful example.

Best video so far…thanks for the numbers.

Hey Jimmy my suggestion is get out while you can, have all work stopped auction it off as a project plane only!

The dumbfounded "is the tail/nose/xyz going to fall off??" gets quite annoying over and over again

Very informative and educational video for individuals thinking about buying old aircraft. It was very straightforward of Jimmy to take it to the best Cessna twin shop for a “pre-auction” inspection. He had to know there was no way a rather rough 70 year old plane was not going to escape that shop without at least two or three serious issues being found which would be costly. And putting it out there for everyone to see says so much about him as person. If he sells it the buyer knows exactly what is up with this A/C. I’m looking forward to see what happens to this 310. With this A/C having what is basically a restoration done, someone can finish it with new interior and avionics and have a really nice antique A/C thats still versatile and flyable. Costly - sure - but all this work really makes it viable for many many years.

I look back to all of the antique aircraft I have flown in, and worked on and I am in awe of the dedication of those who restore them for the sake of the generations that otherwise would have never seen them in the air. I have been up in a 1929 TavelAire elephant ear bi-plane, up over Orcas Island in Puget Sound. It was an anniversary flight for my second wife when we flew to Seattle to take the ferry up to Vancouver BC. We stopped overnight on the island and stayed at the historic hotel (are you noticing a trend here?), and saw an advert for a sightseeing flight, so we jumped at the chance! The owner and restorer was a retired US Navy pilot, and he took us on a tour of the islands up there, and then he put on some classical music as he lazily rolled through the clouds. It was quite extraordinary. Oh, back to my list, an Airecoupe, a Piper J-3 ( my dad owned them when I was a little boy, but I took flight as an adult), a number of K2 Kaydet Stearman biplanes, and others, of which my memory has lost track of, sadly. I have worked on a P-51 (installed a water injection system) and a North American Mitchell B-25, of which I redrew all the updated avionics and electrical mods for the FAA, so it could be certified airworthy. The biggest complement I got was from that inspector, who said "no, I don't want to see the original wiring diagrams, I want to see what you've done!". To which the owner replied "look at the dates". I had redone them all in the style and fonts of WWII schematics. Made my day!

Apparently owning a certified vintage aircraft is another way to financial depletion.

Wow Jim that was a really brilliant video, I can understand your dilemma regarding the cost of the repairs to the 310, it will be sad if she never flies again, but $120,000+ is a lot of money. Stay safe.

Really really enjoyed it jimmy ,what a great bunch of blokes ,i hope all works out

That plane is a polished thing of beauty 😍

Trevor Jacob would be more then happy to test fly your plane and film it for his youtube channel. of course you'll have to go drag the pieces out of the mountains after he bails out once again just for views and subs. LOL

Another great video! Your channel is addictive and I really hope this one will be back in the skies soon.

I really enjoyed listening to the knowledge that man has.

Looking around the horizontal stabilizer is between 1000-5000 used, and swapping it out is something you could do under A&P supervision (AKA how you do much of your work originally) The nose I would have them fix. The cracks behind the engines I would think can be stopped drilled and patched. The things like polishing off the burs and marks off the spar, can be done as you have with A&P supervision. I mean reskinning it isn't that difficult, it is something you and your team could also do, it is no more complicated than any vans airplane in assembly, assuming your A&P has the experience and willing to do it. Honestly I would not ferry it with the cracked skin on the tail. I'm not sure what the other "bee stings" are but I'm guessing most are not grounding issues and can be moved to watch list or done by your team. This I think is why so many owners are afraid of taking a plane to a shop like this, it is far too easy to mechanically total it.

I had a Cessna 172 once that I had $120.000 into. When I sold it, it sold for half that. You never make money on selling well maintained aircraft. It always costs more to properly maintain it than you will ever get out of it.

Lovely old 310 just beautiful

I love listening to experience. I find it fascinating

Jimmy, this brings back A LOT of memories. Worked on 310/320 nose gear mounted Avionics. Left the nose gear doors unlatched and customer flew it. Retracted nose gear thru blown shut nose gear doors. Unjammed the gear and got it back to maintenance. As the Avionics Tech, I was not blamed. Pilot should have caught loose nose gear doors on pre-flight. That was one first employment. Second employment at (Burlington) Northern Airmotive Mpls. MN. Became autopilot and Pitot Static tester specialist. Fixed all kinds of Autopilots (many flight tests) and Pitot Static systems. New Cessna A/C leaked liked sivs. Once I got done, they stayed leak free. Many maintenance issue fixed singles and multi-engines. Many different autopilots.

Jimmy, I feel for you brother.

Tony is crazy knowledgeable man! That man knows his shit and if he says fix it I would fix it!

So sorry to hear all that. On the upside: Marla was probably the sweetest person with the most pleasant and soothing voice that you could hope for breaking the news to you. 😉

Don't love something that don't love you back. Great acting.

Part it out Jimmy and cut your bad investment. Just about the time you get it back with spending 125000 on it you will need to overhaul engines

Makes me appreciate my Velocity (fiberglass) so much more….my condolences Jimmy.

You are really good with cliff hangers. I was feeling like this video was really hard to watch as this is real life, and I even told my 12 year old son, I bet Jimmy has a "Catch" at the end and you didnt disappoint.

Maybe Mike Patey would buy it as the ornament for his new FBO.

This company is amazing. Great to see an organisation that really knows its onions. Perhaps you could do a re-run of the Elvis Jet and convert it to something else? I nominate a nuclear submarine...

A priceless heart-breaking eye opener, Jimmy. No used airplanes for me (once I win the Power-Ball). It'll be a brand-spanking new King Air.

Lesson to be learnt: If the wife wants to holiday at the Grand Canyon and she has 2x6 and handsaw, state there are business related duties I need to attend. *Can't you put: de ice boots on the rear horizontal stabs? *Pre make reinforced aluminium plates (copy old ones) and TIG welding in the nose gear box? * New separation guides for control cables to the rear of the plane * Zinc chromate any underside aluminium. 🦉🇦🇺

SAVE THE 310 Jimmy!

G'day Mr Jimmy, WOW what an emotional video, and I'm talking about me. But you've left me hanging. But thankyou for sharing another video on the 310. ✌️ Peace from Melbourne Australia.

Insane, beautiful plane

Donate the Silver Bullet to a museum