Aircraft with damage history.

L

libertas

Pre-Flight
Joined
Jul 12, 2021
Messages
50
Display Name
Display name:
libertas
Looking at an A36T with damage history from an "off airport landing". This gives me the creeps, but I'm not sure it should...or should it? Have not seen any logs, so I have no idea the extent of damage and repairs, or who did them. I'm not even savvy enough to know who would be the "right" shop to fix it. I just keep looking at it on a couple different sites. Very well equipped otherwise and were it not for the damage, I'd be very interested.

How big of a crap shoot is a previously damaged aircraft, in general? Or is this an unfair question with so many unknowns?
 
libertas said:
Looking at an A36T with damage history from an "off airport landing". This gives me the creeps, but I'm not shure it should...or should it? Have not seen any logs, so I have no idea the extent of damage and repairs, or who did them. I'm not even savvy enough to know who would be the "right" shop to fix it. I just keep looking at it on a couple different sites. Very well equipped otherwise and were it not for the damage, I'd be very interested.

How big of a crap shoot is a previously damaged aircraft, in general? Or is this an unfair question with so many unknowns?
Click to expand...

A bonanza expert should have a pretty good idea of how well the repairs were done. Another indication is how much it’s flown since the repairs. Definitely drops the value considerably.
 
Was it damaged 20 years ago, repaired right away, and flown regularly since? Or was it damaged last week with fresh duct tape still on the cowling?

Obviously two different extremes. But the point is I'd be less worried if there are a lot of flight hours and annuals by different IAs to prove the quality of the repair. You'd probably be better off with that, than one that's just sat in a hangar not flying for 20 years and has never been damaged.

But as @hindsight2020 said, resale value is a totally different consideration. Depends how much of a priority that is for you.
 
Like anything else, the answer to your question depends. It depends on how long ago the damage occurred. It depends on how well the repairs were completed. It depends on whether all of the damage was found and corrected. I bought an airplane that had been damaged. The prior owner hit a tree on short final and put a pretty sizable dent in the center section of the wing. He managed to go around and landed. The wing of my plane, a 91 Tiger, is actually 3 sections. A used undamaged center section was found and the damage section was replaced. The lifetime of the replaced center section is about 500 hours less than the other wing components. No big deal given the life is something like 12,000 hrs. The shop that did the replacement work is top-notch and matched the paint pretty well. You wouldn’t know it unless you read the logs. Did I take a risk on re-sell? Maybe, although in this market it’s pretty hard to tell. At least the damage was disclosed. How many times do we read on POA about new purchasers who find out in their first annual from hell their plane actually sustained significant damage- bent firewall, broken/collapsed gear, prop strikes (the kind that bend the prop), etc. - that are never in the log books. Bottom line, I wouldn’t rule out a plane because it has had reported damage solely from that fact. Besides, no matter the quality of any pre-buy (absent some seriously invasive tear-down) buying a plane seems to be a bit of a crap shoot. Like a boat or a house.
 
Hard to find affordable vintage planes with no damage history. I'm in a '58 that has had two gear collapses (once per side). Neither happened in the last three decades, reputable repairs were made and it sailed through a thorough pretty and annual from Beech IAs. As everyone is saying, it depends. Don't skimp on the pretty inspection.
 
My Lance was gear-upped within a year of purchase. Since that was 1979, and it’s been repaired and flown since then, it didn’t bother me in the least to buy it.
 
Properly repaired damage may be better than what the factory sent out their door. Or not. Get it inspected by a mechanic who can tell the difference.
 
My 172 had had several wrecks . Wings replaced , firewall nose wheel , left elevator in a taxi accident . I consider it all experience I don't need to give it. @ 9220 + hours it's still airworthy and I have all the logs from 1959 to date. Very interesting reading . Can't help but think that all the prior damage history was the reason it sold so cheaply.
Great airplane , been through 2 annuals and no major squawks.
My A&P IA 's first annual cost more as he spent hours reading all the history. He is an older fellow with many years of 172 history. He was impressed with the corrosion free and well maintained log history.
 
These days I don't think it'd bother me at all beyond perhaps influencing the price, especially if the repair was quite awhile ago.
 
It seems more planes have some kind of damage history than not. I bought a plane that had some wing damage and was repaired properly twenty + years ago. She fly’s true
 
Get on the NTSB website and look at the report of the damage. As stated previously, the fleet is old and lots of planes have a history. The real issue is was it repaired properly. Damage history is not necessarily something to walk away from but it can be a good negotiating point. You definitely want a pre buy with a reputable A&P. You also want to take a very good look at the logs.
 
A plane, any object, is just a collection of components. If the broken stuff has since been replaced then what's the matter?

The average age of the GA fleet is what, 35 years old? Undoubtedly the majority of them have some sort of damage..

FWIW I'm flying cross country to OSH in a plane that needed new wings after an off airport excursion
 
Mine's still unpainted from the '07 boo boo from the prior owners' boneheaded max gross grass takeoff duel against a big ol tree in Michigan. The tree won LOL.
 
Mine had left wing and elevator damage when it was virtually new in 1979. Was repaired, flys great now.
 
They've all been pranged. The question is whether or not you know about it.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Mine's still unpainted from the '07 boo boo from the prior owners' boneheaded max gross grass takeoff duel against a big ol tree in Michigan. The tree won LOL.
Click to expand...
The plane is still alive, how bout the tree?
 
Tantalum said:
Ignorance is bliss
Click to expand...
Yeah, bliss for the previous owner of my bird who tore pages from the logs, had several $200 annuals and tried everything in the book to hide the battle damage. My first annual found missing rivets in the tail, incorrect wing attach bolts, zip cord covered with aluminum foil, frayed control cables, and just a bunch of crap that ran me over $11 grand to put right.

I spent the cash, took over a month chaulked it up to a myriad of dirtbags involved in the scam. Took my lumps but now I have a bird that flys like a dream and above all is safe. Nobody ever said aviation was cheap and $11K stung but it's pretty insignificant over the long haul. I just upgraded my panel to the tune of $65K so that annual isn't that bad of a price to pay for a safe bird that I love to fly.
 
tawood said:
I notice you're using past tense...what happened?
Click to expand...
I bought it. Actually, the owner (who I never met) was supposedly a big fat guy who lost his medical and hired the other guy to fly him around. He moved to FL and had a broker sell the plane for him. The part about them flying in IMC came from the guy he hired to fly it. I met him when I flew the plane. He was demonstrating the autopilot when he told me they loved to use it when they got into IMC and then he mentioned to that neither of them were IR. At that point, I told him we were landing. I never saw him after that, I dealt with the broker from then on.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Pilot walks into a bookstore: "Where do I find logbooks?"
Clerk: "In the historical fiction section."
Click to expand...
Really when I read the thread from obw on here about his disasterous annual I could relate. There clearly was some fraud in my case. The logs were definitely tampered with and there was obvious hidden damage. The good part for me is I was able to negotiate part of that cost off the sell price. Unfortunately for me, it ended up costing me more to put the plane in top condition. There were a lot of "might as wells" in the process. One example was they had to remove the tail to replace some missing rivets and install a missing doubler so might as well replace the elevator bearings, that sort of thing. But I told the mechanics to go through it like they owned it and fix everything they found. Yeah, they found a bunch of stuff and I authorized them to fix it all. So I came out ok in the end and I have completed confidence in my plane. But it just goes to show that this sort of nefarious crap does go on in the used plane market. When you buy a 40+ year old vehicle, expect to find stuff.
 
Last edited:
Not just planes. Before I bought my T/A, I researched it on CarFax. There were no reported accidents. My first clue there had been one was when I registered it and the inspector noted no decals on the front clip in front of the radiator. Also, one of the air deflectors on the front wheel well doesn’t fit as well as the other one. The battery tray was a pain to get in and out of the car until I’d R&R’d it several times. What finally sealed the deal is the decals on the front clip are in better shape than on the rest of the car. But, it’s safe to drive, numbers matching, and theoretically a survivor car. And, a lot of fun to drive. I just wish it had more power. (But, who doesn’t?)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top