Buying a decommissioned CAP aircraft

[Beaker’s Flyin]

Hi All,

Looking for feedback from anyone who's purchased a former CAP aircraft NOT at auction but from one of the listed brokers from the CAP website. I stumbled across one that looked promising and had very detailed and complete logs and reached out to inquire. Since then we've been back and forth between the broker and CAP regarding their oddly worded purchase agreement. I get they sell "as is where is" and have pre-purchase language in each, no where does it allow for an out if the pre-buy goes south.

The process started out by submitting a Letter of Intent to purchase, that had language you'd expect i.e. pre-buy clause, deposit requirements, title agent listed, if not signed within x days it terms etc. However once we got to the actual Purchase Agreement it was a mess.

My wife's a lawyer albeit not a contract specialist however she read it and was like what idiot would sign that? There were typos, contradictions etc. I can't divulge the price but it seems like a good deal if the pre-buy works out but we also don't want to put ourselves in a position where even if a pre-buy is done and it finds something funky that we're still on the hook for the purchase.

I'm not sure if what we're seeing is this specific broker of if all CAP transactions are like this one but damn...it's not very smooth.

Anyway, looking to see if anyone else had gone through this process.

Thanks

B.

 

[RyanB]

I know someone who purchased a 182R from them. I can put you in touch with them if you want.

 

[Beaker’s Flyin]

I know someone who purchased a 182R from them. I can put you in touch with them if you want.

That would be awesome. Thank you.

 

[pfarber]

we also don't want to put ourselves in a position where even if a pre-buy is done and it finds something funky that we're still on the hook for the purchase.

You want a good deal AND you want 100% certainty? Conventional wisdom is have a 50% cash buffer for that first annual on ANY airplane purchase. Pre-buys are not fool proof, it's a measure you can take to REDUCE risk, not ELIMINATE it.

 

[Beaker’s Flyin]

You want a good deal AND you want 100% certainty? Conventional wisdom is have a 50% cash buffer for that first annual on ANY airplane purchase. Pre-buys are not fool proof, it's a measure you can take to REDUCE risk, not ELIMINATE it.

50%...Yikes that wasn't planned for at all. That's a massive number but we're 30% in reserve.