Famous last words. If all the screws come out cleanly, you probably don't need to worry about the inspection
Piper corrosion on the forward wing spar attachments?
- Thread starter Princesspilot206
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455 Bravo Uniform
Final Approach
I’m not trying to criticize, maybe that amount includes travel, room, and food for you and your mechanic. But if that’s just the cost for a pre-buy inspection, that’s more than an annual inspection costs (without repairs).
Look at it yourself, then the next phase is a cursory pre-buy inspection with an A&P/IA that you can opt to take into an annual inspection phase if it again passes muster.
If there are deal-killer inspection items, start with those first, then stop the spending if you find a killer item.
If a loggable inspection will come out of it that might benefit the seller if you walk away, try to negotiate a split cost or reimbursement for if the deal craters.
Wishing the best for your adventure.
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Some were finicky and some had heads partially stripped. But I've got tricks.Famous last words. If all the screws come out cleanly, you probably don't need to worry about the inspection
Thanks for all the input guys. I just had a preliminary talk with the owner of a PA-28-140. I believe this airplane spent at least a few years in Florida (hangared) before the wing spar AD that involved installing the inspection panels. Obviously, it passed that inspection after it had moved out of Florida. Most of the airplane’s life appears to have been in northern states. I asked the current owner about 1400B and it was not done during the annual in August. I will ask him if he is willing to allow it to be done as a condition of sale and see what he says.
I understand. However, there isn’t 6 to 8 hours of logbook review / AD compliance checks / major repair and alteration paperwork / STCs, etc. going back 50+ years on an annual inspection. That’s all billable time. If I’d paid for a cost effective pre-buy in this case, I very well might have ended up stuck with it. After all, it somehow was making it through annual inspections when it should not have.
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Curious. What specific items do you believe should have prevented the aircraft from passing its annual inspections?
bonefishpete
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When a plane sells after a pre buy then later an annual is preformed by a new AI how many need additional work to pass that was present during the pre buy?
A bunch I say.
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They do. But there are a ton of biases in the world of A&P's and IA's. There are ones who get skittish at high time engines that demonstrably have no issues. There are ones who will sign-off bits of fabric tied together by rotted wood and rusted steel. And everything in-between. So the odds of your mechanic being 100% comfortable with any new-to-you airplane are pretty small.
Doc Holliday
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So why would you use one mechanic for a prebuy, and then another to actually maintain it?
Also, there is definition of a prebuy and there is no scope and detail of said inspection.
bonefishpete
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Because the plane may be half way across the Country.
Doc Holliday
En-Route
And?
Again, if one is serious about ownership it pays to have a "prebuy" done by the guy that will maintain it. Cutting cost saves nothing.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat..............
Lindberg
Final Approach
How many people in your example saved money by avoiding the cost of a round-trip plane ticket?
Not really. The determination/definition of airworthy is 50% objective and 50% subjective. The objective side is the easiest, but the subjective side is different in every single mechanic. So where one sees X, another may see Y, or even B. For example, some mechanics believe all STCs require a Form 337, or some believe all parts used on TC'd aircraft must have an approval like TSO, PMA, etc, yet there are many mechanics who install certain STCs under only a log entry, or install a Cobra CB radio in a 182 with no issue.
While I don't classify this mechanic difference as a bias, it can be directly related to a mechanic's overall knowledge and experience but usually tends to be guided by a mechanic's personal risk aversion level. Take a mechanic who is very conservative risk-wise, with limited knowledge or experience, and they'll see more wrong in an aircraft than anyone else.
The only reason distance comes into play is the buyer doesn't include his mechanic into the mix of reviewing the sale aircraft. Which takes us back to the subjective side airworthy: it's their mechanics determine that matters vs some other mechanic's subjective determination 3,000 miles away. Plus, to add as mentioned above, a pre-buy carries zero regulatory weight and places no requirement on the inspecting mechanic to make any airworthy determinations at all. So you pay for what you get. Thankfully, a majority of aircraft sales end in no drama a year later and the only reason you hear about the bad ones, is nobody posts about the good ones.