Tyrekickers - where are you?

Niner_Mike wrote:

Buyers seems to have unrealistic expectation of virgin aircraft and even when they find a virgin, it’s such a rare occasion that they often mistrust it.

Honestly, if I see “No damage history” on a listing for a tailwheel plane, I know the logbooks are incomplete or the ground loop damage was repaired off the books. Especially if it was a type popular for training or for clubs back in the day.

I’ve only bought two planes (both tailwheel equipped) – I don’t care about damage history, so long as the repair was done properly. Ground loop damage from 1953 is just not a big deal that some people want to make it out to be.

Malibuflyer wrote:

Might also be a more simple lack of trust. There have been many reports (true or not…) about people receiving very attractive offers for their cars from “Eastern Europe” also promising a lot and then they were ripped of when they got there (according to some reports even physically threatened).

Perhaps your offer was regarded just “too good to be true”, unfortunately …

Well, my offer was certainly not “too good to be true” :) but I offered to wire him 3000 euro directly for his cost in advance (it would cost me the same to fly with a mechanic to his country if I was able to), he was to fly to an international airport (LYBE) not some small godforsaken grass strip for the inspection. And mind you, this was all after more than a week of intense back and forth emailing where he sent me all documentation, and it all seemed good. I might give him a call once these travel restrictions are lifted if the plane is still available for sale, but I can just not understand why would anyone be wary of this, especially when I am the one risking 3k, and his plane was advertised for sale since last year, so I don’t think its going to sell that fast especially with this whole situation going on.

@dvukovic what type of airplane are you looking to buy?

AF wrote:

@dvukovic what type of airplane are you looking to buy?

Shorter term (I would consider this purchase a short term, something that I can fly while I am looking for a more “serious” aircraft):

• Piper Arrow III/IV (ideally Turbo Arrow IV) – I don’t care much about anything as long as it has minimum 400-500 hours on the engine, it would be great if it had an autopilot (everything else is a plus but I would not want to spend too much on kitted out one, I basically need a beater, and I am willing to take a hit on it when I sell it, as long as it’s reliable enough that I can get couple hundred hours out of it)
• Cirrus SR20 – G1 or G2 with an analog panel, STec autopilot is a must

Long term solution:

• Bonanza A36/B36 – Ideally one with low resources so that I do a fresh overhaul and panel/interior upgrade, or if it’s a good one I would not want one with too much glass in it
• SR22 – Ideally with an analog panel, autopilot is a must

But if I have to choose at the same price point I would rather go with SR22 than with A36. If I find a good SR20, I could imagine that that could be a longer term solution as well, it is a quite decent and capable aircraft.

Niner_Mike wrote:

It’s a curious and interesting market. If everyone would just be a tad more realistic about it all, we wouldn’t have this conversation ;-)

That seems clear from reading the posts – mentions of lawyers and contracts and escrow accounts as though every aircraft were a multi-million level investment, and no acceptance of what seems to me obvious: every plane you buy is going to have problems, the only question is how severe, and they will all be projects to some degree or another. I’ve never personally known anybody go through any of that guarded payment stuff for a plane in 100K of less range. You just do your best and select from what you find, pay the guy to get it out of his hands and start work. After a year of flying, finding issues and fixing them you can expect it to be dialed in. Nobody should buy a plane if they don’t enjoy dealing with problems for a while and making it their own, because that’s the way it’s going to be. Welcome to the real world – these are not new cars that you can expect to have no issues, they are machines that will last much longer than a new car but will need hands on time and replacement parts after purchase, especially when you first liberate them from somebody who has lost interest.

A friend bought a nice looking C180 for about $80K from another friend a few months ago and subsequently found so many issues that the seller gave him $5K back without being asked to cover some replacement cylinders. That’s a good seller Since then they’ve replaced the wheels and brakes complete, new transponder, new carb or injector overhaul (I forget which it has), engine control cables, new (NOS) front seats, aileron cables, and lots of other details.

Silvaire wrote:

That seems clear from reading the posts – mentions of lawyers and contracts and escrow accounts as though every aircraft were a multi-million level investment, and no acceptance of what seems to me obvious: every plane you buy is going to have problems, the only question is how severe, and they will all be projects to some degree or another. I’ve never personally known anybody go through any of that guarded payment stuff for a plane in 100K of less range. You just do you best and select from what you find, pay the guy to get it out of his hands and start work. After a year of flying, finding issues and fixing can expect it to be dialed in. Nobody should buy a plane if they don’t enjoy dealing with problems for a while and making it their own, because that’s the way it’s going to be. Welcome to the real world – these are not new cars that you can expect to have no issues, they are machines that will last much longer than a new car but need time and money to maintain, especially when you first liberate them from somebody who has lost interest.

You are a man of the world @Silvaire

I thoroughly enjoy getting the guys down to the hangar to open up the new purchase, regardless of whether it is due or not, and finding the last guys screw-ups. I think even if I could afford a factory-new aeroplane, I would still prefer to buy a misunderstood aeroplane and get it dialled in. If you invested 7-8k in all the workshop tools and rented/built a hangar you could make almost any aeroplane work. We just bought an aeroplane that came from a blank cheque maintenance arrangement and found 30+ things wrong. Money will not save you, only skill & common sense.

Silvaire wrote:

Since then they’ve replaced the wheels and brakes complete, new transponder, new carb or injector overhaul (I forget which it has), engine control cables, new (NOS) front seats, aileron cables, and lots of other details.

The only reaction I can give here is the ::horror:: or ::gasp:: emoji…
Good grief!

That’s completely normal in my experience, particularly as in this case the two partners in the plane are an IA and a DAR with lots of experience at identifying issues quickly. It’s just the normal fun and games when a ‘new’ plane comes into your life, part of the process.

Maybe the most interesting one was the carb (I’ve now remembered the story). The one on there worked fine but they couldn’t Annual it without a overhauled replacement because of some dash numbered suffixing in the part number that wasn’t listed on the TC for the upgraded engine.

I looked at a Jodel DR1050 in 1999, had a flight, and looked through the logs. I wanted the Syndicate to buy it. But I was outvoted. We bought another, at about the same price, which I thought was inferior.