Dear All.
I am guilty of being a mere lurker on this great forum.
I apologize for the selfish attitude but, once more, I have come here for the great infos/input/help…
I am in the process of acquiring a used Seneca V for a friend (fellow pilot and my student)
I confess that, being the one that usually fly the aircrafts, I am not a great expert on management, acquisition, inspections and aircrafts transaction in general.
I would like to have some inputs/gotcha from your valuable expertise as aircrafts owners. In general and “type” specific.
Care to help?
the Seneca V in question is a vintage 2007, fairly used, on EASA registry. It has the Avidyne avionics, WX RDR ADF and DME. Plus, all ADs are complied.
Fresh ARC (I know it does not mean ANYTHING) and has been used in norther countries for a commercial owner. MTOW is 1999kg.
Thank you for your time
lowandslow
Be sure that your friends get someone to do a complete pre-buy inspection at least, with detailed inspection of the aircraft and paperwork. It is quite common that there are issues which can be quite expensive to fix. Spending some money on this, can save you a lot of money in the long run.
thx very much for your advise. A good prebuy is a given. Problem is, I do not know a good mechanic with PA 34 experience that I could trust.
Any inputs?
lowandslow
A fine passenger friendly twin and very refined given it started off as the Twin Six. Not aware of any issues if maintenance has been kept up to date.
The 1999kg STC makes it a limited payload, short sector aircraft. Partial fuel, using the wet bottoms method of the I and II, is less flexible as wet bottoms you are still running more than three quarters full because of the higher fuel capacity. On the I and II wet bottoms on the outer tanks is roughly half tanks.
Like many designs actual payload reduced with each evolution of the type.
Maybe you could share your location, or the location of the aircraft, such that forum members could give their thoughts.
I would recommend to use the shop or mechanic you would like you to do maintenance on it. This will prevent that one says it is ok, while your maintenance facility says it is not for example. They should also be able to give you a good indication on cost to bring it back to standard, if applicable, and give a good indication on maintenance.
my location is central Italy.
I have very good friends that works as mechanics in part 145 in that area, nobody though has experience with SENECA V (belive it or not…)
The PA34 is pretty straightforward. Hopefully most certified engineers can check compliance and for evidence of abuse, either to the airframe or engines.
RobertL18C wrote:
The PA34 is pretty straightforward.
True. The landing MLG hinge brackets are a weak spot, they crack at the hinge bracket to wing attachment points. A reinforce bracket is available. Not complete sure if this one is also applicable to the V, it was years ago I have seen this issues. None the less it is easy to inspect in minutes during a pre-buy.
