I bought my plane locally, so I don't have a personal experience with long-distance buying. But follows is a story that shows sometimes even the best-laid plan can still go wrong.

David Herman, moderator of the Yahoo Cessna Group, lives in Seattle WA. Back in the summer of 2001, he searched around and agreed to buy a 150 from a state back East. The seller agreed to deliver the plane to Seattle, with paid expenses and a one-way ticket from Seattle back to his home. He figured that it would take no more than a week of vacation to complete the trip.

When the seller was half-way to Seattle, the Sept. 11 event took place. The seller landed for fuel and couldn't take off. He waited a few days in a motel but everything was still grounded. With his vacation time running out, he left the plane at that airport and took either a rental car or bus home.

David was in a quandary: his newly purchased plane was stuck at a faraway airport with nobody to care for it, the one-way ticket that he bought for the seller was wasted, he had to pay extra motel expenses for the seller, who knew when the airspaces would be open again, and how he was going to get there to bring his plane home.

If I remember correctly, GA activities resumed after about 10 days, David got a local CFI to fly him out to retrieve his airplane. I'll bet those were 10 longest days in his life.

Moral of the story: the best plan can go horribly wrong due to unforseen events happening at a place far away.

[Linked Image from visitedstatesmap.com]