Originally Posted by Rick Durden
Originally Posted by Kendel_McCarley
I don't mean to cast aspersions on your friend's airplane for sale, but he'd assuredly get more interest in it if it had a current annual.

I'll add a dissenting note. Fresh annual on an advertisement almost invariably means the annual was pencil whipped or nearly so. Owners don't fix stuff on airplanes they are about to sell. I've represented some new owners who were excited to buy a "fresh annual" airplane because they could fly it for a year, and didn't do prebuy exams. They spent a LOT of money making those airplanes airworthy. I saw two "fresh overhaul" engines that had logbooks that said they'd been run 2 hours on a dyno. However, they didn't even have ignition harnesses.

Do a careful prebuy, no matter what. If you buy it, have the tech who did the prebuy do the extra work to make it an annual. Peace of mind.

Your most expensive annual will always be the first annual with a new A&P/IA or a new to you airplane with your IA. No A&P/AI is going to risk signing off on an old airplane that another AI signed things off on. He's going to insist on everything being right before he signs off on it.

So a strategy I've used in the past is - I have my IA do the per-buy and they basically do a full annual inspection. I make it clear to the seller that this is what I intend to do and...I will pay them their asking price minus anything my AI has to fix, repair or replace before signing off on it. If the seller won't agree to this, he is not confident in the condition of the airplane - I know I don't want their airplane.

Last edited by Tactic; 11/12/24 06:51 PM.
"If Your Cessna is older than your wife..." You might Be a Redneck.


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