Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes 150 Pre-buy Inspection list

Gary,

Hoo boy is that true!

One of the worst cases of fraud on an aircraft sale I ever saw, with phony records and bogus parts, was where the seller was an A&P with IA. The buyer didn't even do a prebuy because the seller was a mechanic.

What made it even worse was that he knew how to fake records so effectively that he almost convinced a jury that he was an innocent babe in the woods. Fortunately, they saw through him.

Careful prebuy exams are absolutely essential.

Best regards,
Rick

One of my hanger mates bought a nice looking c-150 and sent it off for an annual and rebuild at another airport. At the next annual the A&P said the compressions were way low. The owner said "can't be, I just had the engine rebuilt last year". The mechanic did a thorough check of the log books - engine number did not match engine number in log books, although it was painted up real nice. No proof that the switch took place during the previous annual or when? Ended up selling the plane at a loss to a mechanic that could deal with a run-out engine thad did not belong to the plane.

[quote=Gene_Roberts] The mechanic did a thorough check of the log books - engine number did not match engine number in log books, although it was painted up real nice.

Gene,
Your post has an excellent point for a checklist. A check of the logs should include engine number as well as any other serial numbered components. Another item could be the propeller. Is the serial number correct, is it the proper prop according to the TCDS and is there any record of overhaul or repitching? John Franks, of the Cessna Pilots Association wrote a book concerning the buying of the Cessna 182. The checklist in the back of the book for a pre buy is impressive. We might want to consider something along the lines of a club generated pre buy checklist for our members. If I had used Franks list as a guide for the prebuy on my 150, a couple of glaring items would have been caught.

No

Thank everyone for your input!!

Don, I'd like to extend a welcome to the club from a relatively new member--I joined in early March when I started looking into buying a C-152 that my FBO had for sale. I think you'll find that the club is a great place to get very good advice and make some new friends. You can read my saga in this section: I thought I'd found a great bargain on a plane (it seemed too good to be true) and as it turned out it was. Anyway, after my initial disappointment, I've continued to look for other aircraft and in parallel have also learned more about the purchase process and pre-purchase inspections. If you haven't already gotten copies, I highly recommend Mike Arman's book, Owning, Buying, or Flying the Cessna 150/152, and Denny Pollard's book, Handbook of Aeronautical Inspection and Pre-Purchase. They're both loaded with great information about C-150s/152s and things to look for. However, my best learning experience was an invitation by one of the potential sellers to come out to the airport to watch (and even participate) in his conducting an annual on one of the aircraft that he was selling. Although I decided not to buy his plane (because the engine was over TBO), I learned a lot about things to look for. I also recommend using the Club's link to get all the information possible about each particular airplane and to buy the FAA CD that provides the registration history and airworthiness records on each airplane you're looking at. I've now got quite a collection of CDs. The $10 for the information is really a bargain, but, unfortunately, it sometimes takes about 10 days to get the CD. Good luck in your search. I just hope we don't end up in a bidding war for the same plane. :-)

Charlie

Alexandria, VA