Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes New (used) plane purchase question on damage.

I'm a new member who is purchasing a high time C-152. In reviewing the airframe log I notice that about 4 years ago the vert stab, rudder horn, horizontal stab leading edge skin, elevator bell crank, and a host of other parts were replaced. However the accident and incident report shows that this A/C has zero reports.

Being that I'm new to A/C ownership, is this something to be concerned about and investigate further? This happened prior to the current owner, who claims there has been no damage to the plane.

Thanks

Bob

As long as all work done properly, then it should be a non issue.

The airplane could have easily been damaged in a wind storm, or even damaged in a flight accident that did not require reporting to the Feds.

In any case, the repairs are at least documented, I'm surprised the present owner is ignorant of the log entrys, or so stupid to believe that a prospective buyer would not stumble upon the entries and question the NDH claim.

We've discussed damage history (and the affect if might have on value) at great lengths and if you do some searches using different key words, you will find the threads on this subject.

It is fairly common to find undocumented repairs to an airplane, however, I'm sure most repairs are properly documented, as are the ones you are looking at. As far as the disagreement between NTSB reports and the logs, as I noted, not all accidents and incidents need be reported to the FAA or the NTSB, as I hope you learned while studying for the private pilot exam.

Needless to say, some of the reportable ones are not reported.

Charles.

Bob,

You've opened a can of worms that we beat the hell out of a month or so ago. Damage history is what you make of it. If you're not a mechanic, I'd find one and determine if the repairs were completed as good as new. If it's not as good as new, then you have to determine if the repair is according to the manufacturer's recommendations as specified in their structural repair manual. In the absence of suitable data, does it comply with the structural repair instructions located in AC 43.13 1B. If it is determined to be in airworthy condition by your mechanic, you have to make the determination if the 'damage' or the documentation that infers that the plane was damaged is okay with you.

I feel like as long as it's structurally sound and any repairs conform to approved data, fly the heck out of it. Wayne and Hung went at it (in a friendly way) about a woman with scars. Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone. Airplanes are usually that same way.

And, just to note, no one that I know would just go out and decide to replace the vertical stab, horizontal leading edge, elevator bellcrank and rudder control horn just cause they were bored. Something happened, and the seller honestly may or may not have a clue as to what it was.

Unlike airline logs that have a discrepancy followed by a corrective action, general aviation logs are blank pages for the mechanics to list what they did. There are no requirements to list the reason. Example: Replaced Rt elevator half. Why?????? Damage? Corrosion? Thievery? No, he needed some money to make ends meet because he was a struggling furloughed airline mechanic and decided to sell the elevator half to help pay the mortgage. Damage history? Not really. Suspicious logs, Certainly.

Inspect it, buy it or not, but if you do buy it, quit looking back and we'll see you in Clinton, IA July 20th, 2006. By the way, nobody goes around looking and says, "Ooh, you have damage history on your plane." Most are treated like a wounded bird, finally finding a caring owner. There are no scarlet letters here.

Good luck with the purchase, and fly, fly, fly.

Gary,
You captured my thoughts exactly, why would anyone go to the trouble to do this work. From all that can be seen the work was done well. Had it not been for the logs no one would know.

Thanks for your replies. I intentd to look ahead.

Bob

Yeah...ditto to what Gary said. If it was repaired properly, it's a non-issue.
If a person requires a NEW airplane, then he should go to the nearest dealer and buy one. The rest of us: Well, we're willing to compromise (but not from a safety standpoint) a little to make the sport more affordable.
When we did the paint job on N150DM we discovered a fair sized dent in a wing leading edge that had been previously repaired and painted over. Nothing in the logs about it. We re-repaired it and then later on the Horton STOL cuff covered it anyway. Non-Issue.
Don't worry, Be happy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yeah, that's what would worry me the most, personally.

The plane is probably just fine, from the sound of it. But the seller of the plane, on the other hand, seems a bit fishy.

Kinda makes you wonder what else he's pulling.

- Jeff

Rudder work could be explained with a spar crack fix, which my aircraft had. The old spar comes out and they fit the new 'split' spar in that is then closed up with tabs when done.
Your mechanic can quickly see this by checking into the rudder from the top hinge, if there is a quarter sized hole (one tells me), this is the old spar, if not, it's a new one that is much stronger.
You should also see the rivets on the front face of the spar where the tabs are attached.

Well you guys convinced me that there was little to worry about. So the good news is that I took posession of N68608 today and flew it home.

I would like to thank all those who made comment to the original question, your comments were helpfull in my decission process.

Bob
N68608 78 152

Bob,

G'day,

Don't forget to take some pictures and post them here for all of us to check out your new purchase ......

Cheers