Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Airplanes Only New Member - Need advice on 150 Purchase

Although I'm not in as serious shape as Mark, I had a bit of 'experience' when I bought my 150M last June. When I bought her, she was about 1630 or so SMOH. She had a pesky after-fire that disappeared after the annual that the seller had done with sale, but resurfaced about 6-8 flight hours later. New mag kit (mags, harnesses, plugs) took care of it, to the tune of $3,300 that I wasn't planning to spend three months after purchase, but to me it was worth it. If you want the full details (along with other things that happened/were discovered by my A&P), check out my thread in the Projects/Restorations area.

If you're serious about the local plane, or any of the ones you find, at the minimum make sure you do a title search, and if you zero in on one, make sure you absolutely, positively get a pre-buy inspection done by a good, reputable A&P. The one that did the annual with sale on mine signed off on a few things that were 'questionable,' but this being my first plane, I let the seller convince me that since it was getting an annual before the sale, a pre-buy wasn't really necessary (he saw me coming a mile away - wish I'd found this group before and done exactly what you've done here). One other thing I wish I'd done is waited until I had a reserve of about $5,000 to cover any squawks that might be found after purchase.

Best wishes in your search for a bird. Be patient, don't rush, and shop around as much as possible.

New news on 704JQ, we are cracking the case now. Tappets and lifters are all gunked up after only 22 hours. Not sure why but figured as long as the rest of it is all apart, might as well check it out. Good grief!

Were any of the parts used in the overhaul new? I'm guessing not, I wonder if they were even overhauled! Whatever the reason, that's brutal!

This is a new one on me......what does gunked up mean?

Do you have pictures to share?

Regardless, your experience continues to spiral downward.



Jim

Boy Mark. The good news just keeps on coming (not!).

It makes me wonder how the guy that ferried your 150 ever made it all the way to your place! Our 150 has a little over 1,600 SMOH, and has had a few cylinder problems since (stuck valves!!), but if I sold it to someone, I would really feel bad if they then ran into the kind of problems you are having. It has been running fine, but I have no idea what it looks like inside. I hate this for you on your first airplane! What a bummer!

Many very good points so far.

I will add that looking at two or three other planes with a knowledgeable assistant will help you to see what is important and give you a better sense of one being better than another and what to look for.

A few tips.

These planes are rarely close enough to compare side by side so take plenty of quality pictures of pretty much everything you can. Especially the inside of the wings looking for corrosion. Coastal airplanes will almost always have some, how much is too much is tough for this midwesterner to say. We have very little of that here. Southwestern dry state planes have almost none, but may have other affects from heat and sun.

Paperwork such as logs are very helpful, and valuable to a point. There are some planes that seem great on paper but have serious issues. Buy the best airplane, even if it doesn't have the best paper trail. Early logs missing is not a terrible thing to me, as long as the current overhaul is included in the current logs.

Buying the very best airplane you can afford tends to be cheaper in the long run than expecting to fix this and that and end up with a gem. Gem's cost an astronomical amount of money. Buying a Gem used is normally still cheaper than creating one.

All these birds had some minor damage whether indicated in the logs or not. Don't let that throw you off track. Good repairs should be noted but are occasionally omitted to protect the guilty. This is part of the reason the bird is more important than the paper.

You will have something go bad after you buy it, or at least have a component you will decide to replace. It's pretty normal on every plane except that perfect gem you pay dearly for.

Anytime I can buy a plane under that V REF number, I'd consider it to have a spare plane. I think that number was low. I do hear about planes selling for ridiculously low prices now and then. I don't believe them all.

Good luck in your efforts

Jim

Amen, Jim.......you are wise beyond your years.



Jim

Mark, we all feel for your situation. Most have been there all be it not as extreme as yours. In the first few months of owning my 152 I replaced the vacuum pump, starter, exhaust parts and battery.

In the past 3 years I've replaced the altinator and power regul something or other, mags, plugs, harness, both solenoids, tach, fuel senders and master switch.

Everything firewall forward is new except for the engine itself, prop and carb.

Look on the positive side. You will know what you have when your done.

Finally I can't agree more with Brian above. Saving for the purchase isn't everything. It's wise to have a reserve from the get go.

One way to determine value is to see how much you can finance it for. Finance companies determine value based on engine time, the higher the time, the less they'll finance for. Even if you don't finance, check with AOPA or one of the other outfits and hear what they have to say. Also, you do not have to do a major at TBO. Many planes are flying long past TBO. I'd want to do an oil analysis first, and then if compression is good, check the books for when mags were overhauled, and what kind, starter, etc. These can run a lot to fix. If OK, just fly it. However,given your high time realize the market is not strong, so make a low ball offer. The radios, etc., don't count for much if the engine time his high

ALSO, the FAA will send you a CD with all the records including 337's, etc. $10 the last time I got one, and well worth. Go to FAA.gov and look it up. (Maybe others have said the same things, sorry, didn't read all the posts.