"Every airplane out there is unairworthy for one reason or another," says Don Sebastian. "And a big part of my job is to find out just what those reasons are." Sebastian, president of Aviation Consulting Services, Incorporated, makes his living doing nothing but prepurchase inspections. He's been in the business for 18 years, holds an ATP and airframe and powerplant mechanic certificates, and is type-rated in several jet aircraft. He tackles everything from Cessna 150s to Gulfstreams. If you hire him, you'll know every single thing wrong with the airplane of your desire. Enough, perhaps, that the airplane ceases to be an object of desire — in which case Sebastian has done you a great, great service.
On the other hand, if you're selling your airplane and Don Sebastian shows up, take cover. If something's wrong, he'll find it, and your price will come down.
Sebastian's approach is so thorough that it serves as an exemplar for any prepurchase inspection. Central to Sebastian's inspection is a test flight. "I do a one-hour test flight, minimum," Sebastian says of his turbine-airplane inspections. "I take it up into the cold, thin air and make notes on how much power the airplane is making, and how much fuel it's burning. A sick turboprop will use more fuel and make less power, so you've got to look for that." The avionics testing alone would cost a prospective buyer "thousands of dollars" to perform on the ground, Sebastian says. "And anyway, for a service center to perform a prepurchase evaluation would cost you $55,000 and they don't even fly the airplane! So how would they know that the left engine burns excessive fuel at maximum operating altitude, but the normal amount of fuel during a runup? That the cabin pressure leaks down too fast? That the autopilot doesn't work well?"
The test flight is only one part of the procedure. The airplane's dirty secrets start emerging the moment Sebastian spots his target on the ramp. Like any diligent prospect, he does a visual inspection to end all visual inspections. To top it off, he videotapes the whole thing, noting discrepancies into the microphone as he moves around the airplane. For the seller, it's an uncomfortable time, as Sebastian talks about working rivets at engine pylons, loose rivets at engine cowl inlets, and other such items that escape the untrained eye.
During the visual inspection of any pressurized airplane, it's especially important to check the condition of the windows. Sebastian says he can spot a bad window by looking for what he calls a "holgraphic effect" at the window's corners. This may indicate that a window was removed and replaced, and perhaps undergone some type of undocumented maintenance. If a windshield or window change has been documented, Sebastian looks at the new panes to make sure they are of the proper thickness for the airplane.
On one videotape, Sebastian is looking at a Gulfstream II that's on the market. He notices that the auxiliary power unit's Hobbs meter seems suspiciously low for an airplane of its age. During a runup, the APU's ability to carry a large electrical load is tested to see if it's acting worn out. It pulls 30 amps, and seems healthy.
Still, the issue triggers a search of the airplane's logbooks for mention of any repairs. None are found, so Sebastian reckons that there has been undocumented maintenance performed on the APU.
Yet another issue arises concerning the time on the airframe. The sellers had been saying that the airplane only flies 100 or so hours per year. But Sebastian finds logs behind the captain's seat that indicate the airplane flew 40 hours in the past month alone. Later, this critical issue ends up killing the deal. The seller would not provide fuel receipts for the previous years, the proof that the airplane was truly low-time.
This and many other notations are made when Sebastian thoroughly searches the airplane's logbooks for compliance with service bulletins and airworthiness directives. He has CD-ROMs that list the ADs for any number of airplanes, together with descriptions of the corrective actions to be performed. On microfiche he's got the service manuals for dozens of airplanes.
By the time he's finished examining a turbine-powered airplane, Sebastian says that he frequently comes up with a good-sized list of repairs to be performed. Sometimes the cost of the repairs can amount to as much as 35 percent of the airplane's value.
Sebastian is quick to emphasize that his evaluations are nothing like those that a maintenance facility typically performs. A maintenance facility will usually do a prepurchase check such as a 100-hour inspection, looking to complete scheduled maintenance or troubleshoot and fix only obvious problems. Sebastian's goal is to find out as much about the airplane as he can in the shortest amount of time. Once he's done that, he writes up a list of his findings, along with notations for each discrepancy.
One of Sebastian's reports concerned a Piper Aerostar 602P. It listed 51 maintenance discrepancies, all of the ADs that apply to the airplane, excerpts from the type certificate data sheet, a list of all the modifications available for this model Aerostar, plus personal comments about the airplane's condition. Paired with each discrepancy was the controlling regulation or other official source that dictates and/or describes the repair. For example, the number two and three cylinder pushrod seals on the Aerostar's left engine were leaking oil; the number one, two, four, and five cylinder spark plugs were oil fouled; the crankcase oil galley plug had the wrong part number; and the number three exhaust pipe clamp and pipe to the turbo were leaking exhaust gases. Fixes to those components are required by the manufacturer and the maintenance manual, so the codes "MFG" and "MM" are next to the squawks.
For his services, Sebastian charges $500 a day plus expenses for turbine-powered airplanes and piston twins, $300 a day for singles. He can be reached at: Aviation Consulting Services, Inc., 186 Pine Ridge Drive, Wispering Pines, North Carolina 28327; telephone 910/949-3587; and e-mail: [email protected].
