Airframe and Powerplant

A fresh look at prepurchase surveys

Caveat emptor is a Latin phrase meaning "let the buyer beware." Keep this principle in mind if you intend to buy an airplane. A prepurchase survey conducted by a mechanic with experience on the make and model of airplane being considered for purchase is vital and invaluable, but it's not all that's required. The buyer can assist in the survey by taking some presurvey action. We'll get to that later. A successful airplane purchase occurs when a buyer acquires the airplane that fits his needs and at the same time gets the airplane he thinks he's getting (see " Prepurchase Inspection: Look Before You Leap," March 1996 Pilot, and " Prepurchase Prep," September 1998 Pilot).

If a pilot buys an airplane without a prepurchase survey, the new owner is taking the seller's word about the airplane's condition. Sellers rarely set out to cheat a buyer — most problems occur because the seller and buyer don't have similar expectations. The buyer expects everything to work in his new airplane, while the seller doesn't think it's that big of a deal that the ADF needle no longer points at the selected station — he doesn't fly IFR, so he only uses the ADF to listen to baseball games. That's why one of the big selling points of a thorough survey is that these subjective interpretations of the airplane's condition are eliminated.

The quickie

The most basic prepurchase survey often consists of an expanded walkaround inspection of the airplane and a look at aircraft service and maintenance records to check for abnormal entries and for airworthiness directive (AD) compliance. Usually the engine is started and the normal pretakeoff operational checks — a magneto check and propeller cycle check — are completed before an engine compression test is done, and the oil filter or screen is opened up to check for gross contamination. If the airplane has retractable landing gear, a simple operational check may be conducted, and the landing gear is usually extended using the emergency extension system.

Has anyone noticed all the passive verbs in the preceding paragraph? That's because each shop determines the scope of its survey. There's no standard, although the survey above describes a common starting point.

Experienced airframe and powerplant mechanics I spoke to said that they would know within two hours whether the airplane should be inspected further. In that time they would also know if the airplane has serious, expensive problems. Many experienced shops conduct these surveys using a building-block system of mini-surveys. Mike Terhune of Mike's Aero in Angwin, California, says, "I'm working for the man that's buying the airplane. If I find big problems early in the inspection, I'll stop right there."

If the first inspection block doesn't reveal any expensive discrepancies, then the inspection continues with an emphasis on looking for possible deal killers — serious airframe or engine corrosion, poorly repaired damage, expensive outstanding or upcoming ADs, and phony or incomplete records are often cited as prepurchase stoppers.

Phil Esdaile of Davis Air Repair in Davis, California, says, "My average prepurchase inspection takes about five hours — half the time is spent on the airplane and half is spent on the records." Many shops are finding that records research is taking up more and more of their mechanics' time.

Assumptions

One shop owner (we'll call him the surveyor) told me about a prepurchase survey for the buyer of a Piper Cherokee with a Lycoming four-cylinder engine. The surveyor knew of, and looked for, information related to a Lycoming AD on the oil pump gears. The AD required that certain gears be changed whenever the engine was overhauled, or by July 15, 2001, whichever occurred first. During the prepurchase, the surveyor found an entry in the aircraft logs addressing the pertinent AD. This entry stated that the engine accessory case had been removed and listed part numbers for the gears. The surveyor assumed that the mechanic who had removed the accessory case had installed new gears since the pump was easily accessible when the case was off, so he told the buyer that the AD had been complied with. Unfortunately, no gears had been replaced. Instead of complying with the AD by installing a $325 set of gears, the owner had apparently told the mechanic to put it back together and put the airplane up for sale. This was legal because of the way the AD was written. In mid-2001, the surveyor received a telephone call from the new owner telling him that the pump gear part numbers listed in the logs were old part numbers — part numbers of gears that had to be replaced by July 15, 2001, for the airplane to remain legal. The surveyor paid for the new gears.

This example shows why some maintenance shops, concerned about the potential of missing an item during an abbreviated survey, are reluctant to do prepurchase surveys and will generally beg off for all except their longtime customers.

Prepurchase survey is a term coined by Richard Wills of Magnum Aviation at Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose, California. Wills uses the term to protect himself from any misconceptions that may crop up between the buyer, the shop, and the FAA. He wants to be sure that everyone involved understands that his prepurchase look-sees are not inspections. Inspections are listed under the definition of maintenance in FAR 1, and when maintenance is conducted on an airplane certain regulations come into play.

Survey dilemmas

To help a mechanic determine what the owner wants from a prepurchase survey, surveyors need a few facts before getting started. First, they need to know exactly how much the customer is willing to pay for the survey. If a customer only has $200 allotted for the survey on a high-performance single- or twin-engine airplane, either the decision to buy the airplane has already been made or the buyer has no idea of the costs involved in owning such an airplane. This is a difficult situation for surveyors because they have to decide whether they can take the time to educate the buyer in the hope of earning future business and they have to protect themselves from misunderstandings. Often a prepurchase survey checklist is the answer. Shops using checklists have the buyer initial the tasks they want done before signing and dating the form. This makes sure that the buyer and shop both remember the details of the inspection in the same way.

Prepurchase annuals

Vern Miller of Vern Miller Aviation, also based at Reid-Hillview, has a strong opinion on prepurchase inspections. "The only way you can catch everything is through an annual inspection," he says.

Prepurchase annuals are good for a buyer and they also protect the seller. If a prepurchase annual doesn't turn up any significant discrepancies, then the seller can stand behind his asking price and the buyer should feel confident about his purchase. The reason behind paying for an annual is protection — the best way to guarantee you're getting an airworthy airplane that won't require a transfusion of dollars in the near future is to take steps to discover everything you can about it before you sign on the dotted line.

No one should buy an airplane without first obtaining a title search. A title search is a copy of the FAA records for that airplane, including any encumbrances that are recorded against the airplane. Are liens always deal killers? It depends on the lien. Twenty years ago I bought a Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser before obtaining a title search (in those days my urge to own an airplane was greater than my store of common sense). After the purchase, I paid for the search and discovered there was a lien in the aircraft records that had been cleared years before. After I contacted the bank that was listed, it wrote a letter to the FAA registry and the title records were updated. Since I paid cash for the airplane (they were a lot less expensive in those days) the lien didn't hold up the sale, but I was lucky. If the lien holder had gone out of business, things would not have gone so smoothly.

337 stories

The title search also contains the chain of ownership and all major repairs or alterations (FAA Form 337) that have been filed for the airplane. I went ahead and bought a Cessna 182 after the 337s revealed that there had been two nose- gear collapses. The 337s warned me where to look, so I conducted a concentrated inspection of the nose-gear tunnel and firewall area. The repairs had been completed to a high standard — and I was able to get a discount on the purchase price by pointing out that the airplane did not have a no-damage history.

How big a factor is damage history? Are only perfect airplanes good buys? On the contrary, many airplanes in the general aviation fleet have been damaged and repaired. If properly repaired, damage, even major damage, is not going to diminish an airplane's airworthiness or fitness to provide years of satisfactory service. How can a buyer tell if repairs on his prospective airplane have been completed to the highest standards? This question can only be answered by the mechanic that the buyer has chosen to perform his survey.

The mechanic's experience and judgment are the keys to a good survey. A mechanic who is experienced with Pipers won't be able to provide the same insight on a Mooney as a Mooney expert, and vice versa. This means the buyer must ask the mechanic he has selected some questions about his fitness to conduct the survey. This is no time to worry about hurting anyone's feelings — the buyer's purchase experience hinges on finding out all he can about the airplane he's considering before the papers are signed.

Finding that expert

Where's the database of expert Piper mechanics? Is there an expert mechanic near my home who can do my prepurchase? Finding the right mechanic can be a struggle. Type clubs are an excellent source of model- and type-specific information, and most clubs keep a list of mechanics that other members have recommended. If it proves to be impossible to find an expert nearby, the tech reps at the type club will often be able to provide insight into the critical inspection areas. For a listing of type clubs, visit AOPA Online ( www.aopa.org/members/databases/).

There are many steps to a successful and rewarding aircraft purchase. Owners can help the paid experts by taking responsibility for obtaining copies of the logbook pages and laying out all the maintenance times and dates on a spreadsheet. I used this technique when I was doing the prepurchase survey on the sweepstakes Bonanza and discovered that the airplane had been maintained to high standards for the first 20 years it was flying — this information helped me go ahead with the decision to buy in spite of records that revealed very light usage (only 285 flight hours) since 1985.

Buyers should also contact the AOPA title search and escrow company at 800/654-4700 or visit the Web site ( www.aopa.org/info/certified/tne.html). When accessing the Web site, buyers should be sure to request the title search, NTSB accident and incident reports, and the FAA 337 file for the airplane they're interested in purchasing. All AOPA needs is an N number to start a search, and delivery can be expedited for those in a hurry.

While waiting for the documents to arrive, the buyer should be seeking an experienced mechanic by talking to local pilots or consulting a type club. For obvious reasons, don't be talked into letting the owner's mechanic do your prepurchase survey.

Any buyer who signs on the dotted line before learning all he can about his future airplane is taking a big gamble. Be safe, get a good prepurchase inspection — I mean survey.

E-mail the author at [email protected].

Airframe Hours

Airframe hours don't affect an airplane's value very much. As an example, I compared the Vref value ( www.aopa.org/members/vref/) of a 1966 Beechcraft V35 Bonanza with average airframe times (4,725 hours) with the same airplane with 20 percent more airframe time (5,670 hours). The value decreased by 3 percent. Doubling the airframe hours decreased the value by 13 percent.

Much more important are the engine hours since overhaul or new. A rule of thumb for engine hours is that the airplane's value varies by up to half the cost of a replacement engine, depending on the engine hours. For instance, a 1973 Piper PA-28-235 has a value of $59,500 with a run-out engine and $76,415 with a zero-time engine. — SWE