How would you get it home?

Tom-D said:
Lots of folks here believe everyone would fly down, jump in it and head out.
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There is only so much you can inspect on even the most thorough pre-buy Tom, especially on an engine, personally I don't think I would trust it until I had run it for a while. How long you ask? I don't know, at least 25 hours through an oil change analysis, cylinder borescope, maybe more. Don't know enough but I would seek out someone who I thought did.
 
I would want an agent/ mechanic ,I could really trust. To do an in-depth inspection. The price point isn’t bad. Is it just coincidence that the plane is being sold after a major hurricane? If you do buy ,why not fly it,airplanes are made to fly.
 
PaulS said:
There is only so much you can inspect on even the most thorough pre-buy Tom, especially on an engine, personally I don't think I would trust it until I had run it for a while. How long you ask? I don't know, at least 25 hours through an oil change analysis, cylinder borescope, maybe more. Don't know enough but I would seek out someone who I thought did.
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That more or less gets to the point I made before. If you're looking to buy the plane and then move it back stateside, it becomes rather impractical to spend 25 hours flying it around Puerto Rico before making that hop, so the question is whether you could give yourself reasonable assurances. Personally I'd want to do the standard compressions and borescope to start out with. See what the oil filter looks like, fly it around Puerto Rico a few hours and cut the filter open again. Looks good? Then get going, and keep it to day VFR conditions. I think there's more risk in pulling a cylinder to look inside and bolting it back on than there is in potential benefit. So if you think I know what I'm talking about, then there you have it. If you don't, then there you have it, too. :)

It's only 71 miles over water from Aguadilla to Punta Cana direct, and then you're over land until you get to Puerto Plata. From there it's 100 miles over water from Puerto Plata to Grand Turk. One more 100 nm stretch between Providenciales and the Bahamas (if you want you can make that 50 nm by going a little north on the way). So you're never that far from land.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Well I'm going to be down in Aguadilla this weekend probably if anyone wants me to look..
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What would it cost me for you to go poke a camera in a wing and see how much corrosion there is. and give the A/C a look?
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That would be foolish to do in any airplane that you didn't have some previous knowledge of.
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exactly what we did with the Fairchild.
of course there was a lot of flat land between me and home, not water. :)
 
You can tell that the airplane has been well cared for. It even has cardboard sort of preventing birds from entering the cowling.

I say you kick the tires, light the fires, and head West.
 
Tom-D said:
exactly what we did with the Fairchild.
of course there was a lot of flat land between me and home, not water. :)
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I meant given the over water part. Over land, specifically flat land, different story.
 
Tom-D said:
What would it cost me for you to go poke a camera in a wing and see how much corrosion there is. and give the A/C a look?
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First question would be what their availability is like to show it and if it's actually in Aguadilla. Looking at current forecasts it looks like I might actually be able to go non-stop from St. Croix (where I'm actually going) to Florida, in which case we wouldn't be stopping in Aguadilla. Schedule is going to be tight on these runs so it'd have to line up. See what he says and get back to me. If I can see it without it impacting my schedule any I'd be glad to.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
First question would be what their availability is like to show it and if it's actually in Aguadilla. Looking at current forecasts it looks like I might actually be able to go non-stop from St. Croix (where I'm actually going) to Florida, in which case we wouldn't be stopping in Aguadilla. Schedule is going to be tight on these runs so it'd have to line up. See what he says and get back to me. If I can see it without it impacting my schedule any I'd be glad to.
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No worries, I still haven't heard back from the one who wants this.
 
luvflyin said:
Dominica Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Key West and then wherever. Unless of course they dont want me there and will start shooting.
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Cuba is an option but still requires extra paperwork and hassle to use as a stop. But if you're in it for the adventure, then why not? They sell 100LL.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Cuba is an option but still requires extra paperwork and hassle to use as a stop. But if you're in it for the adventure, then why not? They sell 100LL.
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I would rule out Cuba. A company I started contracting for explored the idea of flying to Cuba. Aside from the paperwork hassle, there is no reliable maintenance available, so if you have an issue and can’t fix it yourself.....you are screwed.
 
I'm pretty sure that I saw the 172 Tom was referring to in Aguadilla yesterday. There was a 172 with the same paint scheme that had to hold short of a taxiway as we were taxiing in for fuel. All I can say is it took off without crashing, no idea beyond that.
 
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