If the deal isn’t done, I agree with the recommendation to hire a CFI and go get the plane. I was lucky enough to find a ferry pilot that was experienced in my type of plane that was also a CFI. I hired him to go with me for the flight home and to serve as my CFI for my transition training.
I got the fun of a long cross country trip along with 8 of my 10-hours of required transition training. I could have just had him ferry the plane, and saved my travel costs, but I’d have missed the fun of bringing the plane home, and would have spent the 10-hours of transition training mostly in the local pattern.
My ferry pilot / CFI told me enough stories about adventures he’d had ferrying planes with ‘fresh annuals’ over the years, that I’m convinced that getting a fresh annual from the seller included with a purchase is not likely to mean much, and could be a big warning flag of lack of proper maintenance in the past. I’d be very reluctant to have the shop that had been doing the annuals do my pre-buy.
I had pre-buys performed by people that were very experienced doing pre-buys on the type of planes I bought for both of my purchases. Both pre-buys were a small portion of the total purchase cost and great investments in my opinion. Both identified issues that the prior owner wasn’t aware of from the annuals they had done in the past. In both cases the issues found on the pre-buy shaved more off the purchase price than I paid for the pre-buy and I’ve never had a surprise with either plane while I owned them.
I’ve been doing owner assisted annuals since the first annual on my first plane. I feel like I have a good idea of what I’m looking at on both types but I’d still want someone that specializes on pre-buys for that type of plane involved before buying a plane.
Someone that does frequent pre-buys on a specific type of plane is likely to spot issues that people that don’t do that work would be likely to miss. There are some skills that doing the same type of job over and over give you that can’t be learned any other way. I know a lot about my plane now but I don’t know what I don’t know.
I got the fun of a long cross country trip along with 8 of my 10-hours of required transition training. I could have just had him ferry the plane, and saved my travel costs, but I’d have missed the fun of bringing the plane home, and would have spent the 10-hours of transition training mostly in the local pattern.
My ferry pilot / CFI told me enough stories about adventures he’d had ferrying planes with ‘fresh annuals’ over the years, that I’m convinced that getting a fresh annual from the seller included with a purchase is not likely to mean much, and could be a big warning flag of lack of proper maintenance in the past. I’d be very reluctant to have the shop that had been doing the annuals do my pre-buy.
I had pre-buys performed by people that were very experienced doing pre-buys on the type of planes I bought for both of my purchases. Both pre-buys were a small portion of the total purchase cost and great investments in my opinion. Both identified issues that the prior owner wasn’t aware of from the annuals they had done in the past. In both cases the issues found on the pre-buy shaved more off the purchase price than I paid for the pre-buy and I’ve never had a surprise with either plane while I owned them.
I’ve been doing owner assisted annuals since the first annual on my first plane. I feel like I have a good idea of what I’m looking at on both types but I’d still want someone that specializes on pre-buys for that type of plane involved before buying a plane.
Someone that does frequent pre-buys on a specific type of plane is likely to spot issues that people that don’t do that work would be likely to miss. There are some skills that doing the same type of job over and over give you that can’t be learned any other way. I know a lot about my plane now but I don’t know what I don’t know.
