A PreBuy is mostly a negotiating tool for the buyer.
Very similar to a Home Inspection.

Just something to tie up the asset and lower the price.

But on the other hand lav areas are prime corrosion spots. Every pre-buy I saw done looked at these areas very closely. It's not hard to inspect a 900B lav and the areas under the floor (yes, I have spent hundreds of hours in those areas), so whoever did that pre-buy did a poor job.

It seems that most of those who skip the prebuy fall into one of 3 categories:

1) Can do enough of an inspection themselves that they don't need to hire someone
2) Can afford to take a big risk in case a major item needs repair
3) Have enough transactions that the reward payoff (negotiating a fast transaction, saving money, etc.) outweighs the risk, even if they take a hit now and then.

4.) High roller.

Each one of us is a high roller to someone else.

Imagine the kid with a fresh ticket talking to his friends about buying a clapped-out Cherokee 140.

"Are you gonna do a pre-buy?"
"Naw, that'll cost me like $2000! I'll just look it over real good. I mean, it's not a Bonanza. No way I'd buy a Bonanza without a prebuy!"

This may be true in the piston world, but we don't really see that in the turbine world. The idea is that the seller take care of the airworthy items and deliver an airworthy airplane.

The exception is typically finding a misrepresentation, we typically find these items before the airpalne goes to a shop for prebuy, for instance we had an airplane that was supposed to be WAAS/LPV, it wasn't... $100k discount. A couple of months ago in the visual inspection and logbook review, we found substantial damage to a King Air, it was buried in the written records from 20 years ago and the owner didn't know, we did move forward, but with a $100k discount.

In both cases we saved our clients a lot more than our fee.

This may be true in the piston world, but we don't really see that in the turbine world. The idea is that the seller take care of the airworthy items and deliver an airworthy airplane.

The exception is typically finding a misrepresentation, we typically find these items before the airpalne goes to a shop for prebuy, for instance we had an airplane that was supposed to be WAAS/LPV, it wasn't... $100k discount. A couple of months ago in the visual inspection and logbook review, we found substantial damage to a King Air, it was buried in the written records from 20 years ago and the owner didn't know, we did move forward, but with a $100k discount.

In both cases we saved our clients a lot more than our fee.

But on the other hand lav areas are prime corrosion spots. Every pre-buy I saw done looked at these areas very closely. It's not hard to inspect a 900B lav and the areas under the floor (yes, I have spent hundreds of hours in those areas), so whoever did that pre-buy did a poor job.

That's exactly my point – you're basically repeating an inspection. The previous inspection could have missed things or not, and the prebuy could miss things or not. I am not suggesting that pre-buys are a bad idea, just that it's not crazy to buy a plane without one. I would however do things that are potentially huge items like a cracked blade or cylinder, or completely missing inspection or AD.

For another example, we had West Star do our prebuy on the 441. They missed that the G600 did not have the RVSM unlock (that West Star developed and owns the STC for). Next inspection they found it, and wouldn't even discount it to their cost. The SD card was $20,000.

This is very common and a major negative to a prebuy, they sometimes spend too much time looking at minor items and not enough time looking at major ones.

A bulb being out is not what I need to know. The rear spar corroded and needs to be replaced is. Most prebuys really don't look at what will really cost you money in the future.


As part of the prebuy? Doing a full gear overhaul for that seems odd.


So the factory service center claims they did a gear overhaul and they didn't? So much for going with the "premium" shop, huh?

That's a serious airworthiness issue which will result in legal and regulatory consequences. A "Sorry" response is clearly not the end of this issue.

It could even have wider impact to any others who had work done at the FSC, like an AD covering any other work they did over some period (and there have been such ADs in the past). They could lose their repair station certificate over something like this.

What did you advise the clients do?

Mike C.

This is very common and a major negative to a prebuy, they sometimes spend too much time looking at minor items and not enough time looking at major ones.

A bulb being out is not what I need to know. The rear spar corroded and needs to be replaced is. Most prebuys really don't look at what will really cost you money in the future.


As part of the prebuy? Doing a full gear overhaul for that seems odd.


So the factory service center claims they did a gear overhaul and they didn't? So much for going with the "premium" shop, huh?

That's a serious airworthiness issue which will result in legal and regulatory consequences. A "Sorry" response is clearly not the end of this issue.

It could even have wider impact to any others who had work done at the FSC, like an AD covering any other work they did over some period (and there have been such ADs in the past). They could lose their repair station certificate over something like this.

What did you advise the clients do?

Mike C.

Maybe another question is what level of prebuy is required to cover the majority of issues. There are diminishing returns as the complexity of the prebuy goes up.

A day or two going through logs, making sure all ADs have been complied with, that the seller will come along on a test flight, checking for major physical issues - that might catch 90% of issues. A further 2 days might catch more, but there is more of a delta between no prebuy at all and the first 2 day prebuy vs no prebuy and the more thorough 4 day prebuy.

I would do 2 days and call it good.

Wait...what?

It flew in here.....it should be good right?

When you sell has the buyer typically wanted a pre-buy?