A fellow Beechtalker recently contacted me asking what to look for when doing a visual inspection on an airplane they are about to buy. I'm a turbine guy, but the advice for pistons is similar.

Here's the steps to take BEFORE moving an airplane to prebuy.

1. Ownership History and 337 Search - Before even travelling to look at an airplane you need to run an ownership history and the FAA's 337 file. In a nutshell we want to know where the airplane has been and what has been done to it.

2. Visual Inspection - There needs to be a thorough visual inspection of the airplane, I can't go into detail here because there are different things to look for on each model of aircraft. If possible get someone who really knows the model of airplane well to do the visual.

3. Logbook Review - The in depth review of logbooks prior to purchase is probably the most ignored step, even though it is one... if not THE most important step in determining if you should buy an airplane. The logbooks are literally the book written about the life of the airplane. Damage history, corrosion, repairs and missing logbook pages are all things to look for when reviewing an aircraft's logs.

4. Borescope - The MOST important step in buying a turbine aircraft is to have the engines borescoped (use caution if there are engine programs or warranties on the engines) and whenever possible use an engine shop to do the borescopes. I prefer Vector, Dallas Airmotive or Prime. Always make sure they can take pictures or video. If you do scope an airplane with engines under warranty, and find a problem, call me before you do anything else.

5. Test Flight - A test flight should be a complete shake-down of the aircraft's systems, a real test flight takes an hour and a half to two hours, this isn't "fly it around the patch" we want to make sure every in-flight system on the aircraft works as designed.

Once all of this is done you are ready to move the airplane to a maintenance facility for a pre-purchase inspection. This is a "pre-buy" and it is called that. It is not an annual, a phase inspection, etc. Required maintenance events are just that, they are not pre-purchase inspections.

And there is no standard for a "pre-buy". Better to do an annual with a trusted shop, then you know what you got.

And there is no standard for a "pre-buy". Better to do an annual with a trusted shop, then you know what you got.

Who has that?

Who has that?

Sounds complicated. We just bought a million plus aircraft sight unseen. I think there are logbooks somewhere. Pictures made it look shiny! Oh well, it's only money.

Interesting topic Chip. Subscribed.

When I bought my Citation V last year I had the following pre-buy done by a well respected Citation shop:

1. Phase 1-4
2. Borescope and ground run engines
3. Corrosion inspection including under the lav
4. Logbook, 337 and STC's reviewed
5. Window prism done

Best money I ever spent. My $20K investment netted almost $100K in repairs the seller paid for.

I would say the opposite. For an airplane i want to own, i don't care about many things needed for an annual, and i DO care about many things that an annual does not cover.

I spent the better part of a year looking for a Conquest for a customer. I am truly amazed at how many $1M+ airplanes are out there and the owners have no clue where the logbooks are for them.

I'm also amazed at how many airplanes there are from J3's to jets that the owner/operator has no real idea if the airplane is airworthy other than "It's had a current annual inspection."

The airplane that we finally purchased was a well maintained airplane. Two days before flying it to the shop for a prebuy, the shop owner called me and asked if we/they knew that there were 10+ inspections past due...most by 3-5 years! The funny part was, the records were being maintained in a computerized database by one of the most reputable Conquest shops in the US. Their database had a (major) glitch!

Jason

I think this is the most forgotten part before pre-buy, especially when it come to instruments and avionics. Inspecting the airframe addresses structural and engine topics but do all those dials and flat screens in the cockpit actually work?

It really is, I advise people who are buying King Airs to have Tom Clements do the test flight... if I have to choose between having Tom do the test flight and a pre-buy at a shop... I'm going with Tom!

Tom saved one of our clients $5000 on a vacuum pump that was incorrectly eliminated on a G1000 install. No one else would have caught that!

I'd add a bit more detail to the logbook review. First, most turbines have a maintenance tracker which is basically a summary of all the required inspections and other recurring MX showing when it was last done and when the next task is due. When I bought my Conquest, I went totally off that. The problem is the maintenance tracker is not always accurate. The only way to really know is to go through the logs and read every entry carefully which takes hours and gets really tedious especially when you can't read the handwritten entry or when the entires are really vague. For example the MX tracker said both starter generators were overhauled in the last 100 hours. I started having a problem with one and that got me to dig into the logs. It turns out neither SG was done when the tracker said it was and they were both well overdue for overhaul. On top of that, the tracker had the wrong serial number SGs. And the MX tracker was generated by Yingling in 2015 and my pre buy was by Weststar - neither shop noticed the error and those are supposedly top notch shops. So for the logbook review I would add that someone needs to identify the key components (engines, SGs, FCUs, governors, props, landing gear, etc) and go through the logs to verify the MX was properly recorded, the serial numbers are correct, and at a minimum there is a note of who did the work and on what work order (an 8130 copy is better). It's a time consuming, tedious, PIA but worth it.

I am going through all this right now. Pre-buy (mechanical part) starts Monday. I didn't have anyone really helping besides what I picked up here and what I consider to be somewhat normal in acquiring farm equipment.

Steps in order:
-Get the cash and insurance figured out. Insurance lined up on type of aircraft and quote for what amount of money you're willing to spend. Repeat, cash needs to be in hand. Don't waste anyone's time, be serious. Go from there. You may find insurance dictates the type of plane you purchase. You may not.

-Start looking. Find 3-4 aircraft you have interest in and call. Ask all the basic questions. If you like what you hear, request logs. If logs aren't scanned or available, walk away. Any sales pitch on why this airplane is fantastic is limited only to foundational stuff. New paint? ok. Was flown by a guy that... nope, don't care. I kept a document on my computer outlining all the features, times, whatever.

-Take a rough look through the logs for any big items, I wanted to be the gatekeeper for the mechanic down the road. I don't want him to go through the logs (while I'm paying for him to do so) and find out, "Hey, did you know this thing has a new wing from a wreck?"

-Pick your top 2-3 airplanes and get a block for the price from the owner/broker based on your belief of value. "Pending pre-buy, I'd like to buy this plane around $150-160k." This is where you find out who wants to sell, who is realistic, etc. And it may be you that needs a wake-up call.

You can feel free to throw some kickers in there outlining at what level you'll overlook things vs. what you consider deal breakers or price concessions. My goal here was to eliminate any future belly aching. Ensuring everyone knew what I was going to do/say depending on the issues found. No surprises from me (that's all I can control).

-If it works, pick the best deal in your eyes (and deal isn't totally price driven). Things like an owner willing to work with you in a harmonious way to ensure all parties are happy has an intangible price.

Send it off to pre-buy and hopefully you get a nice airplane (that's where I'm at now).

Contracts and all that is a person by person action. That's up to the individual. Also, title/lien search, AD/SB compliance was all done before pre-buy took effect.

Adam, with the above in mind, are you saying that you'd let someone take your airplane to his mechanic hundreds of miles away, keep if for several weeks while he removed the interior/engine parts and with no supervision or input?

I'm just thinking that process entails considerable risk to you, with little protection . . .