I think you're asking the moral question of should you sell a high performance aircraft to someone who you think might kill himself in it? Perhaps you would feel responsible if he crashed and wiped out his family?

Yes, the thought has crossed my mind in vetting buyers. However, if the guy is determined to buy a particular plane and fly it himself, he's going to do so.

Your moral obligation is done after a brief lecture to him and everything else becomes his own free will IMO.

Sell him the plane.

I wouldn’t be shy taking the check. However, I would hope we would have that pilot to pilot connection that would allow an open and honest discussion of a good plan to transition into the airplane. If not, I would state my concerns and ultimately leave the decision up to the buyer.

In many cases they don't care about insurance. They'll self insure. All fun and games until they put the plane into a house with a family in it. Ref: Phenom 100, Twin Cessna crashes etc.

Ditto...

I'd love to talk to him though

I know a crop duster who bought a Cheyenne I for the price of the engines. He files it around at 17,500. And has two spare engines for his Air Tractors if he needs one quickly in season.

I agree with others. Its not the sellers responsibility to determine if the buyer is qualified other than financially.

I bought my Mirage from a guy with no IR and he self insured the plane. I think he often went into the FL as it was just too easy once up there. But none of my business. LOL

Mike

I think an interesting question involves new aircraft - and whether the manufacturer has any guidelines that their dealers have to abide by?

We had a person on MMOPA with a brand new PPL and no IR purchase a new Piper M600. Successful person, self-insured. Did some training with a CFI apparently, but not the factory program. On the first solo flight, the pilot lost control on landing and went into the weeds and spent a lot of $$ to fix the plane. No injuries, fortunately.

But the pilot believes it was due to a nose gear manufacturing defect ... and for all I know maybe there is one and the pilot is right about that. We've had some post-landing excursions in the PA46s.

But as manufacturer or authorized dealer, I might want prospective purchasers to document the qualifications of the intended pilot.

The OP asked if a “dealer” would sell under the circumstances. I do think the calculus changes when the reputation of the dealer and brand are potentially at risk.

My old boss bought a C-182, Seneca V, and Gulfstream-II and worked his way through the aircraft but never ended up with the G-1159 Type. It got too expensive to operate so he bought a Citation IV. The only thing that stopped him from buying a P-51 on the field was that it was not a true 2-seater. He did buy a Citation II, later a Citation-IV, and had a Premier for a while. He is still only a Private Pilot but is typed in the CE-650 and RA-390. I believe the Premier type came around 2011.

He usually had a paid professional pilot with him and was a super nice guy. He was also pretty humble and you would never know he had money if you didn't know him.

He started a small software company years ago, sold it for a small fortune, and then started buying up commercial real estate. He was a fantastic person to work with. He also let us wear shorts to work on the hot summer days. I came to work for him as he was selling his company.

Joel Mack correctly identified the genesis of the question. A 50 hour TOTAL time pilot was sold a brand new M600 from the dealer. The authorized training center for Piper refused to train the pilot so the owner sent his own CFI, not familiar with the PA46, for training. The CFI then trained the 50 hour total owner in his brand new M600. After the dual instruction of 40-60 hours the owner, the 50 total time pilot- non-IFR rated, decided he was ready for his first solo. A 2-3 hour cross country flight and upon landing had a runway excursion resulting in a major, in that it was expense, incident . Pilot was told and perhaps instructed that " gliding in" torque lever bottomed out was the technique for landing a M600. Not powered off but no torque.
Regardless of the fact that the owner was flying the M600 naked, no insurance, it does effect the premiums of all pilots not just PA46. Notwithstanding his lack of experience it speaks negatively against a fine aircraft with many satisfied owners.
Hence my question and I appreciate the freedom afforded to us as citizens of the USA. If you were a Piper dealer would you sell this plane to this owner knowing he had little or no experience- had been training by someone with little or no time in type- and had no ability to get the plane insured? I will add that he did not hire a pilot to fly the plane for him. His intention was to fly solo as evidenced by his very first solo flight ending in a costly off runway excursions.

I think it's the obligation of an aircraft manufacturer and/or dealer to look out for their own interest. I think there is a very strong argument to be made that it is in their interest to promote safety by judicious decision making regarding selling a plane to an unqualified pilot who intends to fly it. But it isn't their moral responsibility.

A number of years ago Cirrus was seeing a lot of incidents and accidents in their aircraft and they were intelligently concerned that those might impact their business. They got very serious about pilot training and have set a very high standard for other manufacturers to aspire to in that regard. It has served their business interests amazingly well.

I guess you're talking about an M500/M600, less likely TBM/PC12. Much less likely a KA.

Let's call it a $3 million plane. There are a lot of people who can write a check for that and can self-insure for liability. Not common, but a $0.05bn net worth should be plenty. "There are a total of 70,540 people in the United States with net assets of at least $50 million." google tells me

An M600 would be a totally suitable VFR runabout for a 50 hr pilot of means. In some respects I think this is safer than a 300 hr guy with IFR. Your noob isn't gonna be trying an ILS to mins

The Citation IV was to be a stretch of the Citation III, but the project was canceled and none were ever sold.

So he must have had something else than a Citation IV.

Mike C.

Throw in a crash helmut per seat with the sale.

Throw in a crash helmut per seat with the sale.