Beautiful aircraft.

For those are are curious, mostly you, Jim, one of our customers is in the market for a Duke right now and I brought him up to Indy Air Sales just this morning (Shout out to Pat Robinson, who was overly accommodating and made sure we had everything we needed for the day). We flew the airplane for a little over an hour. Teaching in Dukes never gets old for me

However.....the airplane needs work.

This is the list I came up with just being there for a couple hours, let alone what I probably could have found if i had the airplane in our shop up on jacks.

Wrong placard on fuel filler caps (116 instead of 101, and I can't believe how many annuals have overlooked THIS)
Right strobe light inop
Pilots turn coordinator inop
Nav 2 indicator GS inop
HSI slaving inop
Autopilot won’t follow course or heading bug (barely maintains altitude hold)
Flap in transit and approach light inop
Avidyne software and database out of date
GTX 345 software out of date
Air conditioning inoperative (evaporator fan)
Pressurized air cool cables very stiff
Pressurization max differential 0.5psid
BOTH Turbine inlet temp gauges inop
KDI-572 display flickers
KN-63 DME won’t channel to NAV 1. Suspect R/T unit needs repair
Weather Radar Display Inoperative...

We are now re-negotiating either to have seller fix all, or adjust sale price...

My advice to anyone in the market for a any pressurized piston twin, pre-buys aren't just considered done in the hangar on jacks. Go fly them and check every single light bulb, every single heating element etc. That's exactly what we do for every one of our customers. It begins in the logbooks, followed by the test flight and lastly, the physical inspection. You'd be amazed at what you can uncover.

Wow. There you go. Bummer that all needs fixed. These planes need to fly and you fix things when needed. All worked 4-5 years ago. Hope it all can be corrected quickly. Hard to believe that much needs looked at. Still a nice plane though. Good luck to anyone looking. Hope a pilot owner is the next caretaker. I don’t think the last owner was a pilot.

And yes, Pat and the IndyAirSales folks have always been great to work with. Thanks for the update. Someone please buy it, fix it, and fly the crap out of it. I did… and it was the best traveling plane I ever had. Still miss it!

Jim
N979DM

Seems like a pretty minor list considering and seems priced accordingly. While I would encourage every buyer to prebuy and know what you're taking on in any financial deal, posting publicly "look at what's wrong with it!" seems out of place.


Les

Seems like a pretty minor list considering and seems priced accordingly. While I would encourage every buyer to prebuy and know what you're taking on in any financial deal, posting publicly "look at what's wrong with it!" seems out of place.


Les

While I understand that posting my findings could potentially be considered "stomping", let's also not forget that according to the BeechTalk Peddlers Talk terms of service, technically you are not allowed to post for sale anything that you don't personally own. That's paragraph 2

There's nothing wrong with posting findings here, I wouldn't really even consider it stomping if this was a for sale thread.

Just stating facts.

Since this is just a thread about someone else's plane for sale there's nothing whatsoever wrong with stating what's wrong with it that's not listed.

I agree!

I was not aware this is a policy on BT. ( always willing to learn)


So it would appear that all of the listings I have seen over the years that start out with:

"I'm listing this for a friend as he has no internet or computer...."


...they violate the BT policies? Interesting.



I guess I'll have to look for another venue to sell the bridge I own over the East River in NY.

As with all rules, come common sense goes a long way and just because something doesn't conform to the letter of the law doesn't always mean it's improper.

Since this isn't a for sale thread (maybe it should have been in babble talk or plane talk per the letter of the law) It's in everyone but the owner's (who isn't' present here) best interest to discuss the plane.

The point of the "no stomping" policy is to protect beechtalk members from being harassed on listings over pricing generally, not to prevent discussion of planes for sale.
Even on a for sale listing I don't think it's improper to say you went to see the plane and these are the things you found, especially if the owner is not disclosing what's wrong with it.

Main items that would bother me are the AC, pressurization and A/P issues. I feel like those are the three issues that present the biggest maintenance "black hole" risks.

Inop old avionics aren't a big deal in my view, assuming the new owner plans to do a little panel work anyway. But things like the HSI will force a new owner's hand a little more quickly, and my desire to spend any money chasing issues with an analog HSI setup would be about zero.

Bought right, this could still be a good airplane for someone. But I don't think $195k is anywhere near the ballpark of what I'd consider reasonable under the circumstances.

Well now…. That spiraled down a rabbit hole quickly. No worries either way. It’s only worth a look if you are thinking about a Duke anyway. The market is the market and something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Good luck if you’re in the market.
I only posted to see if a good pilot owner could take over caring for a nice airplane. This one served me well for lots of hours and trips. I’m sure it can again. Cheers!

Jim

Jim, I’ve flown and taught in many Dukes over my career. Your former airplane did fly really nice. Very well balanced and the motors run fantastic. The items I mentioned above can all be fixed with parts and labor. I know the airplane sat out of annual for over half a year in Texas and I know that didn’t do the systems any good.

I am still encouraging our customer to pursue it and either have seller fix the UNDISCLOSED items, or adjust the sale price accordingly.

Thanks. I whole heartedly agree that an airplane sitting for long periods of time is very detrimental to keeping things working as they should. If you have a plane, please fly it and maintain it…. a lot! They definitely will take better care of you if you do.

BTW…. N911S would be a great candidate for some avionics upgrades…. I would have done the primary instruments and tried to be the first with a GFC600 autopilot….. just sayin!

Not to thread hijack, but I can't start a thread yet due to few posts. What do you all think of this duke? N23PL

https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?ca ... e=aircraft