It's kind of funny. I've owned three airplanes in the last twenty
years...and didn't get a pre-buy inspection on any of 'em.

It was certainly stupid, but it's not quite as bad as it sounds.

The first one was the risky one...I'd been grounded (lack of funds) for
almost eight years, and all of a sudden I could not only afford to start
flying again but could afford my own airplane. I saw a nice '65 Cessna 150
at the local airport with a for-sale sign in it. Got stars in my eyes
(more money than sense) and called the owner.

Jeeze. Didn't even go for a test flight. Just borrowed the logs and pored
over them. Didn't really know *what* I was looking for. I'd never owned a
plane before, didn't really know about STCs or Form 337s or anything. I
went through the logs looking for stuff like major reconstruction. Found
one (apparently minor) wing repair. Owner had claimed that the plane had
never been a trainer, but the first several owners were places like "Smith
Flying Service." So I knew not to believe THAT claim, but everything else
seemed OK.

It did me well, for the two years I owned it. A small problem with master
solenoids going bad several times. Annuals ran ~$500 (mid '80s). Sold it
for just $400 less than I'd bought it for. New owner didn't get a pre-buy,
either, but when the engine has 1500 hours, he probably just counted on it
going bad. I hear it finally got a new engine two owners later.

My second and third airplanes were special cases. The second one was a
co-worker who'd completed a full rebuild of a basket-case Stinson
(including engine rebuild) just 200 hours earlier. Since I was buying half
his interest in the airplane, I figured there wasn't much risk. I ended up
basically just passing wrenches for him, when it came time to work on the
plane.

My third (and current) airplane didn't get a pre-buy either...used
homebuilt. But the A&P who had been doing the annuals on this Fly Baby had
ALSO been doing the annuals of my club Fly Baby (and he was also a former
co-worker). He told me that if I *didn't* buy that airplane, I was nuts.
Hard to argue, when, the previous year, he'd finished the annual inspection
notation with "This is the best Fly Baby I've ever seen."

And of course, the next year, I had a bad exhaust valve at annual
time... :-)

Ron Wanttaja