wrote:
Hi All, as new licensed pilot I am looking else where for plane
rentals. As you know that the price is a great concern. For a C152 it
can be from $59/hr (wet) to $90/hr (wet). big differences.

My question is, when you first go to a FBO, what to check when seeing a
plane that you never flew on. How do I know that this plane is
maintained well?! Any advice would be appreciated.

You've gotten a lot of advice here. About the simplest advice I can
give you is this - read it all, and then do the opposite.

First off - understand that money is limited, but problems are not.
Nice bathrooms cost money. Nice furniture costs money. Good paint and
interior cost money. Attentive staff cost money. Uniforms cost money.
Money spent on those things is not being spent on what's really
important - airframe, engine, avionics. But the items above - the
things you know something about and can evaluate - are far more obvious
than problems with airframes, engines, or avionics - about which you
probably know little. That's why solid, reliable rental aircraft are a
rarity, and why the successful aviation business will generally spend
money on bathrooms, furniture, paint, interior, and uniforms before it
spends that money on airframes, engines, and avionics.

You can forget about logbooks - those can easily be a work of fiction.
I once bought an airplane that had a logbook entry for AD compliance in
1957 - the installation of a new design fuel line. All signed off and
legal. Except that the fuel line still had the original 1955 tag. A
different airplane - all brake hoses replaced in 1997. When one of
them burst on me and I removed it, it had the original 1965 tags.

You can forget about getting the FAA to inspect the airplane - most
FBO's won't allow you to call them, and for good reason. Most planes,
even good ones, won't pass the average inspection.

Either you know enough about airplane maintenance to actually inspect
the airplane, or you are guessing. That's all there is to it. You
learn about airplane maintenance by maintaining airplanes. There is no
other way.

Fortunately, most rental airplanes are very rugged by design. The
chances of something going wrong badly enough to hurt you an a day-VFR
flight, assuming you keep your head, are very small. I consider night
and IFR flying in rentals to be generally a bad idea. If you need to
do that, buy an airplane and learn to maintain it.

The most reliable way to get reasonably good airplanes - look for a
place that has new ones. It's expensive, but may be worth it to you.

The only other choice is to look for a place run by a crusty old
mechanic who won't spend the money on nice furniture, uniforms, paint,
or interior, but always seems to be working on the planes. If he's the
guy the local owners with the nice planes go to, then you've hit pay
dirt.

Michael
CFI, ATP, A&P, and other good alphabet soup