Douglas Paterson wrote:
Congrats on being ready to pull the ownership trigger. Been there/done
that and just getting ready to plunk down cash on an airplane takes a
lot of time and effort.

7) Travel--when ready on both ends
7a) Inspect logs
7b) Pre-buy inspection
7c) Test flight--who pays for this? any specific maneuvers, etc., to
run through?
I wouldn't hesitate to pay for it yourself. In the grand scheme of
things, it's a nit. Offer to pay...maybe the owner will say "Nah, it's
on me". Either way, cost of fuel for the ride is small. Do as many
flight maneuvers as you can, take it around the patch for a few
landings, work all the avionics possible, etc.

7d) Negotiate price--I have NO idea how to do this, any hints
appreciated!

It's like buying a house. We made an offer contingent upon a successful
pre-buy. We worded it such that the owner would pay for any
airworthiness issues and we'd negotiate any other squawks. Since the
bird just came out of annual, all airworthiness issues had been
resolved. The squawk list was short and minor so we opted to deal with
them. It's tough to make an offer before seeing the plane. In our
case, it was pretty clean and I had a chance to talk to the shop that
did the annual. We offered approx. 10% less than asking price, seller
countered a tad higher and we accepted, conditional on the pre-buy. We
then sent the seller a deposit.


9) Get 5 hours time-in-type dual (insurance rqmt, and not a bad idea in my
book anyway)--considering options here, hoping I can find someplace to do
this ahead of time

Ahead of time is a good idea as well as the other suggestion about
taking a CFI with you. We had to when we bought the Arrow as two of us
did not have any complex time. The flight back counted towards the 10
hours dual instruction we each needed before being able to fly solo.

#9: Any advice/suggestions on where I can do this? I live in Colorado
Springs; I'm willing to travel if I must, but closer is better (read:
cheaper). Perhaps somewhere near Hartford would work well, since I may be
traveling there anyway. Note, this point really isn't tied to this specific
airplane, since it will carry to whatever plane I finally go with (unless I
change my target).

If you find a candidate plane somewhere, post here and maybe someone can
take a drive/flight to check it out for you. Jay H. did so for us on a
candidate that we opted not to buy...but it was great! Jay provided
*tons* of pictures as well as an independent assessment of the plane and
seller.

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane

"To become a Jedi knight, you must master a single force. To become
a private pilot you must strive to master four of them"
- Rod Machado

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