On Sep 12, 9:53 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
The foolish buyer trick I've seen more often than others is the "It comes
with a fresh annual, I don't need a pre-purchase inspection." approach to
airplane buying.
Anyone who accepts this is crazy.

In other words, the fact that an aircraft passed an annual inspection
means absolutely nothing. BTW - I agree with you. It does mean
nothing.

Just a few months ago, someone I know bought a Cherokee 180. It just
went through annual. I have a friend who is an A&P/IA who has been a
mechanic for decades, but never finished 8th grade. Unsurprisingly,
he is very good at swinging wrenches but barely made it through the
A&P and IA written exams and is not so good at paperwork. As a
result, I wind up doing his paperwork (AD searches, entries, etc.) and
he winds up doing a lot of work on my airplane. Works out for
everyone, and also lets me see what kind of crap is flying out there,
and how badly some A&P's/IA's are screwing their customers.

One would expect, given a brief look at the paperwork, that the AD's
were all up to date. Instead of the (now thankfully rare) "All AD's C/
W" entry, there was a complete printout made with one of the
commercial software packages, done on the computer. Problem with
computers is this - garbage in, garbage out.

The equipment list showed the airplane had an Edo-Aire transponder.
The AD list showed that the AD on the KT-76A transponder was complied
with. The plane actually had a Narco AT-150 transponder. There's an
AD on that one, and it was never checked.

There was an AD on an oxygen bottle that the IA claimed he complied
with by refilling the bottle. Sounds good - this is the required
action - only there was no oxygen bottle, and never had been.

An AD on the air filter was shown to have been complied with by
replacement of the filter element and terminated. Only problem -
element replacement was not a terminating action, and in any case the
AD didn't apply to installations on that model of engine.

It was like that all down the line. Unnecessary work done, work
claimed that could not possibly have been done, and important things
that should have been checked left unchecked. That's really pretty
normal for the planes out there.

Another of the aircraft still on the field wouldn't pass a run-up. Why? It
had been filled with autofuel some time back, not flown or run for a while,
and the fuel system was badly gummed up. Oh, by the way, there is no
autofuel STC for this airplane. Again, this airplane had a fresh annual.

How long was "a while"? Unleaded mogas won't "gum up" anything for
years -- unless, of course, the mogas had ethanol in it. Then it
will supposedly start attacking rubber seals.

Not true. Leave unleaded mogas in your lawnmower for a year, and it
likely won't start. Autogas lacks the stabilizer package found in
avgas. No big deal if you fly regularly, but a real issue if you
don't. Of course you could just add Stabil to the autogas, and that
would work - but I doubt that's covered by STC. Not that anyone would
know.

How does an A&P sign off an annual inspection on a plane that won't
pass a run-up test?

It takes an IA to sign off an annual - and he can do so without ever
seeing it run. That's because a lot of the things that normally get
done at annual are not part of the annual inspection, and can be done
by an A&P without the IA or even by the owner.

Realize that if you have a plain vanilla spam can, you can legally do
about 90% of the work required for a legal annual and routine
service. It works like this:

Make an appointment with your friendly IA for the afternoon, and that
morning fly the plane for an hour or so (to get the cylinders nice and
warm), then land. If you have the Bendix magneto switch, check to
make sure you can use it to shut off the engine (it's an AD, but
you're allowed to do it yourself) before you park it. Wash the plane
(not a serious job, just enough to inspect). Put it on jacks, pull
off the wheel pants (if any), wheels, and all inspection covers.
Service the struts with air (nitrogen if you have it, but I doubt it
makes a difference) and fluid (5606). Top off the brake reservoir
(5606 again). If your battery can be serviced with acid and/or water,
service it - otherwise just put the charger on it. Or replace it.
Change your ELT battery if it needs it. Pull out the seats and the
floor inspection panels. Lube all the pulleys, replace any missing
safety wire or cotter keys. Clean everything up, spray some Corrosion-
X in there. Pull off the engine cowls, wash down the engine. Pull out
the plugs, clean, gap, reinstall the bottom ones. Change the oil (and
filter if present). Now wait for your IA, and meanwhile log what you
did (don't forget to make the AD entry if your Bendix switch is
covered). You haven't overstepped your authority as pilot-owner -
everything I noted is something the owner is allowed to do. It leaves
precious little for the IA to do.

When he shows up, I doubt he will care about starting the engine. He
will probably just check compressions and magneto timing, inspect the
cables, pulleys, and other moving parts with flashlight and mirror,
check whatever other things the type requires (it's usually only a few
things, generally by AD) and call it good. He doesn't need to see the
engine run. You can put it all back together later all by yourself.

It's all legal - but just because an engine passes the compression
check and magneto timing check, that does not mean it will run.

Michael