"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...
I am looking into purchasing my own plane... I think that I am pretty
aware of the costs (as much as a non-owner can be). I would like to
hear from those of you who have unfortunately have had a bad (expensive
or otherwise)experience with a plane purchase. I will also post for good
experiences. Thanks !!

Very few aircraft purchases are likely to be purely bad or purely good.

I'll offer some hindsight-based advice from my own experience:

* Review the logbooks yourself. The mechanic doing the prepurchase
inpection may or may not note all of the interesting details. In my own
case, the prepurchase inspection made no mention of the airplane not being
up-to-date on inspections related to IFR requirements.

* If there are any contingencies, seller-provided add-ons, repairs,
whatever, make sure that the language in your contract is very clear. The
seller likely will take any opportunity to skimp on their obligations, if
the contract offers an opportunity to do so.

* Any inspection on which the sale is contingent must be done by a
disinterested third-party, one of your choosing. A prepurchase is useless
otherwise, and a "legal" annual inspection can be accomplished without
necessarily bringing the airplane up to your standards (I put "legal" in
quotes, because what's legal to the IA may not seem legal to you or me).
Make sure the A&P/IA doing any inspection is very familiar with the type of
aircraft. Talk to type clubs and other owners to find out who the local
"expert" in that type is, to find an appropriate person to do inspections.

* Before making a final agreement to purchase, do a thorough preflight
inspection and complete inflight testing of *everything* on the airplane.
Fly the airplane through a wide range of its envelope, from slow flight to
the top of the yellow arc. Test EVERY piece of avionics equipment
installed; for navigation equipment, reference visual landmarks to ascertain
accuracy. Make sure various entities (ATC, other pilots, Unicom operators)
can receive communications and transponder signals.

Finally, it's probably best to decide ahead of time what course of action
you plan to take should something regarding the sale go wrong. One option
is always legal action against the seller, but in truth that will involve a
huge amount of headache, time, and expense and you may find that stress is
better invested in simply rectifying whatever problem with the airplane that
exists. Of course, it's better to do as much in advance of the sale to
ensure you know what you're getting and that the airplane meets the seller's
claims (if any).

Regardless, you can expect to spend as much as one or two annual inspections
or more getting the airplane up to your standards after purchase. Make sure
you have enough reserve money to cover those expenses. Most airplanes being
sold are being sold because the owner has finally figured out that they can
no longer justify ownership, often after the airplane has been left somewhat
neglected (though usually still airworthy) for some time. Things that might
be acceptable to an owner thinking of getting rid of the airplane anyway
might not be acceptable to a new owner expecting to get a lot of use out of
their newly acquired airplane.

Pete