PrePurch by Existing A&P?

Thanks, all, for your insight and guidance on hangars, TBO, etc I've asked
lately. Now I have another one for you.

I know that you should always get a disinterested 3rd party A&P to do the
prepurchase, but, suppose I find an airplane for sale at my existing home
airport, and the current owner's A&P is also based there? If I intend to use
the same A&P for future annuals, what's the harm if he does the prepurchase,
especially if I tell him that up front?

Thanks; - or am I thinking too hard?
Carl

In a previous article, "Carl Orton" said:
prepurchase, but, suppose I find an airplane for sale at my existing home
airport, and the current owner's A&P is also based there? If I intend to use
the same A&P for future annuals, what's the harm if he does the prepurchase,
especially if I tell him that up front?

We've had pre-purchase inspections done by the guy who did the owner's
regular maintenance work, but we've also been using this guy for our 5
plane fleet for dozens of years, so we had no doubt of his loyalty to us.

I wouldn't put him in a me or him situation with only one aircraft on the
line, though.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"real programmers don't really understand why they get paid for
doing stuff they'd do in their spare time anyway; if they're smart,
they never let -that- out."

"Carl Orton" wrote in message
...
Thanks, all, for your insight and guidance on hangars, TBO, etc I've asked
lately. Now I have another one for you.

I know that you should always get a disinterested 3rd party A&P to do the
prepurchase, but, suppose I find an airplane for sale at my existing home
airport, and the current owner's A&P is also based there? If I intend to
use
the same A&P for future annuals, what's the harm if he does the
prepurchase,
especially if I tell him that up front?

Thanks; - or am I thinking too hard?

My opinion - do not do it. Get a fresh set of eyes to look over the
airplane. For the A&P/IA on the field to give an opinion of an aircraft he
maintains, what would you expect?

In article ,
Carl Orton wrote:
the same A&P for future annuals, what's the harm if he does the prepurchase,
especially if I tell him that up front?

It's not just a question of loyalty or honesty. You need someone with
no preconceptions to look at the plane. New eyes will find things that
have been habitually overlooked. You also want to know about things
that aren't airworthiness issues *now* but will be soon. If the current
owner has been leaning on the IA to sign off on some marginal items
he may have mentally refiled those into "later" and forget to mention
them to you.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

For the same reasons, does it make sense to use a different A&P for your annual
every once in a while? I've been considering doing my annual with another A&P
next year to make sure nothing has been habitually overlooked. I plan to hang
onto my airplane for many years, so I want to know if something is not up to
snuff before it becomes a major issue. Seems to me that if the same guy looks at
the plane all the time he'll start to overlook stuff that might have been slowly
deteriorating.

Ben Jackson wrote:

In article ,
Carl Orton wrote:
the same A&P for future annuals, what's the harm if he does the prepurchase,
especially if I tell him that up front?

It's not just a question of loyalty or honesty. You need someone with
no preconceptions to look at the plane. New eyes will find things that
have been habitually overlooked. You also want to know about things
that aren't airworthiness issues *now* but will be soon. If the current
owner has been leaning on the IA to sign off on some marginal items
he may have mentally refiled those into "later" and forget to mention
them to you.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

Every time you switch A&Ps, they look at your first annual like it is their
chance to buy a new set of Snap-On tool chests. It will be double or triple
what your second, third, etc. annual with your previous mechanic would have
been. This is a well-known phenomenon. Your plane will be meticulously
maintained though.


"Ray Andraka" wrote in message
...
For the same reasons, does it make sense to use a different A&P for your
annual
every once in a while? I've been considering doing my annual with another
A&P
next year to make sure nothing has been habitually overlooked. I plan to
hang
onto my airplane for many years, so I want to know if something is not up
to
snuff before it becomes a major issue. Seems to me that if the same guy
looks at
the plane all the time he'll start to overlook stuff that might have been
slowly
deteriorating.

Ben Jackson wrote:

In article ,
Carl Orton wrote:
the same A&P for future annuals, what's the harm if he does the
prepurchase,
especially if I tell him that up front?

It's not just a question of loyalty or honesty. You need someone with
no preconceptions to look at the plane. New eyes will find things that
have been habitually overlooked. You also want to know about things
that aren't airworthiness issues *now* but will be soon. If the current
owner has been leaning on the IA to sign off on some marginal items
he may have mentally refiled those into "later" and forget to mention
them to you.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

"Jim Vadek" wrote in message
news:fHKeb.10637$%h1.7669@sccrnsc02...
I know that you should always get a disinterested 3rd party A&P to do
the
prepurchase, but, suppose I find an airplane for sale at my existing
home
airport, and the current owner's A&P is also based there? If I intend to
use
the same A&P for future annuals, what's the harm if he does the
prepurchase,
especially if I tell him that up front?

Thanks; - or am I thinking too hard?

My opinion - do not do it. Get a fresh set of eyes to look over the
airplane. For the A&P/IA on the field to give an opinion of an aircraft he
maintains, what would you expect?

Agreed. I would *strongly* recommend a 3rd party. Then use the same guy
for you maintenance. You won't regret it - you may the other way around.

I'm kind of in a similar pickle in as much as a plane I take care of is up
for sale. To whom do I owe my loyalty? If I point out every little defect,
the owner who I've known for a fair amount of time will say "That S.O.B.
stuck it to me I thought he was my friend"

On the other hand if I don't volunteer some defect, then the new owner will
say "That S.O.B. stuck it to me I thought he was an honest mechanic"

I handle it by telling the prospective buyer to get a third party.

Cheers:

paul

In a very rare, unordinary situation, you might find that the A&P who
had been servicing the aircraft all along to be a good one for the
prepurchase. Mine was one of these rare occasions. The story goes that
the A&P's father first bought this airplane learned to fly in it, then
passed it down to his oldest son who learned to fly in it, who then
passed it down to the younger son, who also learned to fly in it and
later became this A&P/IA and the owner of an FBO. He sold the plane to
a local flying club and then was pretty much the exclusive maintainer
of it for the next 13 years after that. I had him do a full
prepurchase/annual inspection and everything seemed good so I bought
it. He showed me every nook and cranny of the plane and explained
every nuance it had to me in detail. The morning I flew it away, he
asked to fly it one more time and I could tell that he was on the
verge of getting emotional to see it fly away from "home" for the last
time. Someday, if my economic situation wouldn't stink so bad, I'd
wish I could give the Checkerbird a new paintjob (same orange and
white checkers, of course) and interior and fly her back up to Iowa
just to show her off.

Neal wrote in message . ..
In a very rare, unordinary situation, you might find that the A&P who
had been servicing the aircraft all along to be a good one for the
prepurchase.

Not as rare as you would think. A lot is going to depend on exactly
what aircraft you are looking at. Something that is very common, such
as the 150/152/172 series or the Cherokees', there are hundreds of
people that can and do work on them. When you start talking about
rare/antique/warbirds, you really narrow the field of people that are
qualified to work on them. With these aircraft, I'd rather go through
them with the person that has been doing the maintenance instead of
handing the aircraft to someone that is qualified on paper, but has
little or no practical experience with the model in question. A
pre-buy inspection is no place to spend your bucks paying for a
mechanic to get trained on a particular model. You leave yourself open
to possible problems down the road with overlooked items due to
excessive familarity, but you will find that those type mechanics
quickly earn a bad rep in the trade.

Craig C.