Back to square one on buying an Arrow

Either he doesn't want to sell or he got a higher offer since you made
yours. This guy just doesn't sound straight up. Along those crooked lines,
a quick story about our search...

I found an Aztec that sounded perfect for us. It was in Central Texas but
being sold by the Bank of Boston, in NY. Called the number for the seller,
he could barely speak English and was not interested in talking to me. So I
looked up the N number and called the registered owner in Texas. He was "in
the shower" for 3 days, but his wife was rather pleasant. I did a net
search for other family members and discovered his son was also a pilot, and
in the same town. Called his son and he wouldn't talk about the plane, he
just referred me to the Bank. So I'm thinking it was repossessed and these
guys are broke and ****ed off at the bank.

I dug further and found out that the son and father owned a bank themselves
in Texas. I did a search on their bank and discovered that they as well as
their wives had just been banned by the Feds from working at any bank due to
misappropriation of bank funds. Seems they were using bank money to go on
vacations allll over the country, then not paying the bank back!

What appeared to be a great plane at a fair price quickly turned into a soap
opera that we ran, not walked, away from.

Jim

Wow, interesting story Jim. Sounds like you're "da man" to talk to
aviation sleuth work :-) At the moment, however, I'm way more inclined
to let the deal fall through when/if the owner gets squirly and or is
off his meds for a day. This experience was well worth it and I'm glad
I gave it one last shot within the conditions I had. Oh well, live and
learn. There are lots of Arrows out there, we just need to find the
right one.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-IA Student-Arrow Buying Student

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Something that you can and should do before going as far as arranging a
pre-buy or purchasing airline tickets is to get a title search and aircraft
records from AOPA. You can also get a CD from the FAA that has ownership
and 337 info. If it turns up something suspicious, you can always ask the
owner about it. It will also show a history of every recorded owner. You
can contact the previous owners to ask why they sold the plane. It will
show if the airplane has been located in a corrosion prone area which should
lead you to ask questions about corrosion prevention. All the form 337's
should also be included which may or may not point out damage or repair
history.

I was able to use information found in title searches to seek out several
A&P's that had worked on some of the planes we were interested in. I found
good and bad. I talked to one previous owner that wanted me to tell him
where the plane was because if I didn't buy it, he wanted to buy it back. I
also located one retired engine builder that, in his time, had a great
reputation of rebuilding engines. The plane they were on however hadn't
flown in 9 years. The engine builder basically told us to forget it. He
said the only way he'd touch it was if they were torn down and inspected.
Next.

Time spent going through all the records will pay huge dividends.

Jim

Jim,

If you really wanted to buy an Aztec from Central Texas, I would have
sold you mine! Still will. And I promise that you won't find that I'm
in trouble with the Feds or anybody connected with a bank. Although
my banker would like it better if I sold the Aztec and put the money in his
bank :-)

Don't both you and your partner each need your own Aztec? :-)

Ronnie

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
Either he doesn't want to sell or he got a higher offer since you made
yours. This guy just doesn't sound straight up. Along those crooked
lines,
a quick story about our search...

I found an Aztec that sounded perfect for us. It was in Central Texas but
being sold by the Bank of Boston, in NY. Called the number for the
seller,
he could barely speak English and was not interested in talking to me. So
I
looked up the N number and called the registered owner in Texas. He was
"in
the shower" for 3 days, but his wife was rather pleasant. I did a net
search for other family members and discovered his son was also a pilot,
and
in the same town. Called his son and he wouldn't talk about the plane, he
just referred me to the Bank. So I'm thinking it was repossessed and
these
guys are broke and ****ed off at the bank.

I dug further and found out that the son and father owned a bank
themselves
in Texas. I did a search on their bank and discovered that they as well
as
their wives had just been banned by the Feds from working at any bank due
to
misappropriation of bank funds. Seems they were using bank money to go on
vacations allll over the country, then not paying the bank back!

What appeared to be a great plane at a fair price quickly turned into a
soap
opera that we ran, not walked, away from.

Jim

Hey Ronnie,
Thanks for the offer, but the one we have has us pretty well occupied.
A nice SuperCub or SuperCruiser might raise my interest as a second plane
though.
Jim