Need Pre Buy Inspection at Ramona Airport (RNM) for a Piper Cherokee

dcmission2@gmail.com

I'm a new member hoping to become first time Piper owner. I have some questions regarding pre buy inspections.

I'm interested in buying a Piper Cherokee located at Romona Airport (RNM). The owner has owned the aircraft for 19 years and has been flying it until he upgraded recently. The aircraft just got annual'ed by Aeromechanix at the airport and it also got VFR and IFR certified. The aircraft has been serviced by this shop for the last couple of years. The owner is an A&P who used to to do some of the work and got the shop to do the sign off on the annual. The most recent annual, done just a couple of weeks ago, was done completely by the shop.

I think it'd be wise to still do a pre buy, although it's tempting to save the money since the annual was just completed 2 weeks ago. But the question is how and where. The only other shop I can find at Ramona is CruiseAir Aviation, which specializes in Beechcraft. It is also where the owner rents his hangar from for the last several years. Does it make sense to ask a Beechcraft shop to do a pre buy on the Piper Cherokee? Would there be a conflict of interest since they most likely know the aircraft and its owner? Does anyone know of either of these shops and their reputation? What are my options when it comes to doing a pre buy?

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Bob Hart

Hi dcmission2. Yes, you do want to do a pre-buy by someone who is not "associated" with the seller! This recent annual was done probably because it had to be done and with the intention of selling the aircraft. The seller, in this situation is going to do only what "must" be done in the annual because he wants to spend as little as possible to get it done. Most shops will insist that "airworthiness" items be addressed but who knows when a relationship is involved. The shop wants to keep this guys business especially if he has upgraded the airplane and "bigger" annuals are likely. FYI, I'm the avionics staff writer or Piper Owners but I have also owned six aircraft myself. I've just gone through this process for a consultant client of mine. I helped him locate and "vet" a Cessna 182. With my knowledge, I was able to "filter" through the planes and the aircraft we bought for him just had an annual in the last 30 days also but the "independent" shop that did our pre-buy did find an item that he felt was an airworthy item and needed to be addressed and the seller "absorbed" some of that repair cost by reducing the selling price. You need to look at the pre-buy as something that will save you money vs. something that will cost you money. I established my own pre-buy checklist for my client based on what we already knew which turned out to take about 8 hours ($600). It saved $1000! The plane was being exported to South America and being painted prior so we would have spent the money to repair the empennage damage anyway. I simply looked for the closest mechanic that had no relationship with the seller, sent him the pre-buy checklist and asked for an estimate. Sometimes, it's not at the same airport and the plane needs to be flown. Watch out for sellers who are reluctant to "cooperate" on the pre-buy. They should know that it's your goal to "confirm" that the information the seller is providing is accurate, that the logs books are complete and accurate and that everything is working including the avionics. You need information you can trust and you can't be sure of it unless the pre-buy is totally independent of the seller. A pre-buy is not that aircraft specific on a Cherokee and a Beech shop is not an issue. If it was a Lear Jet ... that's an entirely different discussion. Good Luck!
Bob Hart www.AvionixHelp.com

dcmission2@gmail.com

Thanks Bob!

kf6iat@aol.com

So I am new to this forum, and this is my first posting!... I too am in the process of purchasing a Cherokee in another state.. that what inspected and signed off last month... So I contracted another shop to again inspect the plane, a shop that had no connection to the owner, and they came back with 3 pages of squawks. Some are important!.. AD's that had no evidence of being complied with and some, like the keys fall out, and good to knows... So the $900 cost seamed high, but resulted in needed information.. It is not a deal breaker yet, and I look forward to getting the right price for this aircraft... the more information at had helps to make the best deal for all... Now the problem my be getting the plane away from my Father who lives in the town where the plane is....