Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes to fly or not to fly, that is the question....

Well here I am, looking at a bunch of possible 152s to quite possibly take over the ownership of one for the first time! Found a good 152 here in Calif for $22,500, has 8000 TTAF & 1507 SMOH. Needs seats redone but no big deal. Complete logs. It was a flight school plane, but at least it was well used and not sitting around! Broker says I cannot fly it because it has no insurance on it. Also I have to make copies of the logs, as he will not give them to me to let my mechanic look them over. I offered a security deposit but no go. Logs are worth a bunch I know, but.....would you buy a plane that you have not test flown in? Is this on the up & up or maybe a walk away? thanks club Philip

You can get Renter's Insurance from AVEMCO for about $100/year. That should allow you to fly that plane with the owner/broker's permission.

I bought both of my planes without my personally ever seeing them. Yet flying them. With no regrets. But, they were hundreds of miles away. (And I had some very excellent help from fellow club members here with the purchase of 9ED)

With this plane being right there where you are at, I think Hung has the answer. you should be able to get your own insurance which will cover test flying this airplane........................................

Phil, you should really get a pre-buy inspection on this airplane, done by a disinterested machanic. That'll take care of the log book issue.

Let the broker resolve the insurance issue; what the hell, he's getting a commission for selling the airplane!

Geo.

At least he is letting you look at the logs, and the mechanic should be able to get some information from the copies.

What I don't understand is why you cannot go up with one of the school's instructors. They should still have some insurance, that is, if they are still using it. Is it in the broker's possession?

By all means, get a prebuy, like the others have said. There may be some things wrong with it that they haven't told the borker.

Making you copy the logs isn't unreasonable. Nicer still would for him to have the logs copied and "rent" them to you for five bucks or something, but whatever. Having bought a plane (and not bought several) I still say, "if it doesn't feel right, there's a reason." Listen to your gut and run, don't walk away. I'm not saying this is the case here, but just in general.

Thanks to all for the advice.....Well here are some additional facts: The plane was sold to the broker, flight school no longer owner. I think it does not have a valid registration at this point in time since the broker owns it but the resgistration belongs to the school still.I have renters insurance! The broker says he has no coverage on the plane and renter's insur will not cover owner's liability. Well sure I will do thorough prebuy, guess you don't have to fly it after everything has been checked out. Guess I gotta get off the "test drive it" line of thought! Was used to that with cars, but this is a 152, different ball game all together! BTW, is 8000 TTAF a high time airplane or not? I get different answers talking to people about this. thanks everybody!

I dealt with a broker in a similar situation. They could not let me test fly the aircraft. The aircraft were stilled owned by the seller, not the broker, and the broker didn't have insurance to let me fly.

The broker did allow the customer one hour of flight time to change their minds about the aircraft after it had been sold. This was to be my "test" flight. Does your broker allow you the time to change your mind after the first flight?

Age is a relative thing! It depends on how well it was maintained, what type of flying it was doing, among other factors.

Under most circumstances, I would have NO problem with 8,000 hours. Gremlin's got about 5,700 hours and she doesn't look an minute over 1,000! There are things to look for, if not taken care of. Check the flap tracks. Have they been replaced? Is there visible wear and tear on the tracks? Next, check the landing gear. The row of rivets just below where the metal tubes enter the fuselage are a good indication. Are they "smoking" or oozing? Little black rings around the rivets? That would warrant a closer inspection??

Read the logs like it's the Bible. They will tell you what's up with the plane, and about the type of shop worked on it, in some cases!! Rubber samped annual signoffs? How detailed are the entries? How about oil change intervals? It's a flight school plane, so they should be right on the money.

Yep, he talked about that. Thought it was out of the ordinary, but now I hear that it is done more.
thanks