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say this? Could it be that some of his buyers ran into big problems post- purchase and complained bitterly to him? His post drew a big response.
I had already planned on writing this article but hesitated. A fair portion of my consulting is pre-buy related and I don’t want it to look like I’m shamelessly promoting myself. Then after Chip’s post I wondered if I would be beating a dead horse with this topic. On the other hand, I’ve been asked repeatedly to write about pre-buys.
The road to buying an aircraft is not always smooth. There are buyers that are laser focused on the purchase price alone; they loathe the idea of spending a penny more. I wish these buyers would look at the bigger picture. All aircraft come with a future of maintenance obligations; the point of a pre-buy is to avoid buying one full of hidden nightmares. Consider it as hedging your bet on the King Air you aim to purchase.
Lipstick on a Pig
I was contacted by the director of maintenance (DOM) of a small charter operation. They were looking to add another King Air to their 135 certificate and he found one he really liked. He’d already reviewed the logbooks and they looked great. The pictures were fabulous – new paint, nice interior and a new panel! What’s not to like? The DOM took his own crew to inspect this gem but he wanted me there to ensure they didn’t overlook anything crucial. In person, this King Air exceeded all expectations. Everything about it was pristine. The paint was gorgeous. The interior was beautifully done.
The cockpit was a pilot’s dream. The presentation of this product was first class all the way.
The DOM and I dug into the logbooks while his guys opened panels. The most recent records were in good order, but everything prior was a total disaster. Aircraft total time was a guessing game with 3,000 hours missing in one book and 2,000 hours suddenly gained in another. Engine records did not reference airframe total time, which made a bad situation worse. Everything was out of chronological order. As we attempted to compile a
timeline, we found chunks of time with no records at all. Major portions of the records were in Spanish with no translation. These maintenance records were “strike one.”
The recent log entries had many squawks with “light corrosion” listed, but when looking at them many were far from “light.” Example: Corroded rivets were found in the tail and removed for correction; the stringer was removed and more corrosion was found underneath it. Although these corrosion squawks were remedied, they posed a red flag. In my experience, wherever
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AUGUST 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 19