"Marco Rispoli" wrote in
. net:

How do I go about getting it inspected? Do I call a local (to the
plane) mechanic and arrange a meeting between him, the seller and the
plane? Do I need to be there?

When do I actually need to be there? If anybody ever purchased a plane
from far away, how did you handle it? Do you care to share the story?

Pretty common problem. You'll get lots of advise (some of it
conflicting, no doubt G).

You **will** want it inspected by a reliable mechanic, other than the
shop where it is normally maintained. You don't have to be present
(although I enjoy doing so). This mechanic could be someone near where
the plane is now located, or you can make a deal with the owner to fly
it somewhere else.

When I was looking for my last plane (I live in Texas) I flew out to San
Jose to look at one (boy, was THAT one not as represented). I flew to
Enid Oklahoma to look at another. It looked better, and I arranged to
fly it back to Austin (about 300 nm) to have my mechanic look it over.
I knew by the time I got to Austin that it wasn't going to pass
inspection - and it didn't. I flew it back to Enid, and paid the owner
a reasonable fee for "flight hours" (which wasn't necessary, but I felt
sorry for him).

Found another up in Illinois, and flew up there to take a look at it.
Nice plane, reasonable price. Test flew it -- still nice. Arranged to
have a competing shop on the field do the inspection while I went
through the logbooks with a fine tooth comb. Found a few discrepancies
(logs and plane), nothing major. Negotiated a change in price, plus the
owner to have the shop fix a couple of things. Flew home. Caught a
commercial flight a week later to pick up the plane and flew it home.

In my case, having a plane while shopping for another was a big help.
But with SW airlines tickets as cheap as they are, I really recommend
you at least LOOK at the plane before you buy it. For the price of the
plane, and the years you will have it, the ticket price is down in the
noise.

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James M. Knox
TriSoft ph 512-385-0316
1109-A Shady Lane fax 512-366-4331
Austin, Tx 78721
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