N58105 Pre-purchase inspection FAIL!

October 27th, 2009. Filed under: Ownership.

OMG. I’m so devastated and so happy. Devastated because the plane of my dreams turned out not to be. Happy because I’m out of the deal and got (most) of my deposit back.

As you can see in my earlier post, I was totally excited to be purchasing Mooney N58105. Trust critical to a purchase such as this and it quickly eroded as the pre-purchase was performed.

Cracked rib. Would you trust this?

Background: The plane had damage history from an emergency off airport landing. I was very apprehensive about about owing a plane with damage history. I was told by many pilot friends that if it the repairs were done properly, it would be OK.
Claim: The owner assured me that the repairs were done “professionally and were imperceptible”. He further added that it “was a better plane after the repairs and paint job were done.
Reality: The first phone call from the Mooney shop started like this “I’ve started the inspection and these are some of the worst repairs I have ever seen. Are you sure you want me to continue”. I was devastated. The list of items he found early on washed over me and I saw my dream slip away. I had to sleep on it, clear my head.

The next morning, I called the A&P back and asked him to go over the things he found so far. Cracked rib, rivets not being properly bucked, rivets missing struts, dented empennage, way more rivets in the tail than necessary. Then he started to talk about the leaking tank.

Background: As I was looking over the plane, looking under the wings for evidence of fuel leakage, I noted that the area under one of the tanks was perfectly clean while the rest of that wing, and the other were dirty.
Claim: The owner started cleaning under the wing and then lost his will to complete the job.
Reality: The A&P said there was a major leak that the owner, quite obviously by the staining on the wing, has been cleaning for some time.

Claim: Liberal and meticulous maintenance is done. No nitpicking. No holding back,
Reality: *There is a Service Bulletin that recommends that the gear actuator be replaced at 1000 hrs. This actuator is original with over 1900 and it “sounds bad, and I hear them every day” says my A&P.
*Another Mooney Service Bulletin recommends that the magnetos be checked every 500 hours. At 900 hrs, neither has been checked and one is leaking.

Bent gear door won't close.

*Nav and tail strobe lights out (who knows why – didn’t want to pay for diagnostic time)
*Buttons on the 530W sporadically inop.
*Engine baffling is worn to shreds
*Gear door is bent (too badly for repair), hangs open.
*Etc…

During this process my trust in the seller and that plane eroded quickly. Other things started to make sense now like why the owner INSISTED on that only airworthy items were reason to exit the deal. I tell ya.. I already had already had a lot of skin in this deal – well over $2500 – with two days of traveling to see the plane and the cost of the pre-purchase. That should have been enough incentive to get past any glitches, any cold feet, and go froward with the deal. But he wanted to shore things up in his favor. I was feeling rushed (trying to get the contract done before the end of business week for the bank so I could wire the deposit so the plane could get transported to the A&P the next day) and caved on this item.

There was other clauses in the contract too which we debated all day via email that I thought were onerous but also caved on those too. Now, it started to become clear why he was so restrictive with the contract.

In the end, I totally lost trust in the seller and the plane. Too many untruths, marketing puffery, mismatched realities for me to feel comfortable with.

The seller, unwilling to make the necessary (in my and my A&P’s opinion) repairs, he released the deposit from escrow and I returned back to the classifieds and my Mooneys for Sale spreadsheet.

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