Read the logbooks before you travel

The logbooks are the airplane’s medical history and its provenance rolled together. An airplane with incomplete logs is worth materially less than the same airplane with complete ones — often twenty percent less, sometimes more. A seller who will not send scans before you travel is telling you something.

What you are reading for

You are not doing a mechanic’s job. You are looking for the handful of patterns that tell you whether this airplane is worth spending pre-buy money on.

• ·Continuity — does every year carry an annual sign-off, or are there gaps?
• ·Long idle periods — an airplane that sat for four years has its own set of problems
• ·Major repairs — any FAA Form 337 means significant work was done; read it
• ·Damage history — look for the words describing it, not just an unticked box
• ·AD compliance — is there a current signed list, or are you being told it is all done?
• ·Recent work — a flurry of expensive items just before sale is worth understanding

Check the registry while you are at it

The FAA registry is public and free. Look up the N-number and confirm the registration is current, that the registered owner matches the person selling it, and that make, model and serial number match the logbooks. A mismatch is not necessarily fraud — LLC ownership, estates and recent sales all produce them — but every one needs an explanation before money moves.

• ·Get scans before you book travel — no exceptions
• ·Read for continuity, idle periods, 337s and AD compliance
• ·Verify the registry entry matches the logbooks and the seller
• ·Treat incomplete logs as a price issue, not just a paperwork issue