Chapter 7 - Inspection and contracts

Having agreed to buy N6PL subject to inspection, the next morning owner Ralph Mailloux flew the aircraft to Torrance airport which is about 6 NM south of its home base and the mechanic started the inspection. By the time I arrived at 12:00 noon he was able to tell me that so far all looked good. Engine compressions were good, the aircraft was fitted with the expensive fine wire spark plugs and all the hoses had been upgraded to heavy duty. The left main wheel needed a shimmy, which I had noted in the log books had been done previously. He also said that one panel on the wing had been painted. I couldn't see it, and even when he showed me which one, I couldn't see the difference in paint colour although he insisted it was slightly different. Obviously the bird strike.

Two days later we signed the very basic contract and arranged for an Escrow company to check ownership and any liens on the aircraft. I would deposit the funds with the Escrow company and on completion of legal checks, that company would simultaneously arrange transfer of the funds to the owner and transfer of ownership to me.

The process of buying and selling aircraft is well organised and professionally executed, which is probably due to the large number of sales which enables people to build businesses around the legal side of selling of aircraft. We appear to be much more basic.

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Chapter 6 - Engine & Aircraft log books

I overlooked a most important subject.

After spending a couple of months evaluating the used aircraft market through web sites such as controller.com, and having come up with a selection of aircraft, in order of preference, I then contacted the sellers and asked them to email me the log books for the aircraft. I was then able to go through the log books and check that the maintenance was carried out as required and I was able see what problems, if any, there had been with the aircraft I was interested in.

It was at that time, I realised that Lycoming had identified a potential problem with a component in some of the engines and had issued a direction that those particular engines must be disassembled, inspected and the engine be given a major overhaul, which takes the engine back to virtually new condition.

The log books provide a wealth of information on the history of the aircraft, identify any problems and give dates on which new equipment has been installed. They also show which organisations did the work and allow prospective purchasers the opportunity to contact the maintenance organisation for further information.

For example, I was able to see that the brake pads were changed more often on Saratogas than on the ARROW, which I assumed was due to the heavier weight of the Saratoga and the faster landing speeds. Heavy duty brakes, and top of the line hoses and spark plugs were installed on N6PL, which indicated to me that the owners were fastidious. In the case of N6PL, it showed me that a wing had been slightly damaged in a bird strike and that a panel on the leading edge had been replaced.

None of the aircraft I looked at showed any major problems. It showed that some owners changed the oil every 50 hours and others every 25 hours. Some sent the oil for analysis at every oil change.

Having made my selections in order of preference, I gave the details and log books of the aircraft I was interested in to my LAME, Mark Howe at Blue Demon Aviation at Moorabbin, and he also selected N6PL as the no.1 choice.

Chapter 5 - Buying an aircraft - Part 2

The next day I drove to San Diego to inspect Saratoga choice no.3. It was being sold by the Piper Dealer who also claimed to be the official Piper parts and Service organisation for that part of the country.

When I phoned him from LA to make the appointment, he wanted to know what was happening in Australia as he had sold a Mirage to an Australian a week earlier and had an Australian in his office who had just signed to buy a Cessna. I told him about the lower prices in USA and the strength of the Australian $, and he told me that was what the other Australians had told him.

We walked through the hangar which had four aircraft, but there was so much room that I could have driven to each one. There was one Cessna, a Mirage and a Matrix and the Saratoga. Again, an immaculate painted & sealed concrete floor.

Whilst neat and tidy and shiny from the outside, the brown interior of the Saratoga was drab and almost depressing - to me. Obviously the first owner had found it attractive. It had about the same total hours but 300 hours less to run on the engine. It was also cheaper than the no.1 choice.

The no.1 choice had additional avionics with traffic avoidance, stormscope, GMX 200 moving map, full set of co-pilot IFR instruments, speed brakes plus more. Some of these I didn't need, but all-in-all no.1 turned out to be just that. The aircraft had 1040 hours total time but had a major engine overhaul just 299 hours earlier, which left 1700 before the next major engine overhaul. Having had a chat with Tom McCrea, I decided to make an offer on no.1 - call sign N6PL.

The next day we met at Saratoga N6PL's hangar and after another inspection, this time with Tom present, we agreed on a small price reduction and the sale was agreed subject to a flight, the normal US mechanical and structural inspection checks which seem to be standard in USA. A much better system than we have here.

We took off parallel to LAX runways with the big jets flying out beside us. We took as short flight along the coast with me having a play with the controls but totally overwhelmed by the avionics.

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Chapter 4 - Buying the aircraft - part 1

My no.1 and no.3 selections were in Los Angeles and San Diego respectively, so I decided to see them first. The others were near Chicago and in Minnesota which were both bitterly cold and snowing as were the conditions in Maryland. The sixth was in Tennessee.

Piper Society member, David Ind bought a turbo Saratoga in the USA about 2 1/2 years ago and had flown it to Australia with the ferry pilot - Ray Clamback. David was of great help to me and introduced me to Tom McCrea in California, who had helped him through the official paperwork and documentation with FAA, and had carried out inspections and annual service as required for aircraft being exported from USA.

I inspected my no.1 choice first as it was at Hawthorne airport, a couple of miles south of LAX and with an almost parallel runway to Los Angeles runways. This aircraft was being sold privately. When we met at his hangar, owner Ralph asked "What's going on in Australia? Is every Australian here for a convention?" He told me that he had a call earlier that morning from an Australian at Long Beach, who had arranged to inspect the aircraft later that day.

I liked it from the moment I saw it. It was hangared. It sparkled like new which impressed me because I hadn't told the seller I was in LA until late the previous night and he really hadn't had time to clean and polish it. He was head of a local municipality fire department and told me that cleaning, polishing and maintaining equipment was an integral part of life as a fireman and he spent a day in the hangar at least once every 3 weeks cleaning, vacuuming, polishing etc. - it was just a way of life for him. I thought of the way some aircraft sit outside all of their lives and thought that maybe I couldn't buy it as I wouldn't give it quite the loving care to which it was accustomed.

During the inspection, it started to rain heavily and a couple of drops of water landed on the cabin roof, which prompted the owner to yell for the LAME to tell him the roof was leaking on his plane and he 'better do something about it'.

Of course the concrete floors were smooth, painted and sealed, with not a screw or a tool in sight. Ralph was instrument rated and when I commented that he must have flown through rain or left it out overnight when he went to his holiday house in Arizona, he told me he hadn't flow in rain, he had a hangar in Arizona and when he went to other airports he always arranged to hire a hangar while he was there.

Might seem a little far fetched for us here in Australia, but having flown in the USA for 5 weeks in 2008, I had seen the airport facilities and operations there and everything he said was at least believable.

Chapter 3 -- Why do I need a new aircraft?

The answer is simple. I don't need a new aircraft.

Before I bought the Arrow, I regularly flew Lances and Saratogas and I loved flying them. Since then I have often thought of buying a Saratoga because it has six seats, flys faster and has a bigger cabin than the Arrow III. Why didn't I buy a Saratoga earlier? When I bought the Arrow I couldn't afford to buy a Saratoga. Later on, I guess I just didn't want it badly enough; I love the turbo Arrow which does almost everything I want it to do; and over the last few years whenever I mentioned selling the Arrow and buying a Saratoga, my instructor, Tony Smith, would inevitably say "This is too good an aircraft. Don't sell it". One time he even went to my LAME and got him to phone me to tell me not to sell it.

He has a good point. As an example of what it can do, Tony and I flew HKZ from Moorabbin to Toowoomba at FL150 in about 4 hours 30 minutes without the need to refuel.

However, the US economy crashed. Businesses were (are) doing it tough. Many people can no longer afford to keep some of their assets and the second-hand aircraft prices have plunged. Added to that, the Australian $ has strengthened against the US $. It is now an excellent time to buy aircraft, homes etc in USA. Finally, I am getting older and why not do it?

Having checked the second hand aircraft market in the USA for a couple of months, I just made the decision that now was a good time. The $ could go up or the $ could go down and I could keep waiting for a better deal and wait forever.

In early December I booked a ticket and flew to LA with six prospective aircraft, selected in order of preference.

I love the benefits of a turbo charged aircraft so the Saratoga had to be turbo. I wanted low hours with at least 1000 hours before the next major overhaul was due. I also had settled on a price range which put me into the 1999 - 2001 models. I found that there were many available which met the criteria, and in fact many of the available aircraft exceeded my expectations. There were several with less than 700 hours since new (average of 70 hours flying/year). I also found that there were many which had done more hours but which had engines which had been completely overhauled before they were due, because of a manufacturing problem with some of the parts in the Lycoming engines.These had maybe 1000-1200 hours airframe time with about 600 hours since the engine was overhauled. For non-aviators, every aircraft engine has a number of hours at which time it must be stripped down to individual nuts, bolts and washers and parts measured and if necessary, replaced. In the case of the Saratoga, the major overhaul must be done every 2000 hours as a minimum.

Chapter 2 - 1977 model Piper Arrow III turbo VH-HKZ

Megan and I have owned our wonderful single engine four seat aircraft for about 18 years. Since we bought it we have maintained and renovated it both inside and outside and have added a Garmin 430 GPS.

We have had many great trips in the Arrow and visited every corner of Australia and most of the major towns and many of the smaller town, farms, and B & B's inland.

We have enjoyed the company of many other travellers, and in particular aviators who we have met, but most especially our trips with the Australian Piper Society.

When I bought the turbo Arrow, I was not as technically savvy as I am today. A number of people questioned why I bought a turbo charged aircraft as we don't have many mountains and what we do have are not high. The turbo was seen as not being necessary and just an added cost. At the time I bought it I had no idea about what I was buying other than after gaining my PPL, I flew this and its sister turbo Arrow whenever I hired an aircraft. When it came up for sale I just bought it without thinking about alternatives. Maybe a dumb way to make a decision, but a decision I am happy that I made, about 18 years ago.

Since then I have come to really understand the benefits of being turbo charged in that I can get over the mountains at height and I can get above the thermals and I can maintain speeds at high altitudes which a normally aspirated aircraft can't do.

I have now purchased a 2000 model turbo charged Piper Saratoga II TC in the USA.

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Chapter 1 - Flying my new Piper Saratoga II TC from USA to Australia - Page 1

Hi!

Initially I produced this blogspot as a test site for an add-on to the Australian Piper Society web site at piper.org.au.

I have now decided to use it temporarily to tell the story of my purchase of a 2000 model Saratoga II TC single engine aircraft and of the process and ferry flight to get it from USA to Australia. At the time of starting this, the aircraft has been bought and has been checked by a mechanic in the USA and we anticipate flying commercially to Los Angeles late next week and we will then start the flight home to Australia as soon as the winds are favourable.

Over the next couple of weeks I will chronicle the purchase, the preparation for flight and the actual flight across the Pacific.

The first 8-10 posts will deal with the purchase of the aircraft, so if you are not interested in that phase, wait until around 20th January and I will be into the planning and then the actual flight, with reports as we progress subject to time and internet access. The departure date is weather dependant after 23rd January.

Hope you find it interesting.

Tom Courtney