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N40BB sitting on the ramp at KUMP (Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport)

Heading to Georgia

The prebuy and annual were set to start on the 23rd of September out at KIIY so the night of the 22nd I headed down to Georgia to take my first look at N40BB...

As a side note... Washington, GA is somewhat in the middle of nowhere... it's about an hours drive away from Augusta, GA (where the plane was hangared) and about two hours drive away from Atlanta, GA. This would cause it's own issues as time went on.

I turned in some airline miles on US Airways and headed down to Georgia. After work, on the night of the 22nd I flew down...
From KIND...  US Airways Flight 3253... to KCLT
From KCLT...  US Airways (Air Wisconsin) Fight 3951... to KAGS landing at 11:28PM.

Augusta Regional Airport at Bush Field (KAGS) is small commercial airport with some classic southern charm that pretty much shuts down at midnight so it was a mad rush out of the CRJ and into the terminal to find the car rental counter. With about 10 minutes to spare, I made it to car rental counter and had a Hyundai Accent that would definitely get some milage in.

I was hoping to get a chance to stop in a KAGS as a pilot as opposed to a passenger but that never did end up happening.

Since I really had no idea how this week would go, I didn't bother booking a return commercial flight back to Indy, I was somewhat hoping that I would be flying back & bringing back N40BB but that wouldn't happen on this trip.

The rest of the night was uneventful as I drove further the wrong way to my hotel in Aiken, SC (next time, don't trust the Marriott people on the phone when doing reservations and being told "it's close" -- for whatever reason all the Marriotts in Augusta happen to had been booked for Monday night and like the flight I was using points for the trip). 

Complications

As a part of the offer, an escrow account was setup for the purchase of N40BB at Federal Aviation Title and they began a title search for the aircraft. 

You never know if the person selling the aircraft is the person that actually owns the aircraft... A title search protects you to a certain degree, you can also purchase title insurance. Something else the title search does is look into liens placed on the aircraft.... and that's where there was a complication.

With the prebuy scheduled, my trip to Georgia planned (and plane tickets purchased), and down payment in escrow... it turned out there was a Mechanic's Lien on N40BB. The lien was placed by Augusta Aviation, filed on 9/04/14 and recorded on 9/17/14 (a day before we signed the purchase agreement!). 

Typically a mechanic's lien is placed on an aircraft when the owner of the aircraft has not paid for services that had been provided. Read more about them here.

This was one of those moments when I thought the deal would fall apart -- my broker had reached out to the seller's broker and we were waiting for the seller's response to the lien. 

It turned out some invoices hadn't been paid by the company owned N40BB and the seller's broker was getting all the outstanding invoices taken care of. For the moment, it seemed like it was getting straightened out, we did need to get Augusta Aviation to sign off and release the lien (there is an official form for this that would end up getting filed with the FAA).

Something to look into that will provide significant details on an aircraft is it's official records from the FAA. For 10 bucks, the FAA will mail you a CD with all of the records of an aircraft. The records are split into registration information (Aircraft Bill of Sales, Registrations, Mechanic's and Materialman's Liens) and airworthiness information (Form 337s, STCs, Airworthiness Certificates, and Application for Airworthiness Certificates). Get more information at the FAA website here. 

N40BB had 30 pages worth of airworthiness information and a 100 pages worth of registration information, including the lien. I actually requested the records just after we started talking to the seller's broker and were making progress but the CD came the week after I returned with the aircraft (about four weeks), so lesson here is start early, it's ten bucks and can save a ton of time (& money) if something doesn't look right. 

Planning for a Prebuy

The prebuy inspection is probably one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself as a buyer -- it offers your the best chance of finding the 'big ticket' items that might make or break you or the sale. The Cessna Pilot's Association Buyer's Guide has a section specifically dedicated to the prebuy, something to definitely look thru and give to the mechanic doing the inspection. 

As it relates to N40BB, as a final part to the offer negotiations, we had picked a shop in the area to the do the pre-buy and annual (the plane's annual had lapsed at the end of July 2014). Since the plane's maintenance had been done by Augusta Aviation out at KDNL since 1987 (almost 30 years!), we decided on picking an alternate shop to provide a third-party opinion. 

This is where it becomes tricky... how do you find a shop that will do a prebuy and is knowledgeable in the aircraft? Hopefully, the plane is close to your homebase and you can have your mechanic do it. However, in my case Georgia was a bit away and bringing it back to the field was most likely not going to happen. So we ended up with some options from the seller's broker, AirNav offered some options (and reviews!), and a post on the CPA's member only forums offered some feedback. 

In the end it was decided that the prebuy and the annual would be done by Kinsey Butler at Southern Air Repair at KIIY (Washington-Wilkes County Airport). Kinsey was able to start on it the following week which would give me time to fly down there for the process. 

Offer For N40BB

During the few weeks that followed originally seeing N40BB listed online, my broker reviewed the log books, received additional pictures and got answers to my many questions on the plane... and then we put in an offer.

But first, a little more about N40BB... 

1977 Cessna 182Q Skylane II

Airframe: 2424.1 hours since new (SN: 18265944)

Engine: 905 hours since factory overhaul (Continental O-470-U13B)

Propeller: 9.5 hours since new (McCauley CA34C204/90DCB-8 2-blade)

Avionics
Nav/Comm/GPS #1 - Garmin 530W with GDL39 XM Reciever

Nav/Comm #2 - Bendix/King KX 155 TSO
Transponder: Garmin GTX327 

Audio Panel: PS Engineering PMA 6000-C

Autopilot: S-TEC System 50 with Altitude Hold

Stormscope: 3M WX-8 Stormscope

Minor Non-Movement Damage in 1998 to the RH side; professionally repaired by Precision Air, Manning
Aircraft hangared at Daniel Field (KDNL) in Augusta, GA
Always US-based and hangared

Complete logs since new





The seller's broker countered the initial offer and we had a signed agreement at 3pm on the 18th of September! As I left the office to wire the deposit into escrow, I couldn't stop thinking that I just entered an agreement for something I have never put my eyes on.

The 182 in Georgia...

The first picture of N40BB I saw (KDNL, Augusta, GA)

Searching for the 182 had turned into somewhat of an obsession... between the daily emails from the websites and the constant harassment of the broker (I figure he saw it as harassment, I was just checking up on an investment...).

Googling around one late night (did you know you can google Cessna serial numbers?) led to a plane I hadn't seen on Barnstomers, Controller, or Trade-A-Plane... a gray and darker gray 1977 Cessna 182Q Skylane II based out of Augusta, Georgia. It was listed on the broker's personal website.

I sent an email out to the broker to take a look, little did I know this would become my plane. 

Hangars, Lack Thereof

During my search for an airplane I never had a second thought about where to base it, I planned to keep it where I did my flight training, KUMP - Indianapolis Metropolitan, and then I tried to get a hangar there...

Indy Metro is a small airport with a 3,850ft x 100ft always-crosswind runway right in the city of Indianapolis (well technically the airport is in Fishers, I think) but either way it's about 15 minutes away from both my house and the office, sitting on the northeast side of Indianapolis a bit outside the Indianapolis Class Charlie airspace. The convenience to me was undeniable. While there are several airports in Indy, including Eagle Creek Airpark (KEYE) on the northwest side, Indianapolis Executive (KTYQ) on the far northside, Indianapolis Regional (KMQJ) just south of Metropolitan -- for me none are as convenient as Metro.

Long story short, after multiple attempts, different folks out at the Indianapolis Airport Authority (the agency that runs the Indianapolis area airports) the attempts to rent a hangar at Metro didn't go anywhere near as well as planned. I ended up on the waiting list and told a hangar would be available on August 18th at Metro -- or -- I could get a hangar out at Indianapolis Regional immediately. Eagle Creek Airpark, another option, was also full. I never looked into the hangar situation at Indianapolis Executive who isn't managed by the Indianapolis Airport Authority.

Indianapolis Regional (KMQJ) is the only other airport in the Indianapolis vicinity other than International (KIND) with multiple runways, I had done a good bit of a flight training out there as it's runways almost always had better wind conditions then Metro -- not to mention 9/27 is about twice as long as Metro's 15/33. I also attended the AOPA 2014 Fly-In at MQJ and definitely liked the airport. BUT, the drive out to regional would be over 30 minutes from home and work. (Side note: living about the center of Indy really spoils me since almost anything is about 15 minutes away, doubling that drive to 30 minutes is almost unthinkable -- something most people wouldn't even think twice about).

So on the waiting list I sit...