Terrible Tale #5-
The Need for Greed...

The saddest part of this story is that the buyer was a New England aircraft dealer with more than twenty years in the business. He runs a successful flight school, charter operation, and maintenance shop, and if anyone should have known better, it was, well, we'll call him "Mike".

But while Mike is known for his knowledge and experience, he's better known for being somewhat parsimonious. So when he discovered a Mooney Executive for sale at well below wholesale, he couldn't resist the temptation. The Mooney was well equipped, low time, great paint and interior, with all logs- but it was in California. The owner confessed to a two-year old repair to the leading edge wing skins, but it wasn't a major consideration at this price.

With photos in hand, and copies of a few logbook pages, Mike violated one of his own basic rules and bought the aircraft without his usual thorough prepurchase inspection. He sent a pilot to California to ferry the aircraft home, and was pleased with himself when it landed on his ramp. All appeared to be in order, and he had saved hundreds of dollars by skipping the pre-buy. He put the Exec on the market.

It didn't take long for a private buyer to come along- he was as pleased with the aircraft as Mike. But it was during his prepurchase inspection that the ax fell. He had taken the aircraft to a local maintenance shop run by an Airworthiness Inspector, and a man who also knew his Mooneys. There appeared to be only one flaw in the aircraft- the main spar had been bent, broken and repaired! (Considering that Mooneys have a one piece wing, this was totally illegal. In fact, the damage was so severe that the A&I contacted the FAA, who immediately revoked the aircraft's' Airworthiness Certificate!)