Buying a plane, what to look for in logs

[mike_elliott]

Must be Mooney pilots are better at record keeping and backing up as opposed to Beech pilots.  I've run into more road blocks than I care to talk about trying to get copies of log books on Baron's that I'm interested in.  About 1 in 5 seem to have them accessible in digital format.  All the others expect you to peruse them on site.

Yours was on of them, Brett! It was passed on because it was too good and a bit over budget for Joe. In fact, I have adapted your spreadsheet to maintain my own plane replacement schedules. (Very nicely done!) Notice we didn't "insult" you with an offer as your plane is worth it and we knew it, just Joe couldn't afford it. There were a number of Mooney Space planes we looked at, I cant recall them all right now. Lees was one also, I remember.

If the logs were not available, we passed. In fact, the one Joe purchased the logs were not available digitally, but within 2 days of the request, the seller had the last 10 years to me by simply using his cell phone an uploading to a dropbox link I gave him for the purpose. A lot of prospects sent logs once they realized they had a legit buyer inquiring, not just someone who likes to dream.  The plane selected had 1500 hours on the engine, but unlike some advice here, time on an engine to me is not nearly as important as what kind of time that engine had, and not nearly as important as what shape the airframe is in. I have heard way too many stories of the "only 100 SMOH" engines eating cams on the way home from the prebuy. I have heard stories of new factory engines with roller cams having issues. I let the condition of the engine, airframe and the logs speak for themselves, not the raw numbers of time, which is one of the reasons I like to use Don Maxwell for this. You can check for corrosion and cam lift at a prebuy/annual, but not in the logs. Seeing names in logs like Tom Rouch's Paul Lowens, Don Maxwells, Bruce Jeager's etc. will also be an indicator of the detail of maintenance the owner was willing to take to keep the plane "right".