Impact of accident 27 years ago

[Thedude]

This plane had an accident with substantial damage in 97 but appears to have been in use since then (sold for dirt cheap there but that seems to be due to an overhaul needed and a different market than we have now). Is an accident like this from 27 years ago something to be concerned about?

[wombat]

There are at least three ways to interpret 'something to be concerned about'.    

 

#1 is if you will have any additional risk in this plane compared to one that didn't have this damage.

#2 is possible additional maintenance costs.

#3 is the resale value. 

For #1 I think the answer is effectively 'no'.       With any plane that is 45 years old, there could be unknown wear, stress, or damage.    This one has had some known damage and while we know that pretty much everything got badly stressed on that day in '97, there was probably extensive inspection after that for anything that might be a safety of flight risk.

For #2 I think the answer is 'very low, almost zero'.      There were probably a lot of rivets and skins that got stretched a little more than normal that day.    Some parts might wear out sooner. 

For #3 I think the answer is 'no' because it's baked into the price you pay.   Some people only want planes with any damage unrecorded, they will just ignore any plane where damage history has been recorded.   So your pool of potential buyers is smaller.    But the current seller's pool is smaller too and you are able to take advantage of the same discount.    Personally I think it's fine, and my Mooney has previous damage history.

[Thedude]

That's a good way to look at it, thanks for the advice!

[1980Mooney]

2 hours ago, Thedude said:

That's a good way to look at it, thanks for the advice!

There is also another way to look at #1 that should give you comfort.  It has undergone 27 Annuals since the accident. Many different A&P's and IA's have looked at the plane and had their hands on it. - 10? more?    It is not just one person's opinion pencil whipping the logs.  If any one of them saw evidence of poor work or failing repair or thought the repair was substandard, it would likely have surfaced by now.

[Shadrach]

On 7/29/2024 at 12:05 PM, wombat said:

There are at least three ways to interpret 'something to be concerned about'.    

 

#1 is if you will have any additional risk in this plane compared to one that didn't have this damage.

#2 is possible additional maintenance costs.

#3 is the resale value. 

For #1 I think the answer is effectively 'no'.       With any plane that is 45 years old, there could be unknown wear, stress, or damage.    This one has had some known damage and while we know that pretty much everything got badly stressed on that day in '97, there was probably extensive inspection after that for anything that might be a safety of flight risk.

For #2 I think the answer is 'very low, almost zero'.      There were probably a lot of rivets and skins that got stretched a little more than normal that day.    Some parts might wear out sooner. 

For #3 I think the answer is 'no' because it's baked into the price you pay.   Some people only want planes with any damage unrecorded, they will just ignore any plane where damage history has been recorded.   So your pool of potential buyers is smaller.    But the current seller's pool is smaller too and you are able to take advantage of the same discount.    Personally I think it's fine, and my Mooney has previous damage history.

 This^^^^

I would add that damage history in the logs and damage history in reality are not the same thing on a 45 year old airplane.  In my opinion GA was a lot more cavalier pre Y2K...the further back, the more cavalier. Things happened and things were repaired, some of it logged and some of it not.  There weren't high def cameras in everyone's hands and on buildings until fairly recently. The "Range" is under full time surveillance now and cowboys get caught..

[A64Pilot]

As an IA I tell people that the majority of the time that damage that’s in the book is not usually a big deal.

It’s damage that isn’t in the book that you need to be concerned with, often you can find it by oversized rivets etc., but the fact it’s not recorded sometimes means that it wasn’t properly repaired.

Some damage like a prop strike for example may even mean your better off as most wear items in an engine are replaced in a prop strike inspection, (usually)