How To Find Damage History

[rockydoc]

What is the website where i can go to find out the complete damage history of an aircraft from its manufacturing date in 1961?

[Marauder]

http://www.aviationdb.com/Aviation/AircraftQuery.shtm

[DaV8or]

The only real way to find damage history is a thorough inspection by a Mooney expert. Eyes on metal and flight testing is the best way. Records are good, but ultimately it ends up being whatever it is. 1961? There is damage. The real question is, how is it now?

[rockydoc]

http://www.aviationdb.com/Aviation/AircraftQuery.shtm

Thanks for the info.  It had everything I needed.

[rockydoc]

The only real way to find damage history is a thorough inspection by a Mooney expert. Eyes on metal and flight testing is the best way. Records are good, but ultimately it ends up being whatever it is. 1961? There is damage. The real question is, how is it now?

Yeah

[Parker_Woodruff]

A detailed look at the logs and a good pre-purchase inspection is your best bet.  Hopefully everyone's been honest and logged all repairs.

[RJBrown]

People hide repairs all the time. A 231, N1171J was underwater back in the 90s when the Mississippi flooded. It was sold as salvage by Avemco. It changed hands many times. Current owner re registered it as N30EV in 2006. There is "No damage history" on this one. Buyer beware. FAA was notified of Fraud and could care less. FAA is not your friend.

[Sabremech]

I can say this website does not list all the damage history. I typed in my n-number and the gear up in 2005 is not listed. The only way to determine the airplanes status is through an inspection!

David

[Bennett]

I suggest that running a title search (via AOPA for example) will provide the names and addresses of former owners.  Then just call them, and ask about the history of the aircraft. About two weeks ago a young woman; a newly minted pilot, called me about a Cessna 120 that I owned about 5 or 6 years ago.  Without going into all the horrific details of how a "qualified" friend I loaned the airplane to managed to panic (his words) and land downwind at another airport in 35+ knots, gusting higher.  He manage to actually cartwheel the airplane down the runway (for a while), and the Cessna was "destroyed", with damage so extensive that neither the insurance carrier or I bothered to get an estimate for repair,  The insurance was on the high side for this airplane as I had totally restored the Cessna 120 to its 1946 looks, including a mirror finish polishing of all the aluminum, and it was now in "new" condition.  The carrier paid the policy limits in two days and I signed a Bill of Sale to them. They said they would sell the remains more as scrap than salvage.  The pilot walked away, essentially unharmed, as one of the few non-1946 things I did in this restoration was to add four point Hooker harnesses to the airplane.

 

Back to the phone call: The woman said she wanted to buy her first airplane, and that she learned to fly in a Cessna 120, and the airplane she saw in an advertisement (my old N number) sounded perfect for her.  She told me the seller represented the aircraft as having "no damage history", and that there was only about 250 hrs on the overhauled engine, a new prop, and recovered wings.  The Cessna, when I was the owner, only had about this same 250 hours SMOH.  The crash wrecked (no exaggeration) both wings and crushed the fuselage, as well as the vertical stabilizer. Even if a A&P super mechanic bought the salvage and spent the intervening years rebuilding it there should have been extensive log book entries, but the seller told this young woman that the log books were "lost". Funny!, I turned over the complete set of log books, dating back to 1946, to the insurance carrier.

 

I spent a fair amount of time talking to the new pilot, and after I found out where she lived, I had her contact the local EAA chapter president, who in turn put two A&P chapter members in contact with her to help guide her to a plane purchase.  She subsequently called me to say thank you, and that her new mentors were working diligently to check out a few Cessna 120s near her home field.

 

I really believe that aviation is a "community", and that helping one another, be it via this or other forums, is something we should all work towards. 

[fantom]

 

I really believe that aviation is a "community", and that helping one another, be it via this or other forums, is something we should all work towards. 

 

Amen to that....and sadly, we also seem to have more than our fair share of charlatans.

 

A fine example of why a simple web search, while easy, is not enough!