Aviation expertise, built on experience.

Training, Consultancy, Ferry Flying and more

Sky Unlimited is a specialised aviation services company with offices in Hoogeveen and Stadtlohn. We support operators, airlines and manufacturers with senior-level expertise in regional aircraft.

PURCHASE MANAGEMENT AND PRE-PURCHASE EXAMINATION

A pre-purchase examination is far from an ARC revalidation, read why

Buying your dream aircraft is always a delicate and risky process.  Does the aircraft for sale fit your needs? Are there maintenance flaws, known or (dangerously) hidden? Does it comply with legal requirements? Most importantly: does the price reflect what you’re buying? This list is endless and to be honest, you can not exclude risk. Minimizing however is the best you can do and we’re here to assist you in this. We can manage your purchase process and include a pre-buy examination. Discover pro’s and con’s, our way of doing this, how much it will cost and  much more below.

Pre-purchase examination

A properly executed pre-purchase examination is key to answer many questions and thereby contain the ever present risk of buying and owning an aircraft. This starts with an investigation of your needs, budget and intended use of the aircraft you dream of and match this with availability on the market. Second step is finding one and then the first risk is allready presenting itself as you desperately want to acquire this particular aircraft. Pull the brake…. To avoid huge costs and a possible grounded aircraft after the purchase you will have to do an avaluation of what your buying; visually, technically as well as paperwise. A dedicated evaluation programm, fit for your purpose in combination with this candidate aircraft will be developed (the scope),  split in 3 logically developped steps: 1) paperwork evaluation, which includes history of the aircraft, modifications, repairs et cetera, 2) firewall forward evaluation and 3) the complete airframe evaluation. A detailled report will be written detailling plusses and minusses and a final conclusion including our advise on how to proceed. 

Normally this examination is outsourced to a maintenance providor and never done with the one maintaining the aircraft as they aren’t independent and (might) have a bond with the seller. Same story as who is paying, you should pay and not the seller as the one paying can demand what work to do. Together we search for an option, preferably at another airport, where a mecanic is available with experience on the type of aircraft. Seller and potential buyer have to agree on how to fly the aircraft there, but as a test-/acceptance flight is part of the program this could be well combined. We will join to see with our eyes what’s happening and avoid “forgetting” items. The 3 step process are to keep costs down, when we start with the paperwork and something is totally wrong that would be a show stopper of up to seller to rectify before we proceed. Thus it makes no sense to fly to another maintenence provider to have engine(s) and airframe evaluated. Second in line is firewall forward, by experience this is the aerea raising the most questions so this is done before the airframe.

“Seller offers a free ARC revalidation!”. STOP, RED LIGHT… This is something totally different than a pre-purchase examination, former inspects airworthiness (is the aircraft legal and safe to fly at this moment), latter deals with valuation (what is it gonna cost to keep it legal and safe to fly, now and in the future). The ARC follows legal requirements, a specified and approved programm et cetera and is performed by an authorized engineer/inspector. Fine, but airworhtiness is a situation at that moment and does not look into the future. Cracks, engines state et cetera might be (just) within limits, so the aircraft is airworthy, however the potential for failure is there but not documented as it is basically a go/no-go. The pre-purchase inspection looks far beyond, is not regulated, -mandatory or based on regulations.  Neither is there a manufacturer’s progrfamm and/or standards that need to be adhered to. It is a general picture (hence the name examination and not inspection) of the aircraft for sale which mainly focusses on technical state and presence of potential costly failures. A brake liner which is below limits will not be adressed but a hot spot on the exhaust valve on cylinder no.3 showing up by a boroscope inspection (not even part of the ARC inspection) is a potential failing valve so a disaster in the making, both from a safety- as well as from a financial view.

Secondly, wouldn’t you expect the aircraft to be bought to have a fresh ARC anyway? That’s not a gift but a necesity. `Therefor the pre-purchase examination, paid by you, is additional and might very well serve the purpose of making a better deal. In advance an agreement is made between seller and potential buyer that sets the terms and conditions for the pre-purchase examination. For example agreed price, what to do with findings, where to fly to et cetera are pre-set. Normally the outcome is split into costs related to airworthiness (to be rectified and paid for by seller) and costs not related to airworthiness (accept as is, input for further negotiations resulting in a lower salesprice or even a showstopper by potential buyer). Be clear in advance is of utmost importance here to avoid bad feelings afterwards. 

It is up to you to deal the purchase price yourself or include it as part of our pre-purchase management service. We will however at all times provide you our pre-purchase report with a conclusion, basically our advise to you. Needles to say we are the first to congratulate you with an excellent and fair deal for many years of safe and sound flying and might you wish we can continue the technical management of your new aircraft. Even so we congratulate in the worst case where you are able to accept our negative advise and end up with a broken deal and lost money. We would be glad if this first working experience together would lead to you choosing us to manage the technical side of your new acquisition, see the dedicated page for this.

Last part, we offer this service at a price of EUR 840 a day. A rough indication: for a basic single engine piston normally 1 day will be needed, single engine with retractable gear and constant speed prop 2 days, piston twin 3 days. For more complex aircraft please get in touch to get a rough estimate. VAT, travel costs, HOTAC excluded. 

Get in touch.

At your service

Sky Unlimited operates from two locations in the heart of Europe. Our offices in Hoogeveen and Stadtlohn allow us to serve clients across the Netherlands, Germany and beyond.

Hoogeveen-airport (EHHO)
the Netherlands

Lindberghstraat 4, 7903 BN Hoogeveen

hemink@skyunltd.com 06 21 21 31 85
Stadtlohn-airport (edls)
Germany

Wenningfeld 41, 48703 Stadtlohn

hemink@skyunltd.com +31 6 21 21 31 85

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