It’s almost a cliché. The buyer was in a hurry to get an airplane for his flight school. He found the model he wanted for a price that fit his budget. It was 1500 miles away. It had just come out of an annual inspection, so he bought it sight unseen, with no prebuy examination. “It’s in good shape, it just had an annual.” Eighty thousand dollars and a delivery flight later, he put the airplane on the line. It started racking up hours. When the time came for the first 100-hour inspection he scheduled it to be down for three days.
At the end of the first day the technician informed him that the engine was making major metal and it appeared that the camshaft was shot—overhaul time. Plus, the list of airframe repairs needed was extensive—the estimate for the work was $20,000.