What should one look out for in pre purchase inspection and what questions to ask peculiar to the type?
Having just spent three years rebuilding one of these aircraft, (G-CGHB) i find myself well placed as to comment on what to look for on a pre-buy inspection.
These aircraft suffer with cracking on the tailplane spars, The cracks are located on the carry through section of the spar, above the tailcone. The UK CAA introduced an MPD for this subject which can be found on the CAA website.
There is a repair scheme for this cracking, but in the worst case scenario you will be looking at a tailplane change, not a huge job, but expensive.
If the fabric has not been replaced on the flying controls, it will need doing, as the Chinese used cotton and it rots.
The normal and emergency air reservoirs corrode internally, and either need to be removed or boroscoped for an internal condition check, and require a hydrostat test every 5 years, no pitting corrosion is allowed inside the bottles
The water separator on the R/H side of the engine firewall corrodes internally, and needs to be disassembled for inspection, G-CGHB's was in a shocking state. There have been cases of these exploding, and the debris piercing the oil tank.
G-CGHB, had damage on the maingear uplock brackets, the mount holes being elongated and cracked, failure of this bracket will lead to the undercarriage, being stuck in the bay on retraction, worth a look.
The Chinese electrical wiring is very poor quality, we replaced it all on G-CGHB.
The aircraft are otherwise well built, hands and feet above the yaks.
