Buying a C182 with crash history

[SA Private Pilot]

Please help...

Have found a stunning C182Q for sale but has a history.... Over ran runway 13 years ago and ended up inverted.

More recently nose wheel collapse with minor damage, but new engine and prop and have been reassured that complete (no corners cut) repair was undertaken.

2 Questions...

1. This would be my first aircraft purchase... Should I avoid an aircraft with a history as may be harder to sell later???

2. How much of impact on value will this have vs an aircraft with no crash damage history??

Many thanks

[Big Pistons Forever]

It is quite possible to repair an aircraft to as good as new, or even better than new. Damage does bring a stigma which should be reflected in the purchase price but it should be the overall condition of the aircraft that ultimately determines your decision to buy. If it is a choice between a well repaired and otherwise very tidy aircraft over a no damage history aircraft that had been maintained to the bare minimum and was rough, I would take the damaged machine everytime. The key question is the quality of the repair and for this you must get an independent assement from an engineer with experience in structural repairs. I would also like to point out that damaged firewalls is a very common issue with C182s owing to the design of the nosewheel.

[IO540]

As others say, it needs to be looked at by somebody well familiar with the type.

However, you cannot verify if the engine shock load inspection was done by a cowboy, and there are a fair few of those here in the engine rebuild scene in the UK. South Africa.. no idea. To get any idea of whether it was done properly (or at all!!!) you need to get the work pack from that job and go through it. I had a shock load inspection done in 2002 (pothole) and some things were found in 2007 (Lyco crankshaft recall) which suggested that the original firm turned a blind eye to certain things, for reasons a little too complex to explain here. They have long gone, though I got the work pack out of them before they went.

Aircraft ownership is a pretty significant learning curve, in various ways (technical learning, and also airfield-political crap) and you don't want to stack the odds against you at the outset by getting something which may give you trouble that requires a lot of work to be done, perhaps by firms less than ideally suited to do it but which have to be used because the aircraft cannot be legally flown anywhere...

I would walk away from this one.

[A and C]

This statement is usualy seen in the for sale adverts and it is very unlikely to be true when you look at the age of the fleet.

So what do you want? an aircraft with any dammage properly recorded and most likely with a good repair or one that had had the dammage coverd up, the log book entry "lost" and a quick and non approved repair done.

You must get a real expert to look at the aircraft before you buy it, that is not someone in the flying club bar who tells you that he knows about these things, you need someone who works on this type of aircraft on a regular basis.

The guy is likely to cost you a few quid but this will be cheap in the long run.

All that having been said it is unusual for an aircraft to "recover" from being inverted.................... I think I would take IO-540's advice on this one!

[Pianorak]

This statement is usualy seen in the for sale adverts and it is very unlikely to be true when you look at the age of the fleet.

But couldn't such a non-disclosure be checked out on AAIB or SA equivalent? Or am I being too naïve?