Buying or selling a private aircraft can be a tricky, complicated, and, if things go wrong, very expensive process.

And yet many new buyers believe that it must be just as easy as buying a car, RV or a boat.

Unfortunately, that is far from the truth.

Just one mistake during the exercise can literally cost a buyer or seller tens of thousands of dollars, and sometime hundreds of thousands.

Buying an aircraft is a relatively complicated transaction, and getting it done right requires a carefully selected team of knowledgeable experts, including, at the very least –
– a trusted sales or purchasing consultant who is 100% on your side,
– an experienced and certified maintenance engineer who is very familiar with the particular aircraft model in question, and
– a professional aviation escrow company that is managing the transfer of funds.

More complex and/or international transactions, may also require the expertise of additional team members, such as –
– avionics experts,
– a turbine engine specialist
– an international tax and/or financial advisor,
– an aviation financing lender,
– a customs agent,
– an aircraft ferry company,
– and so on.

Once the team is assembled, the list of required tasks can be drawn up. These typically include –
– a good amount of research into the aircraft model being considered,
– determining if that model is fit for the mission that the buyer has in mind,
– confirming the true market value of the aircraft,
– drawing up a purchase agreement that protects both buyer and seller in the transaction,
– scheduling and managing a professional pre-purchase inspection, including a thorough examination of the aircraft’s logbooks,
– verification of the financial and title status of the machine,
– and numerous other steps.

These days (October 2024), it amazes me to see totally new buyers literally stumbling into the marketplace and purchasing aircraft costing hundreds of thousand of dollars, right from a listing in an aircraft sales FaceBook group, and buying it sight unseen, with no pre-purchase inspection, and on the other side of the country or the world. And then the same buyer will show up later in the group, halfway through their transaction or soon after it, and tell everyone that “they got taken for a ride” by the seller or a ‘crooked mechanic’.

The truth is that they may not have been “taken for a ride” by anyone, they simply never took the trouble to do the research required for a typical aircraft purchase. So while such a buyer may have had the financial ability to make the purchase, they lacked the knowledge or support in order to do it right.

We in the industry see this happening time and time again. Quite often, very successful people will fall prey to this situation, thinking that if they are extremely successful in one other area of business, then buying an aircraft can’t be very difficult to accomplish. And so they charge forward into totally unfamiliar waters, and then wonder why they almost drown in the process.

Sometimes that arrogance can even get a buyer, and their loved ones, severely injured or killed, as a result of an avoidable accident that occurs not very long after the purchase of their aircraft. It happens, way more often than it should. Those of us who have been in this industry for many decades, know that aviation is a very unforgiving environment, especially for anyone with a big ego and the attitude that “they know better”.

If you are looking into purchasing an aircraft and do not have extensive experience with the procedures involved, then I urge you to find an expert who can assist you, whether that is me, or some other aircraft sales professional. Whatever their consulting fee is, I can almost guarantee you that it will be a small fraction of what it could cost you, if you go into the transaction without the proper knowledge or expertise.

When you hire me as your advisor for your aviation requirements, my goal is to draw upon my 47 years of international General Aviation experience and over 25 years of aircraft sales experience, to ensure that your mission gets accomplished in the smoothest, most efficient, and most cost-effective manner possible.

To schedule an appointment, please visit the appointment page on my website.

I look forward to assisting you.