Pilot – June 2018

78 | Pilot June 2018 | pilotweb.aero

means that it’s perhaps even

more important to make the right

choices now and invest in an

aircraft that will hold its value in

years to come.

As a general guide, we have

outlined some of the key

considerations using the advice

given by our experts.

z Plan your usage. What will

you use the aircraft for, and

where would you like to go? This

is something that Brian Kane

insists upon, often sitting with

prospective buyers for hours to

help them decide what they want

the aircraft for. David Morris

also advises customers not to

run before they can walk. “We

resist selling complex, difficult to

fly machines to low-time pilots.

Regularly we have sold a 172 to

a pilot convinced they needed a

high performance machine, and

they thank us for it.”

z Set a budget for both the

purchase of the aircraft and the

running costs thereafter. Plan

where you will keep the aircraft

and the costs associated with

that. David adds that “there is

no cheap way of defying gravity

and whilst the asset values of

an aircraft don’t go down like

a car, the cost of keeping the

machine in the air can bring

surprises.”

z Do your research. Are there

any common problems that

your choice of aircraft can

suffer from? Many of the

second-hand aircraft on the

market will have high hours.

They may be overdue for a

re-cover, sorting out hidden

corrosion, wear and fatigue,

and/or engine overhaul,

yet still pass their annual

inspection and fly well. The

price usually reflects this.

Advertising Feature

Case study:

Nick Bloom’s Stampe

Past Pilot Editor Nick Bloom’s Stampe was

‘a battered, oily old thing and expensive to

operate from the start,’ he writes, but after

a rebuild, he did eventually meet his goal

of winning the Intermediate Nationals in

it. ‘The maintenance bills kept mounting

and I couldn’t justify paying them alone,

but thought it might be fun to operate the

Stampe as a group aeroplane. I advertised

and soon sold three shares, keeping a

quarter of the aeroplane.

‘You might wonder why maintenance was

so costly. The Stampe was designed as a

military trainer on the assumption that there

would be lots of spares and labour on hand to

keep it going. The recommended procedure

was to remove the fabric every few years and

the 1940s Renault engine was really only

good for 300 hours (at most) before re-lining

the main bearings with all the other work that

would entail. There are at least a hundred

metal fittings that wear constantly in flight

and when taxying, and they were not very well

protected against corrosion – paint can only do

so much. Finally, decades and many thousands

of hours of operation have accumulated a lot

of labour-intensive Airworthiness Directives,

such as regular checks on the state of the

cabane mounting bolts.

‘Despite my working alongside the

licensed engineer [who looked after the

group-owned Stampe], maintenance was

averaging one-third the value of the aircraft

(ie around £12,000 a year)...

‘I eventually persuaded the others to buy me

out, and things continued fairly happily until

an elongated bolt hole was thought by our

engineer to possibly be a symptom of a split

longeron. (He had found that to be the case in

another Stampe.) He and I spent a month de-

rigging the aeroplane and removing the floor to

inspect the (not split, as it turned out) longeron,

then fitting a new floor, re-covering, re-painting

and re-rigging. (I charged a nominal fee to the

others for my time.) When the engineer’s bill

came in, the owners decided that they had had

enough and asked me to sell the Stampe for

them. Their Stampe (as it was by now) sold

eventually, but for two-thirds its worth –

the market was depressed that year and

knowledgeable people said the engine was

bound to need work soon.

‘I worked it out subsequently and the three

members who had bought into my Stampe

ended up paying (including the fixed and

running costs) a quarter to a third more than

it would have cost them to hire one with an

instructor for the same number of hours. By

the time we had finished, they had all soloed

and learned enough aerobatics to fly in a

beginner’s aerobatics competition. So they

hadn’t done too badly.’

Nick’s lovely ‘plums and custard’ Stampe in the early days when he was sole owner

The Europa is a popular and efficient homebuilt

PHOTO: PHILIP WHITEMAN

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE LAA