new member and maybe new EZ owner

[Manumilian]

Hello to all!

I'm a new member of this community, my name is Maximilian and I'm writing from Trieste in Italy.

I have found a nice Long EZ with O290 at really good price, so I'm very tempted to go forward with the buy. 

I have some doubt anyway, I don't have so many flight hours and so the question is: would be really the right choice? I ever flight with usual airplane like Cessna and Piper.

I would be nice to have also some proper training, but here is quite difficult, since is not a common airplane.

Is there any Italian or European member in this community to discuss about it?

But of course any suggestion is welcome from everyone.

Thanks!

Max

 

 

 

[Marc Zeitlin]

7 hours ago, Manumilian said:

I have found a nice Long EZ with O290 at really good price, so I'm very tempted to go forward with the buy.

How do you know it's a "nice" Long-EZ, and that whatever the condition is, the price is "really good"? I've inspected planes that looked decent, but I wouldn't fly them if they were given to me for free.

Unless you get a Pre-Buy examination performed by a qualified examiner (and that's hard enough to find in the USA, much less Italy - I get that that's an issue) I wouldn't purchase ANY airplane, TC'd or not, and especially not a plans built aircraft.

[Manumilian]

1 hour ago, Marc Zeitlin said:

How do you know it's a "nice" Long-EZ, and that whatever the condition is, the price is "really good"? I've inspected planes that looked decent, but I wouldn't fly them if they were given to me for free.

Unless you get a Pre-Buy examination performed by a qualified examiner (and that's hard enough to find in the USA, much less Italy - I get that that's an issue) I wouldn't purchase ANY airplane, TC'd or not, and especially not a plans built aircraft.

Good points! Of course it's needed an accurate inspection. I'm an airspace engineer but I have to be honest, I worked for over 20 years with heavy size engines, so probably not so more skilled with aircraft structures.. But I have a good friend, pilot and engineer too, that is a good resource to evaluate a plane, since he has projected and manufactured planes in the past. About the price we are talking about 35k € with overhauled engine. 

[Marc Zeitlin]

6 hours ago, Manumilian said:

But I have a good friend, pilot and engineer too, that is a good resource to evaluate a plane, since he has projected and manufactured planes in the past. About the price we are talking about 35k € with overhauled engine. 

Being a pilot and engineer (both of which I am, as well) means nothing if he's not familiar with Rutan Derivative composite aircraft. The chances are good that even if he knows nothing about these planes other than being able to evaluate the engine installation, the plane will be OK, but out of the 50 Pre-Buy examinations I've done, 9 or 10 did not result in a purchase. So, having an 80% success rate is not something I'm ever interested in, in a safety critical environment.

So my comment about the cost stands - if it needs 20K € to fix issues, it looks a lot less like a great deal.

Is your friend a composite aircraft mechanic? If so, that might help. And if he's built experimental planes (not certificated ones), that could also help. But there's nothing like having an expert in the particular type you're looking at. Does your friend know where the universal joints are near the ailerons? Does he know that there ARE universal joints near the ailerons? Does he know how much play is acceptable in the roll system? Does he know where the aileron hard stops are? Does he know when the landing brake is adjusted correctly? Or what the weight/CG should be? I could list about 360 of these questions, because that's about how many lines there are in my Pre-Buy checklist. I wish I could tell you it was simple, and/or point you to a knowledgeable person. But I can't do either.

So, you're likely to be right, that it's a nice plane and a good price. But...