The New 182 - It's Official!
After months of looking and several weeks of negotiations, I have officially purchased and completed the paperwork on my “new to me” Cessna 182. She’s coming home!
Finding an airplane to purchase is not an easy task. There are so many things to consider: Time on the engine and airframe, possible corrosion, damage history, equipment and avionics, maintenance records, etc. It’s a lot!
At the beginning of March, just as the COVID-19 lockdowns were getting started, I stumbled across a good one. I quickly reached out to the broker that was representing the airplane and got the details. Was is too good to be true? There must be something wrong with it. The only way to truly know was to perform a pre-buy inspection.
She is a 1974 Cessna 182P and has a relatively interesting history. Her original owner was the Detroit Police Department, where it was flown for regular patrol missions before being sold to an owner in Louisiana. After a few more years ticked by, it was purchased by a flying club in Oregon, where is was flown regularly by its club members. It was during this time that quite a few avionics upgrades were performed. It has a Garmin GTN 750 GPS system, dual NAV/COMM radios, an autopilot with GPS steering, an Avidyne traffic collision avoidance system, a strikefinder, and an engine monitoring and fuel flow system to name a few.
The interior, while having its original 70’s style carpeting on the wall panels, is covered in leather that seems to be in great condition. All plastics are in good shape and overall, the interior seems to need nothing. By the way, the 70’s-style carpeting is growing on me and the more I look at it, the more I like it. It’s “shagadelic”, baby!
During the pre-buy inspection, there were a few squawks found. Most of the items that needed to be fixed were pretty simple, except for one… and it’s a major one! The engine was inspected and was found to have a few issues, one of which was depositing metal into the oil filter. After closer inspection, all of the metal shavings were found to be in the oil filter and there was nothing in the actual oil pan. This left the mechanic to believe that it was going to be an issue with the oil pump. The decision was made to pass the aircraft for the annual inspection, with the exception of the engine. A ferry permit would be required to get the plane back home to Georgia from California.
Well, after a little negotiation with the broker and seller of the plane, I decided to pull the trigger and she is mine! Because of the current COVID-19 situation, there is no way I am going to be getting on an airline to make the flight myself, so a ferry pilot will be going out within the week to bring her home, via the way of the shop for an engine overhaul. It was a long and stressful process, but overall, it was worth it. Now, I just have to brace myself for the long 6-8 week wait for the engine to be overhauled!
I was able to find the perfect plane that matched my mission and was able to negotiate a fair price that accounted for the engine overhaul. Stay tuned for more updates!
