If you’re shopping for an aircraft, there’s no doubt that you’ve come across one or two with some form of damage. These can be as benign as accidentally pushing a plan into the back end of a hanger and causing minor rippling of the elevator skin to full-fledged gear up landings that resulted in a prop strike and other substantial damage to the other side of the aircraft.

Following the event that caused the damage, repairs usually begin. Of course, the shop you choose to repair this damage is extremely important. You have to examine their experience, whether or not they fixed this type of damage before. It’s important to ask the questions: Do they know how to work on this particular type of aircraft? What kind of documentation will they provide? These and other questions must satisfactorily answered before committing to one shop of the other.

Not all aircraft repair shops are created equal. Some shops do fantastic work and some shops don’t live up to expectations. Some provide extensive documentation and others minimize their write ups just to cover the basics. As an aircraft owner, and future aircraft seller, how the aircraft log book write-up is made should be as important as the actual completed work. It’s important to ask for complete and thorough documentation to avoid questions as to how the repair was preformed!

So, how do you look at repair log as a buyer? It’s natural for aircraft buyers to be a little bit gun shy – because of this, it can be easy to look at the repair documentation in the wrong light. Some may assume because the entry is short, the damage was only minor. IN the same sense, extensive documentation would me more substantial damage. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, if the write up is short and lacks detail – it could be a sign that the shop is trying to hide the extent of the damage. If the write up is long and detailed, its often a good sign that the repairs were made at a reputable shop with nothing to hide.

So, if you’re looking at an aircraft that has prior damage history – it’s all in the quality of repair performed! Make sure you read the documentation carefully, call the shop responsible for the repairs and ask as many questions as you’d like and definitely make sure your pre-purchase inspection mechanic is aware of the damage and studies up on the repair log. At Norfolk Aviation, we pride ourselves on our detail oriented, full time sales team. We’ll help you make sure you have the most accurate information on the aircraft you’re looking to purchase! Contact us today so we can help you find your perfect aircraft!