Swift Aero Maintenance Ltd
Swift Aero engineer removing a cowling panel behind the propeller of a white single-engine aircraft inside the hangar
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Pre-purchase aircraft inspections

A pre-purchase inspection tells you what you're actually buying before the money moves. Swift Aero inspects general aviation aircraft for buyers at Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton, and reports what we find in writing.

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What we look at

The job is a survey, not a repair. The point is to give a buyer an accurate picture of the aeroplane and its paperwork, in time to decide whether to buy it, renegotiate on it, or walk away from it.

  • Logbooks and continuity of records for airframe, engine and propeller, and whether the history joins up
  • Compliance with airworthiness directives and the manufacturer's service bulletins
  • Airframe condition: corrosion, previous repairs and any damage history
  • Engine compression, oil analysis, filter findings and the hours left before TBO
  • Propeller condition and where it stands against its own maintenance schedule
  • Avionics: what is fitted, what works, and what is only listed on paper
  • Paperwork: registration, certificate of airworthiness, where the aircraft sits in its ARC cycle, and a current weight and balance

Gaps in the records count for as much as anything found on the aeroplane itself. A missing logbook, an undocumented repair or a service bulletin nobody can evidence is expensive to put right later, and far easier to talk about while you are still negotiating.

What a pre-purchase inspection is not

It is not an annual. The two look at some of the same things, but an annual is scheduled maintenance carried out so the aircraft can be released back into service, and an inspection for a buyer is a report. Buy the aeroplane and it will still need its annual inspection when it falls due.

It is not a valuation either. We can tell you the condition of the aircraft and exactly what was found; what that is worth in today's market, and what you are prepared to pay, stays your call. And no inspection can promise nothing will go wrong afterwards. It records what could be seen, measured and tested on the day, which is a great deal more than you get from photographs and a phone call.

If you're buying from a distance

Plenty of buyers end up looking at an aeroplane two hundred miles from home. If it flies, it can come to Sywell to be inspected. If it has been standing for a long time, or the seller would rather it stayed where it is, that needs sorting out first: the aircraft least likely to be legal to fly to you is usually the one most worth inspecting.

Getting your purchase home afterwards is a separate job. Ferry pilot services and aircraft recovery are both on our additional services list, so it is worth asking about them at the same time rather than once the sale has completed.

Send us the registration and where the aeroplane is kept, and we will tell you what we can do and what has to be arranged with the seller.

Common questions about pre-purchase inspections

The aeroplane has just had its annual. Is an inspection still worth it?

Usually, yes. An annual says the aircraft was serviceable when it was signed off. It does not tell you what the next few years are likely to cost you, and engine time remaining, corrosion, the state of the records and the avionics all sit outside that signature.

Can you inspect an aircraft based at another airfield?

Ask us. Some of it depends on the aeroplane, some on how co-operative the seller is, and some on how far the aircraft needs to be opened up. Give us the registration and the location and we will tell you honestly what is practical.

What do I get at the end of it?

A written report of what was found, with defects kept separate from observations, so you can see what needs money now and what simply needs watching. It is yours, and most buyers take it straight into the negotiation.