Buying DA40 used in Flight School

[DA40Kyle]

Hello all. I am planning on buying an aircraft and have decided that the DA40 is right for me. The information on this forum has been extremely helpful in learning about the different options, etc. I would like to thank all of you who post on here and I hope to be an active contributor myself soon.

I am a private pilot with 120 hours and close to instrument rating. All of my time is in Cessna 172s other than a couple of recent flights in which I did a checkout in a DA40 to try it out. (There are no DA40s for rent in my area, I had to travel out of town to rent one)

Anyway, on to my question: One of the aircraft I'm considering purchasing has been used in a flight school. Does anyone have any experience or advice with purchasing an aircraft that had been used in a flight school? If so, are there any particular problems you've run into after the purchase or anything specific that should be looked at in the pre-buy inspection?

Kyle

[DavidS]

Welcome! I'm sure you'll love the 40, they're amazing planes.

With respect to buying one out of a flight school, think about how you flew a plane when you first started. Now think about that same type of behavior spread out over many, many hours a month. Yea.

I'd get a REALLY good pre-buy (i.e., by someone who regularly services DA40s) and budget extra on repairs your first year. So long as it's been run by a reputable flight school and had maintenance kept up with at a good shop, it might be worth considering depending on what the pre-buy says. (There's another posting here from the last few months where someone was getting a pre-buy on an aircraft and asked what we thought. I think the consensus was it was too beat up.)

Now, that said, mine was bought from a private owner who commuted, and allowed it to be used for instrument training during the week. During the process I actually called up the mechanics that worked on the plane in the past, as well as the flight school it was at and asked them about their experiences with the plane and owner. In my case, the owner was very involved and took care of everything. Not only that, everyone loved to fly it. Needless to say, it worked out great for me.

The only cost I had to pay (other than hours) was a lot of elbow grease to get the interior back in shape. (It was good... but loved.)

I'd do it again.

[Kai]

I can second everything David has said. Also, in my case I bought a lease back DA40 which was used by the owner and a flight school. Typically, they use a DA40 for instrument training, so the landings should be a bit softer than the ones of a PPL student pilot.

Will they tell you that they spilled a coke, that the tail slid during take off, that some knob on the G1000 keeps falling off, that the wheel pants cracked and were fixed many times before? I doubt it and so do many other pilots. This is why these machines have a lower market value. It is just harder wear and tear and if you are lucky, you will have to deal only with a plane which has a worn interior.

On the positive side one should say that a plane suffers more from standing around than from flying it and a flight school usually takes good care of the maintenance, at least the part which is crucial for flight safety and to fulfill the legal requirements.

Take a Diamond-experienced mechanic for the pre-buy inspection who is not from the same airfield (very important). He has a better idea of what those apparently minor fixes can cost and it is less likely he has some kind of relationship with the flight school. Check if all ADs were done and how much life you have left on each of the components. A thorough pre-buy inspection should take at least a day.

I was lucky. I bought the DA40 at a low price, changed the interior, fixed a lot of minor issues and was able to sell it 7 years later for slightly higher price than what I paid for it.

[DA40Kyle]

Thanks David & Kai for the advice. I hadn't thought about calling the flight school and prior mechanics before but I'll definitely give that a try and I've already started combing through all the records.

[opinion]

Don't be afraid of a flight school airplane. With a very thorough pre-buy inspection most of the gremlins should be revealed. Perception and reality are often different. A flight school airplane is often inspected more thoroughly and more often than a private aircraft. A flight school airplane doesn't usually sit for any significant time. Lack of use causes more issues in private aircraft than regular use.

Inspect the heck out of it and move forward from there. Don't believe any previous mechanic. Inspect it for yourself.