I owned this aircraft for around 25 years. The useful load was around 2200# when I sold it a decade ago.

That is a VERY nice looking airplane, Ryan. As a fellow Houston aviator, I wish you the best in trying to sell it. And having sold 3 airplanes myself in the last few years, I know that it can be frustrating…

I had a B777 captain under contract for my Cirrus and he was flipping out over the prebuy (which was super clean); he wound up calling Continental and said “if X is going on with the engine, is it airworthy?” To which they replied “X??? No, not if it has X.” But of course, the engine didn’t have X as a problem … it never did. It was bizarre and he backed out an hour before his deposit became non-refundable after screwing with me for 3 weeks.

And I was working with a broker too … but then the local Aerista guy came in and he found a buyer and I closed within 72 hours with that guy for a slightly higher price! *boom* So it’s as much about being able to screen buyers. If fact, the guy who bought it put it back on the market about 6 months ago and made a lot of money - he sold it fast too, because it was (and is) a super clean bird. Anyway, it’s a frustrating process but not everyone who passes on the plane or decides they want something else is a problem. What is a problem, and I know it happened to me, is that after a few of the bad apples run you around, you start painting everyone with the same brush.

Anyway, good luck to all involved - in selling this airplane and in finding whatever you are looking for on the buy side!

Cheers

Ryan,

IMO you have received all of the indicators that you should keep your airplane.. for now

John

One thing is for sure, the piston twin market must be fine if a 50 year old airplane lists for $550k and has multiple buyers looking at it.

It looks like a nice plane, but the devil is always in the details. The useful load is a nonstarter? If they screwed that up what else is wrong?

Airplanes are expensive purchases, and the cost to fix up a poor condition airplane can easily exceed the purchase cost. Test flying and / or inspecting an airplane is very time consuming and expensive. That is naturally going to lead to tension between buyers and sellers

Most people are reasonable. Sometimes there are simply miscommunications where buyer and seller had different ideas of what that had agreed to (before any contract is signed). Of course sometimes people are unreasonable.

The only issues I've had buying planes were when I think there was a legitimate misunderstanding about what what we have verbally agreed to. That doesn't make it any less annoying for the party that thinks they have been treated poorly.

You're a liar Mark Wyant. I text you Monday to confirm plans for Tuesday and said:

"Hi Mark. I do not have a 2pm so free until 3:15-3:30 tomorrow. Do you know what your plans are yet?
Ryan Alcorn
N727ES"

And no reply. You called me and let it ring once on Tuesday at 11:50am from an unsaved number (214)xxx and I missed the call. I called back immediately and I said "I missed a call", and you said "must have been a wrong number", I said "I have a plane for sale maybe that was it", and you said "no nope not me". You lie. And here you are lying again, you never called "later that evening" as you said above. It was later Tuesday afternoon around 2pm that I determined it was your number when looking through my phone to text you again about us meeting that day and saw that that was your number and you who acted like you had no clue who I could be when I called. I text:

"Mark you called earlier and when I called back said you didn’t mean to call me. I now see your email and see that this is your cell. Are you able to discuss N727ES? The plan was for you to look at the plane today and I have made myself available to do so. If that is not going to be necessary please advise so I can make other arrangements."

And no reply. It was at 10pm Tuesday night I told you to go piss up a rope, and #### ###. That's when I had had enough and made the original post here(which I have asked yesterday to delete to two mods and within this thread). Friday or over the weekend we spoke for what 30 minutes? An hour or more? You said in that call you are very interested and this coming Tuesday works best. I told you how much %#$@ I had going on but I would change it all for you and I did. Then you denied you knew at all who I was in the call. You didn't say anything about calling me back later that night, you said you didn't know anything about a plane or who I am. Show the screen shot if you want guy.

I didn't tell you off until Tuesday at 10pm and you had never called as you lie in this thread you would.

Man this is exhausting. I haven't caught up on this thread. In all honesty I figured I would have had more support from the members here because they likely had sold planes and dealt with this madness before. I just wanted a little encouragement to get past it. Just landed in Orlando and I got another crazy email from a "buyer". Another looney tunes trying to lowball and claiming to be a serious buyer because he called my shop...

Its $81,350 an engine at RAM. New hoses $2500/ea. If you wanted new Alternators $4000/ea. Its $185K installed. My plane with the A+ full panel, low hours, great logs, NDH, maintenance $ spent, paint, interior, high useful load, long range fuel, is a very good deal with new engines at $750K. It would be likely one of the finest 421C's out there. And all it needs to be that are engines. Compare it to the one almost sold and listed for $950K. Or to Jim's that just sold for $695K, or to 421L that just sold. And you could fly it for a couple years or more likely now. Engines are running great.

I would be EXTREMELY suspicious of this weighing.

I bet there is an error somewhere. For example, they weighed it with fuel on board and subtracted more than the fuel actually was.

It is common to find W&B errors. I once saw a 310 listed as having an empty weight listed of ~1600 lbs and a useful load of ~3700 lbs. Yup, the shop had transposed empty and useful. The sad part is that *three* different shops subsequent to the error had updated the W&B and didn't catch the error!

Mike C.

duplicate post

The one member that seemed to support me pulled his card. Oof. I thought you understood what its like.

Hey Joel, I really appreciate this post and advice. Yeah after Wyant I felt like getting a really wide brush, but appreciate your warning.

That's it. It's a beautiful plane. I've loved fixing it up and proud of what it's become. Learned a lot about maintenance shops and that it's best to go to the best first. That was an expensive lesson. Air Impressions fixed all the squawks I've had. The owner two before me did a really nice job of fixing it up too. He flew it something like over 400 hours a year he said. The guy before I think had a year and flew it 150 hours. Even having it down for a long annual, interior upgrade, paint refurb, and full panel upgrade I have close to ~100 hours in 11 months. Wish it fit my mission I'd love to keep it and put new motors on no one else had touched but me. I have a place in Jackson, WY so its 1100nm and too long a trip for me in the 421C.

Hire a broker

Ryan perhaps you should look back at your posts with hopefully a clear mind, and then moderate your future posts.

It does you no credit calling a fellow BT member a liar, even if you believe that to be the case. Sometimes there are just simple misunderstandings, and each party can be convinced that their position is the correct one.

I know nothing about the laws of defamation in the States but you probably crossed the line here in Australia.

The purchase of a plane is a major investment for almost all buyers, whether it’s a Cherokee 140 or a Gulfstream. For some people the plane they choose to buy is financially trivial, but I am sure they are few and far between. All people are different and it’s hardly surprising that some of those differences are magnified when considering a substantial investment.