KFS1998 wrote:The “Black one” on trade a plane is an A model with a STOL kit that was installed under the STC, which is incorrect as the STC is only for the B models as already explained on another forum.
Interestingly enough, that airplane ( with its previous tail number ) comes up on one of our forums on here prior to the STOL kit install. The “gossip” says that for years it had an incorrect airworthiness certificate showing it was a B model when the serial number clearly shows its an A model by production line.
I looked at it and when i saw this mistake, i immediately walked away.
This post is a “slight” diversion from the actual topic...but is offered as an “airplane-purchasing-hint”.... Tail numbers should not be relied upon as “fact” when researching airplanes. Tail numbers (registration numbers)
change. They change for various reasons: Aircraft is destroyed or DE-registered and the number is re-assigned. Or,... the number is a “personalized” or “special” number having particular significance for a previous owner, so as the aircraft is sold ...or re-painted.... or the data- tag switched (illegally in most cases)... the registration number moves to a different airframe.
Research based upon the Registration or “N-number” can be very misleading.
Example: I once offered my 1962 A-55 Baron for sale and received a call from a potential purchaser in Seattle who expressed sincere interest.
We exchanged information to the point he was sending “Earnest Money” via over-night-express.
The next day he emailed me, “copying me in” on a letter he’d sent to his “attorney” threatening to “sue for misrepresentation and fraud” because he claimed I’d deliberately hidden the “fact” that my airplane had been horribly wrecked in an accident and must be a “data-tag-rebuild”. He was also notifying his FAA-FSDO office asking for investigation of my records.
Needless to say, I was “Pee-Oh’d” over such a drastic threat and so I entered the tail number into the NTSB database and found out that, sure enough, my N-number was totalled during an instrument approach crash. Reading thru the accident report it became evident that particular aircraft was a complete loss. You might imagine my astonishment at the idiocy of a threatened law-suit based upon that crash of that TWIN CESSNA
.... and sent a copy of the report...with the aircraft model HIGHLIGHTED... to the fool that threatened me.
(The registration number had been re-assigned to my Baron during a subsequent paint job as the owner at that time wished to retain the Baron’s original number.)
I hope his attorney submitted a full-invoice to him for services rendered.
I’ve told the story elsewhere in these forums where I researched the background of a Beech Travel-Air I was interested in buying... only to find that the subject airplane was a “data-tag/Registration-number-
switcheroo” .... complete with decades of “no damage history” (falsified) logbooks. Another “save” based upon dumb-luck.
N-numbers are like Paint-Jobs: They are easily changed and can be used to hide facts.
Even serial numbers (construction numbers) can be misleading if a data-tag (data plate) is switched on airframes. These can usually be discovered only by detailed investigation and complete/detailed inspections. (I once assisted in a “pre-buy” inspection of a 170 for sale in central Texas that looked like an excellent example.... until I saw that the accessories on the engine and one of the avionics did not have serial numbers matching what was purported in the logbooks. Magnetos and starter serial-number data-plates did not match those recorded as installed in the logs. (All you guys DO record “serial OFF / Serial ON” when replacing accessories.... Right?)**
(And BTW, one method of proving the ENGINE installed.... IS the ACTUAL engine recorded in logbooks...is by comparing accessory records. If you one day discover your engines’ dataplate is missing... you will need to provide confirmatory evidence when requesting a replacement dataplate from the Mfr’r . It’s less-than-convincing when the alternator doesn’t match the generator that engine claims to have, either.)
** In a related matter, if you don’t have a LIST by SERIAL NUMBER of each of your accessories and Avionics and other installed-equipment... then you can be seriously disadvantaged if a theft should occur. Get those serials recorded, ASAP. Your “Equipment List” is a good place to record avionics serials.
Caveat emptor.
