I’ve been keeping an eye on the Wassmer WA40 for a few years, as a 180hp retractable (manual), constant speed, 4/5 seat 130kt tourer with a spacious cabin. Tube fuselage, wooden wings, fabric covered. In France they’re orphans under a restricted certificate of airworthiness, but I don’t know about Germany.
This one just appeared on planecheck (planecheck_D_EJAE_47061_pdf
from Dimme’s plane2pdf). The paintwork and interior look very good, but the annual expired last year, and it hasn’t flown for two years. It doesn’t seem to have flown much before then.
My interest is largely academic, as the likelihood of me doing anything about it is <3%.
Is this a bargain?
I don’t know how much work the engine would need having been sat on the ground for two years, and it needs an 8.33 kHz radio. They don’t come up for sale very often, but according to Info-Pilote they’re worth up to about 40,000.
How does one move a plane without an annual? Do you need a new annual done at that location? Or a specific permit to fly to move the aircraft? Or a trailer?
For a wood/fabric wing you NEED an inspection by someone familiar with wood and fabric. How old is the fabric? Is it cotton or a modern artificial fabric? Is the glue casein or modern? There are problems with modern glue on a previous casein join unless proper procedure is followed. Has it EVER been kept outside?
Today an inspection is easier with a long endoscope.
Any “smell” from the wooden wingspar is a NO.
We had a Jodel DR1050 wing wood repair and fabric recover in 2017. £7000.
Wood and fabric has repair advantages over other construction techniques. But hangarage is essential. A Jodel had a wingspar break in flight in Canada. It had been kept outside near Vancouver. The wingspar looked OK from outside at the break, but had rotted from the inside.
Our Jodel was built from 2 crashed Jodels 40+ years ago. The mainspar was found to have been broken, but properly repaired, when the fabric was stripped. We’d flown her for 17 years before needing to recover.
The engine I can’t comment on. Was it inhibited properly?
I’m only familiar with small Continentals. Your engine would cost a lot to replace.
Moving across a border may be a problem. A person qualified to do an annual inspection can give an authorisation for a flight within an Authority.
It’s a very nice aircraft, but as @Maoraigh says, it depends a lot on the actual condition. You will need a good inspection, and expect to spend some money to maintain it (unless you can do some of that yourself).
WA40 family are indeed very nice aircraft, fly very nice, reasonably fast, indeed 5 seater. They are very comfortable (wide) compared to typical spam can.
Seems to be gone from plane check… someone did a very quick buy?
Not me. Maybe I shouldn’t have drawn attention to it…
There’s a nice looking CE43 (the metal IO-540 version) on planecheck (pdf)