@Fernando sorry to hear about this, I must confess I am a pre-buy skeptic, at least this side of the Atlantic. In the USA the pre-buy process is more like an annual with the seller agreeing to remedy findings, there may be a reasonableness standard, and also if a major defect is found the aircraft might be withdrawn from sale. Over here a typical pre-buy seems more like a 50 hour and normally costs a fraction of what you paid, with the seller under no obligation to carry out rectifications on findings.
I do think the shop that carried out your pre-buy should be named to afford other users a caveat emptor.
RobertL18C wrote:
I do think the shop that carried out your pre-buy should be named to afford other users a caveat emptor.
I will do so as soon as the dispute case is closed. I can’t disclose many of the details just yet.
This type of erosion is a known issue and, if not taken care of, will expose the glass fibre. The erosion was so bad that a fix had to be designed by Cirrus in the US.
My plane has now been grounded for nearly three months. Together with the annual, we spent over £25,000.
That is a scandal, not just for the prebuy company but for the type. Erosion? WTF. This is defective material. Could be just badly made or badly applied gelcoat, or worse. It’s happened before, with Diamond gelcoat getting “bubbles”. Was the prebuy company a dealer for the type?
I sense this is yet another thread where something concerning the said type is mentioned and the poster gets beaten up by other owners of the same type, and then it turns out the story was true, someone had photographic evidence, but the poster was not allowed to post the photo because the photo owner was maintaining a relationship with a dealer for the type 
The thread was a type-specific one on ownership costs…
This problem is widespread when it comes to anything fairly new – because most owners are either under warranty or use a particular type specific dealer for maintenance, and in either case are working hard to support that relationship. This is especially big in the Cirrus and Diamond sphere. Bad news gets suppressed. I was a victim of that too, with a new TB20GT, year 2002, with a warranty bill of about £100k (yes you have read that right). I wasn’t getting much response on some issues so I went public, which p1sed off Socata and started the process of me getting banned from the (mainly US) owners’ group which ran an offline debate on whether to remove me. Of course Socata is dead for SEPs now but I bet you it is just the same for the TBM, absolutely exactly the same.
Yeah – you have to keep a low profile until it is sorted out. Afterwards you can post it, like this great guy 
On the topic, ownership is totally worth it and I am grateful every time I fly There is no free lunch.
“Fernando 16-Aug-23 08:35 180
@yeager, regarding the pre-buy, I can’t discuss many of the details at this stage because this matter is with my lawyer, but I will update you once there’s an outcome. The plane was already at their facility when I purchased it, so there were no travel costs associated”
Understandably, no worries. Good on you for putting a lawyer on that whole thing. Sounds very, very suspicious! Good luck!
Peter wrote:
On the topic, ownership is totally worth it and I am grateful every time I fly There is no free lunch.
When I get back in the air, I look forward to you payment me lunch when I visit Shoreham :)
Yeager wrote:
Good luck!
Many thanks! I’ll fight this one very hard.
RobertL18C wrote:
I do think the shop that carried out your pre-buy should be named to afford other users a caveat emptor.
100% agree. Like Fernando says, we´ll have to await legal proceedings. But yeah, what a bastard maintenance shop! Name & Shame is obviously in place!
If it is the shop I am thinking of, they are prob90 reading this and prob100 one of their customers is and will point them to it and they will watch it for any identification, and threaten legal action if they see it.
But to get back to the topic Q, ownership is still worth it You can just jump in and fly…
I am just very sorry that you got apparently shafted, Fernando. You aren’t the only one by a long way; I know a guy who got a similar size bill to sort out his newly purchased plane and he is far from the only one. I think I got away with it – knowing almost nothing – by purchasing a brand new plane with a warranty. I thus normally recommend newcomers to ownership to buy something fairly new. Plenty of stories early on in this thread.
I look forward to you payment me lunch when I visit Shoreham
I always provide food for visitors
Peter wrote:
Peter16-Aug-23 10:49187
If it is the shop I am thinking of, they are prob90 reading this and prob100 one of their customers is and will point them to it and they will watch it for any identification, and threaten legal action if they see it.
So Private Mails will keep this clown shop at distance, as long as it´s not public (UFN)?
I must say that so far I’m very happy with the maintenance company who took care of the plane after the erosion diagnosis.
It’s with the company who did the pre buy that I’m concerned with.
Fernando wrote:
It’s with the company who did the pre buy that I’m concerned with.
Obviously! At least you´re with someone you´re comfortable with now (so far). I believe there´s a lot of honest and good mxx shops out there – it´s the few rotten apples that puts a bad reputation on the industry (unfortunately, you picked one of those rotten ones! Sorry!).
