Addie's place on the web...

Robin DR400s with a 180 hp engine don’t come up for sale often. So, when two showed up on PlaneCheck at the same time, we dropped everything, cleared our calendars, and set off on our next road trip.

We were lucky that we could plan to visit both planes on two consecutive days. Both are in France, but there’s 300 km between them. Let’s go!

Hey BMW, get us to l’aérodrome de Lille Marcq (LFQO)

First stop took us to a nice airport just north of the city of Lille. Here we were going to have a look at F-GSBM – a 180 hp Robin DR400 build in 1997. Both the engine and propeller have run less than 200 hours since their last overhaul, meaning we will have plenty of time left to enjoy them before an investment is required.

We were welcomed by the “président de l’association” who showed us the plane. And like we did last time, Bas and Gea were all over the Robin, while I studied and photographed the documents.

Half an hour later, it was clear that we were interested in the plane – and although we agreed upfront to keep our enthusiasm under control, the seller noticed that we were getting excited. He proposed to take some of us for a short test flight and that was an offer that Bas and Gea couldn’t refuse. Smart move!

The F-GSBM isn’t the prettiest Robin on the planet anymore. It collided with a drone a few years ago damaging the wing. Although that was not a reason to keep the plane on the ground, it’s something that needs to be fixed. And then there are obvious issues with paint work – it’s clearly used a lot by many club members.

There’s a hotel literally 50 meters away from the flying club and we booked rooms for the night. And there’s a nice restaurant across the street (yup, we had to walk another 50 meters…). Dinner time was used to share our thoughts, and we agreed that this could be the one. But let’s calm down a bit, we have another one to look at tomorrow.

Next stop: l’aérodrome de Chaubuisson (LFPQ)

Our next stop was just east of Paris about 300 km south of Lille. The airport is owned and operated by the local flying club and is the reason for selling their last Robin: the club needs money to repair the runway. Here we were welcomed by a lovely lady that doesn’t speak or understand English. And since none of us speak French, we had to wait for the representative of the flying club who showed us the F-GSRL.

The F-GSRL is like a twin of the F-GSBM - same age, same type, same instruments and runtime of engine and propeller are close. However, this plane was recently refurbished. It got new paint and the interior looked great. At least, looking at the pictures, it did. When we got closer, we noticed that the quality of the work done could have been better.

And then there was a big crack in the right-hand side passenger window (which we knew already – it showed in the pictures on the website). Although it had been repaired, the crack was clearly visible. If we want to fix this, we need to replace the whole window and that will also result in a painting job. This is not going to be cheap.

While talking to the seller, it became clear that there was little margin on the asking price. The club needed every euro they could get out of the sale.

600 kilometers to go

After our visit we drove back home and since we had 600 km to go, we had plenty of time to discuss our next steps. We agreed with both sellers that we would get back to them a.s.a.p.

Initially, we didn’t agree on what to do. I was in favor of trying to buy the F-GSRL, but Bas was not impressed by the paint job and the crack in the window. For me, these were “just” topics that we could use to discuss pricing. But for Bas, these were showstoppers. He liked the F-GSBM. I was not impressed by the looks of that plane. For me it was “fine”, but not “great”. And Gea? She would be happy with either.

400 kilometers to go

In the end it boiled down to: if we want to make an offer, we need to act fast. These planes won’t stay on the market for long. We started discussing numbers. Asking price for the F-GSRL was 10,000 euro more than F-GSBM. And it would require money to replace the cracked window.

F-GSBM also requires work; the wing needs to be repaired, paint on the rudders needs attention and one of the instruments isn’t working.

We felt that we would probably not be able to convince the owners of the F-GSRL to replace the window and then sell us the plane for their asking price. But we noticed that there was room for negotiations regarding the F-GSBM.

200 kilometers to go

While the car was charging and we had a “not that great” coffee, we agreed that we would make an offer (with conditions) on the F-GSBM.

Home, sweet home

Two days, two planes, and a lot of kilometers later, we had a new challenge: convincing the club to let us buy F-GSBM. But first – sleep.

---

Want to respond to this post?

Look me up on GitHub, Facebook or LinkedIn.