An Honest Man

[Kyle Boatright]

This is tangentially RV related.

A forum member found a suitable used engine for sale on Barnstormers and wanted someone local to take a look at it, since the prospective buyer was a long way away. I volunteered to do a basic inspection and worked out the timing and logistics with the prospective buyer and seller.

I spoke with the seller on the phone and explained that I wanted to pull the plugs to eyeball the cylinder walls for corrosion, and also that I wanted to pull the valve covers to see how the valvetrain looked. In addition, I planned to give the engine a once over for conformity - are all the parts there, are they in decent shape, etc.. I was supposed to meet the seller at his hangar late this afternoon.

Early this afternoon, the seller called and cancelled the inspection. He'd pulled the plugs in anticipation of the inspection and found (apparently) a surprisingly amount of rust in the cylinders. He indicated that that wasn't how he'd advertised the engine and he didn't feel right about trying to sell it that way. From his tone during the call, I could tell that he was upset, given that he'd just discovered that the value of his engine was half of what he thought it was worth.

Anyway, I was truly impressed that he was an honest and fair gentleman who didn't try and pass his problem off to someone else and who was a big enough man to put the brakes on the deal.

You have to respect that.

[Clarkie]

Absolutely. Good on him.

[tkatc]

We are often surprised by such behavior when I think we all agree it should be the standard. In either case, respect is warranted here. Fortunately everyone I've dealt with in the aviation world has been trustworthy. I hope that trend continues!

[Don Patrick]

Kyle,

Thank you very much for taking the time for me to look into the engine. I was pretty hopeful that it was going to be a pretty decent engine.

As Kyle said, the gentleman found issues with the engine, notified Kyle and I of what he had found and advised that he couldn't sell the engine in that state and was going to part it out.

I'm a little disappointed for both the seller and myself, as I'm sure he was looking forward to the sale and I of course, looking forward to a good engine.

Very fortunate to have people like him in the industry, and good folks like Kyle, who go out of their way to help others. Much much thanks!!!

Cheers,

Don