Anyone here owns or operated this aircraft before, and what should I look out for ? Maintenance wise ? Year: 1974 Make: Dassault-Breguet Model: Falcon 10 Airframe Time: 11,799.7 Engine Time: 16392.6/13469.5 Time Since Overhaul: 10362/8025 Equipment: Engines: Twin Honeywell TFE 731-2-1C Jet Turbo-Fan NAV/COMM: GPS/TAWS B Garmin GDL 69 Garmin 530A WASS Skywatch 899 VIP traffic System Avidyne FlightMax EX500T Transponders Garmin GTX 330 Autopilot Collins AP-105 ADF (2) Collins ADF-206 DME (2) Collins DME-40 Standby Altimeter Aero sonic 2 Stby. Alt.
I used to enjoy flying the Falcon 10-- nice little airplane. This particular one? I don't know what you are planning to do with it, but as long as you don't want to fly it, I suppose it would be okay... These airplanes have a lot of calendar maintenance, including a very expensive landing gear overhaul. I'd certainly check into when that was done, if this airplane even has logs-- given that it was seized by the government. I also assume the engines are not on MSP... If by some miracle the MSP is paid up, that would be very helpful. Bottom line is that you could easily end up spending 2x the purchase price just to make it airworthy-- or, I suppose you could be lucky and fly it away, and only spend a bunch of money on it later. Whatever you do, if you are at all serious, have an experienced Falcon mechanic do a thorough prebuy and log research.
Hi, I was thinking of converting it into an Air Ambulance to be used in Asia. As to ferry patients from Neigbhouring Singapore to our our 1st class medical care. Also, you are right on it being a seized plane.
Not the right airplane for that mission. You need a Lear 35 or 36, ideally with the stretcher included. Make sure to get one with a big door, although in Asia you might be able to get away with the narrow door. A 31A would also probably work well, but it sounds like you want to keep your capital costs to a minimum. The 31A is a great choice if fuel is expensive, but of course you are paying more up front to get it. If you really have your heart set on a Falcon 10 (and look into whether you can get a LifePort STC for it), buy the best one you can find, ideally from someone who could afford to maintain it properly. These old jets tend to follow a life cycle. An owner who can afford it sells it, usually after a fresh inspection, to someone who figures they can fly it for a year or so and not do anything to it, then they sell it to a scrapper or a smuggler. This one looks like it's already gone past the scrapper/smuggler stage. For those playing along at home, this is the airplane in question: 1974 DASSAULT FALCON 10 Jet Aircraft For Sale At Controller.com
Very useful information. I am trying to be very careful on spending as the market is not matured in Singapore as yet and worst scenario , I would charter it out to some corporations. I would prob all lose out as most want newer planes . When you had this plane. Did you fly it or was it used for your Travels ?
@donv - why does this aircraft have <12K> hours on the airframe and <16 & 13K> hours on the engines? Thats a lottta time waiting for TO clearance? ;-)
I used to fly two of them-- and I flew a Lear 35 for the same company. We did mostly charter with them, although the owners used them some as well. I know one of the ones I used to fly has been melted down (a friend of mine delivered it to the scrapper), and I've lost track of the other, but wouldn't be surprised if it's gone as well. The one which was scrapped needed way more in inspections due than it was worth-- and this was several years ago, when it was probably worth around $800k. I think the estimate was around $1 million to make it airworthy again. And that was a well kept-up airplane! Just like Ferraris, the less you spend to buy it, the more expensive it is. Either the engines were removed and replaced with other ones, which is not uncommon, or the logbooks for the engines aren't right... or something else fishy. Seized airplanes usually don't have the best records. Mixing and matching engines is not unusual. If that airplane went to a dealer at some point in the past and had fully paid up MSP, for instance, the dealer might have pulled the good engines, sold them, and put on whatever old runout engines he had laying around. In fact, I'd guess that is what happened. It is also possible that the engines are rentals, and buying the airplane doesn't get you the engines at all. I'd certainly want to investigate that possibility! The engines could also have separate mechanic's liens on them, so even if you theoretically buy them, you might not actually be getting clean title. This airplane is probably headed for the smelter, sadly.
This thread is an eye opener. I'm glad that I just putted around in something that actually went putt putt and that you could fix it with a wrench and a screw driver and you worked on the engine that actually came with the airplane.
