So I arrived at the airport at the agreed upon time: 8:30 Am local, to meet the owner of the 340 I had been negotiating on. He was a nice guy, enthusiastic about his airplane, eager to show it to me, and very open about the good and the bad points.

We drove to the hangar, opened the doors, and there she was. a 1980 cessna 340A with the Ram conversion….325 HP engines, Vortex generators, Fowler flaps, all the things that had been on my shopping list…a real cross country machine that could also get into small strips….

We pulled it out into the sulight, and I did my exterior inspection, then the interior inspection…A nice new interior, new seat coverings, new carpet, new wall coverings, etc. The panel had a lot of nice new avionics mised with some older stuff, but it was pretty much as adverised. 750/430/A1000, a decent multifunction display with radar, etc.

We pulled it out and ran up the engines. then taxiied to the FBO and waited for the pilot to arrive….the guy selling the plane had had a heart attack and would not be able to fly this aiplane under Basic Med as it was over 6000 grosss, so he needed an experienced 340 pilot along as PIC to make the insurance company happy…while I am a licensed and certificated multi engine pilot, the insurance companies generally want people to ahve at least 50 hours in-type to act as PIC….So the extra pilot to make the insurance company happy to act as PIC

I we took off,  climbed, flew, made sure the autopilot worked, the avionics worked (tracked a VOR, and an ILS, etc). climbed high enough to see that the pressurization worked, trimmed the plane to make sure that it flew straight and level (and not sideways like one of the other 340’s I looked at did) and did a general but thorough checkout. I liked the plane…there will be some small things I will change, but for the most part it is as I want.

I The pilot landed the plane and we spent a few minutes discussing the logistics of getting it to an expert for a Pre-Buy inspection, and a few things that needed to be fixed by the owner before I bought it….like the air conditioner, which was non functional.

Details agreed upon, we called the broker and informed him of the slight changes to the details, and shook hands, and I started for Atlanta for my trip home.

THat was the best part of the day….the travel home was less than perfect.

Part three soon.