A word about western skymasters llc

[Jhogan0101]

Glad to hear Rick, did he include the airworthiness certificate? Still waiting on mine. He said he would mail it because he couldnt find it when i was there. I received a text message with a photo of it the day i left SLC. Nothing in the mail yet.

https://ibb.co/ZdbKhxc

[Rick Erwin]

I did have all of the required paperwork as well as manuals and logbooks at delivery.

I hope you get everything sorted out soon!

[Ed Coffman]

You get what you pay for.

[Jhogan0101]

No Ed, i DID NOT get what i paid for.

[JimC]

"i should have walked but i had a considerable amount of time and money into the prebuy [...] so i accepted his deal"

If you can't back out of a deal after a prebuy inspection, then it's not a prebuy inspection.


Here's another look at Western Skymasters: I just landed a new-to-me T337 from Ron Lillie at my home airport.

Is it the nicest plane ever? No, there is no $65,000 retractable twin that is the nicest plane ever. $65,000 retractable twins need work. Period.
Is it airworthy? Yes.
Am I satisfied? Yes.
Did something minor break on the flight home? Yes. It's a fifty year old bargain-basement airplane. S*** happens.
Will I be doing business with Ron again? Yes.


For those of you getting ready to buy your first Skymaster, here's a suggested order of items. I highly recommend not moving to the next step until the previous step is complete.

1) Go over all the paperwork you want to examine.
2) Agree on a resolution for any discrepancies found.
3) Get a mechanic to look the plane over.
4) Agree on a resolution for any discrepancies found.
5) Perform (or have a qualified pilot perform) a test flight.
6) Agree on a resolution for any discrepancies found.
7) Fix the seller-resolved discrepancies.
8) Confirm that the seller-resolved discrepancies have been fixed.
9) Close the sale.
10) Fly it home.

Don't try to do all the steps in one day. It won't end well. Buying a plane is like buying a house - it takes time.

For this Skymaster, it took me about 8 weeks from my first call to Ron to today. I found him easy to work with and I expect to do business with him again.

[flyag1]

As a new member here on this forum, let me first say I’m from the old school. My first airplane purchase goes back to 1981. Since that time I’ve bought and sold several Airplanes with one being a 337 (back in 96). In that time I’ve crossed paths with a lot of brokers /dealers. Some great and some not so much. So when it’s time to buy, my trusted broker / dealer list is very short. Will I buy from one not on the trusted list? Yes, but the terms and pre buy will be different for non trusted.

Trust is gained over time and lost in a moment. If at all, regained with great difficulty

[Jhogan0101]

Jim,
Glad you had a great experience with Western Skymasters

My skymaster is still in the shop, annual at $40k w parts so far

When i got to salt lake city, an older transponder was in the plane. Not the one in the ad. What kind of person does that? I had to argue with ron to put the one in the ad back in.

The skybolt adsb was uninstalled. He wouldnt reinstall it

The ifly gps was gone and he wouldnt put that back in.

I received the logs in a empty plastic swiffer bag, later on when i had a real mechanic look at them, he informed me many of the logs were missing or incomplete.

He sold me a plane with an unapproved jerry rigged cowl flap system (Consisted of one c172 motor) that his employed by him a&p signed off on (previous owner installed it) had to remove that system and install a entirely new

Also, he lied about damage history. The leading edge of the right wing was poorly repaired in the past. There was a one line description of it in the logs. It cost me $20K, the outside was pop riveted and inside some of the ribs were completely missing rivets. Here is the text from ron before i bought it.

“Absolutely the cleanest 67 out there. 2500 ttsn
Three owners since new hungered all its life.
1000 hr motors 350 hr props. No damage history at all plus perfect logs. My personal plane the last year
Great panel everything works.”

He talks a good game but he is full of it.

Also i later found that my prebuy mechanic that missed 99% of the problems had a prior working relationship with Ron that i did not know about going into the prebuy.

Im 39, have had my ppl for about a year now, bought My first plane 2 years ago (C150).
Ive had a lot of experiences in aviation so far and i can tell you it is one of the most corrupt industries ive ever seen.
The only good experiences ive had is talking to and befriending other owners.