Is there a way to determine the number take-offs and landings on a prospective-to-buy used aircraft?

Answer 1

Logbooks are the only way, if your looking at a pressurized cabin aircraft, you can look at cycles but that will only tell you how many times the cabin has been pressurized, any touch and go's would still only count as one cycle I believe... Help me out mantinance guys...

Answer 2

Well if this is an aircraft with specific limits on systems the logs will show "Cycles" (turbine aircraft, jets, etc have these as a limited item) In many cases this is pressurization cycles. As stated above if this is a smaller aircraft those usually don't show cycles nor have the limits.
There are many other items that affect the value of a used aircraft much more than cycles. Like time in service, engine times, maintenance issues, damage history, avionics, AD compliance, Service Bulletin status, the list is actually around 250 items. So my best advice is get an AI to perform a pre-purchase inspection and get an appraiser to give you an actual value of the aircraft in question. (Both are cheap insurance.)

Answer 3

If it's just a general aviation aircraft, there is no sure way, other than checking the logbooks of those that flew it before. Corporate aircraft, look for the amount of "cycles".

Answer 4

Tim's right. For our piston-driven machines, try to find out what the plane was used for. In the case of a C-150, was it used as a trainer or just someone's personal toy.

Answer 5

look at the log books for the people who flew it and count them