Ease back and watch the wool.
Dihedral sells used light aircraft and light helicopters from our hangar at Parafield. Before an aeroplane goes on the floor we tape wool to its wing and fly it to the edge of the stall. This is what we watch for.
At cruise the wool lies flat and points aft. Near the stall it stands up at the root first and points forward, while the tips stay flat.
Let go and it eases forward and flies itself again. The arrow keys trim it. Tap the sky for a gust.
Why the root lets go first.
A wing like this is twisted a little along its length: the tip meets the air at a lower angle than the root. That washout makes the root stall first and keeps air over the ailerons, so the wing warns you before it lets go. On every check flight we take it to the edge of the stall and note the buffet, which wing wants to drop and how cleanly it recovers. If it doesn't behave the way its type should, it doesn't go on the floor.
At 17 degrees the root has let go. The ailerons still have air.
What's on the floor.
Every aircraft here has been flown by one of us, and its logbooks are on the bench for you to read. We say what it's good for, and what it will need next.
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Four-seat low-wing single.
Four people and their bags to the West Coast between breakfast and lunch.
Ask us to fly it with youCarries four with bags a long way at a gentle cruise. Next thing due: a propeller overhaul within the year. Flown by us before it came onto the floor. Illustrative.
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Two-seat high-wing.
Slow, forgiving, and happy on a short gravel strip.
Ask us to fly it with youNext thing due: tyres and a tidy of the cabin trim. The stall is gentle and it tells you early. Illustrative.
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Light twin, six seats.
For long legs over water to the Island and beyond.
Ask us to fly it with youOne engine is further from its overhaul than the other; we'll show you both logs side by side. Illustrative.
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Two-seat helicopter.
For stations, fence lines and the odd weekend.
Ask us to fly it with youMain rotor blades with a few years left against their life. Illustrative.
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Four-seat helicopter.
Room for four and their gear.
Ask us to fly it with youDrive belts replaced at its last big inspection; the logs show where. Illustrative.
Specifications are illustrative, drawn for this page.
Ask us what's on the floor this week.
Helicopters get their own look.
A helicopter's parts are lifed by the hour and by the calendar, so its paperwork matters even more than an aeroplane's.
We hover each one in and out of ground effect before we list it, and listen to it at every stage. The independent engineer looks hardest at the rotor head and the drive: the blade grips, the pitch links, the swashplate, the mast, the tail rotor drive, and every part's time against its life.
The engineer isn't ours.
Before you buy, we book an independent engineer who doesn't work for us or for the seller. You get their report, not our summary of it. We sit beside them for the logbook review and ask what you'd ask.
Where does water sit?
Corrosion starts where water rests. They take the root fairings off and look at the spar fittings and the primer underneath, the yellow-green you can see on the panel here.
What does the engine say about itself?
A compression check on each cylinder, the oil filter cut open, and what the last few oil changes found.
Does the paperwork match the metal?
Every repair in the logbooks should be on the airframe, and nothing should be on the airframe that isn't in the logbooks.
What falls due next?
Not whether it's a good buy. What will need doing in the next year, so you know before you sign.
If the logbooks have a question in them, we tell you before you fly it. If they have too many, it doesn't come onto the floor.
Then you fly it.
If you fly and your licence covers the type, you fly it and one of us sits beside you. If you don't, one of us flies it and you sit beside and watch what we watch.
Before the flight we ask the owner where it usually lives, how it's fuelled and what they've noticed lately. The flight itself is short and specific: the start, the run-up, the climb, a few turns, the radios, the idle and the landing. Afterwards we sit down together and write out what we both saw.
Parafield. Inspected here: the independent engineer and the logbooks.
Test flown here, with you aboard.
Port Lincoln. Flown to your strip and handed over there, logbooks and all.
Parafield to your strip.
When it's yours, one of us flies it from Parafield to the strip you keep it on and hands it over there, anywhere in the state.
Parafield to Port Lincoln is about 135 nautical miles: near 1 hour 15 minutes at 110 knots, before wind.
The line is drawn straight for this page. The real route is planned on the day, around weather and airspace. Times are illustrative.
What we don't do.
We don't maintain aircraft.
The engineer who inspects is independent of us and of the seller, and the maintenance stays with whoever you choose.
We don't lend money.
Talk to your own bank or adviser about how you'll pay for it.
We don't put prices on the page.
They change with what the engineer finds, so we talk them through with you.
We don't list what we haven't flown.
Every aircraft on the floor has been in the air with one of us first.
Tell us what you fly and where you land.
We'll write back with what's on the floor that suits, what we know about it, and when we could fly it with you.