My late dad left me two small Cessnas, his mechanic offered to buy them, but his new invoice for previous work has me scratching my head. Any advice would be appreciated!
Hoping for some insight from folks who know small Cessnas and shop work. I'm not a pilot, but my dad was, and he left behind some airplanes when he died a couple of months back. He owned a 1967 Cessna 150G and a 1946 Cessna 120, both flyable (the 120 is out of annual since June 2023, possibly needs wing re-cover, but apparently not in the immediate future).
His longtime A&P/IA has informed us that there was a verbal agreement: he'd do work on the planes in exchange for being able to fly them to give lessons. My dad's gone, so I can't verify any of that. The mechanic has also offered to buy both planes outright, for $35k total, minus the invoices he's produced for work performed. The combined invoices total around $20k, leaving us with roughly a $15k check total for both airplanes. He's the only person bidding because he's the only person who knows the planes, and we haven't advertised them anywhere.
I want to be clear, I am by no means trying to discredit his mechanic or imply his isn’t an honest person, I am just looking for some additional reassurance that we aren't being completely taken advantage of. There are few things on the invoices I'd love a gut-check on (I've attached redacted images of them with those lines highlighted):
1. 150G invoice — 45 hours of labor at $125/hr for installing a used GTX 320A, KY 97A, and SCI-S4. Is that in the ballpark, or high? My understanding is this is a non-ADS-B-out transponder anyway, so what's the value here?
2. Same invoice — 40 hours of labor at $95/hr for torquing wing strut bolts, reconnecting pitot, reconnecting nav/landing lights, and rigging ailerons. That feels like a lot of hours. Does anyone have any idea if this is ball-park, or possibly an honest error?
3. The 120 invoice is two line items totaling $2,769.38 with no other description. I believe he said these were for annuals and other maintenance, but is it reasonable for me to ask for these to be itemized before crediting them against the sale price?
Second question — the sale value itself: For a flyable 150G (TTAF ~3,500, fresh Feb 2025 annual, engine SMOH unknown) and a 120 (TTAF ~4,700, TSMOH ~1,500, out of annual, fabric possibly tired), is $35k combined fair, or low, or am I underestimating the as-is reality?
Happy to share more details. Mostly trying to figure out what's a normal shop bill, what's worth questioning, and what fair as-is values look like before I sign anything. Will get an independent A&P out for a pre-purchase regardless. Thanks for any thoughts.