I’m going to guess about $15,000 to overhaul the engine. No idea how much props are going for nowadays. (Hey, composite prop!) Wrinkled skin? Maybe firewall? I’ll bet it loses 25% of its value after being repaired just because it’s been crashed. (FWIW, I think used Skycatchers are selling for around $80,000 to $90,000.)
There is no way to tell without having both an engine and airframe mechanic look at it closely and give a realistic estimate. It is obviously 10’s of thousands of dollars worth of damage just by what is stated in the ad. The engine rebuild and the propeller are fairly straightforward to estimate. It is the air-frame and fuselage damage that could hold some nasty surprises. The part that worries me the most is that the pilot managed to snap the nose gear off as well. It is hard to know what kind of damage that caused without a thorough inspection. If it is mainly surface damage, that can be repaired for a price. However, if the is any internal airframe damage, it may not be economical to repair it at all.
The Skycatcher is a nice enough small plane but Cessna has discontinued them and that doesn’t make them a good investment type plane in my view because their run was so short. $24,000 would be a great price for a plane with only small amounts of damage but this one is looking at potential repairs that take months and so much money that potential buyers would be better off finding one in good condition rather than pour money into a sinkhole with an unknown bottom.
I looked at it. It says it had a power off gear up landing and that the pilot seat has been removed. I’m guessing the pilot soiled that seat pretty badly.
There’s hard “something broke on the gear” then there’s hard as in “I bent the main wing spar”. Or some critical bolts maybe need to be replaced just as a precaution?
Makes sense. I’m guessing ‘I bent the main wing spar’ means you landed ‘ok’ but then sorta went side ways and hit a wing ground. This guy went prop first into the concrete. Hard enough to take the front wheel off AND damage various parts of the engine as well as some body damage further back. I’m gonna guess it was pretty hard.
If the skin is wrinkled then something is bent underneath it. I’d want a new motor mount forward of the bulkhead or the worlds most thorough inspection of the old one.