CAVAET EMTOR

                                                            CAVAET EMPTOR

My wife and I decided to buy a new airplane this week. In all my years of flying I had never owned a new plane. Our reason for buying a new plane is that we wanted something more fuel efficient that could still get us to San Diego, albeit it would take about 40 minutes more than the Bonanza. At 4.5 gallons a hour we were willing to travel slower at a more economical rate. Also with a fuel burn of 4.5 gallons per hour I would fly more often.

I started investigating what new planes were available that fit our mission statement and decided on the new Luscombe LSA. After thoroughly checking out their web site we thought the Luscombe LSA would be a good fit for us and even decided to buy one with a radial engine for “cool” factor.

I tried calling Luscombe in Riverside, CA and received a voice mail with their mailbox being full. I then sent them an email with my phone number and never received a reply. I could not comprehend a going business with a full mailbox. I decided to google this company and was shocked to see what was posted on them.

This company was located in Georgia, Florida, Missouri and now Riverside, CA. I read where they took a $750,000 incentive from Missouri and skipped town. Each time they left a location they allegedly did not pay their employees. They also allegedly took deposits from customers, the first being $15,000 then a follow up of $25,0000 without ever building an airplane. In fact it is questionable if they even have a FAA type certificate or legal rights to build the new Luscombe.

This company kept opening under a new LLC and allegedly defrauding customers and employees in each State. It’s really too bad that they are not honest as the Luscombe LSA was the only LSA I would consider buying.