Johnston Aircraft Service, Inc., Tulare CA

Very disappointed in this shop. After attending a seminar hosted at the shop with another Piper Comanche owner and being impressed by their knowledge, I commissioned this shop to perform a pre-purchase inspection for me on a 65’ PA24 260. This was my first airplane purchase and I was buying an airplane I had not yet seen in person. I relayed this information over the phone and advised that I was entrusting them to be both my eyes and ears and required them to guide me as I was inexperienced in airplane purchases. I asked for their opinion on a very extensive prebuy and was told that most extensive would be a full annual inspection. Aside from that, the next step down was a $1500 inspection which included removing all inspection panels/cowl, swinging the gear, borescope and engine inspection, functional check of all systems, review of logs, an AD compliance check, etc. The plane had just come out of an extensive annual by another shop the previous month and after talking with the shop owner and at his advice I opted to go with the second option. I will say they were very friendly and accommodating and provided a very comfortable feeling. I truly trusted them. I arranged for the plane to be ferried to them and dropped off for their inspection. The plane was left for nearly a week to complete the inspection. I then had a friend and a ferry pilot fly with me to pick up the plane. Upon arrival the plane had been moved to the ramp and was supposedly ready for us to fly home. This is where the red flags should have started waiving. Upon completing a visual inspection of the aircraft we found that 3 spark plug wires were left disconnected and a valve cover fastener had been left missing during their inspection. The shop owner was standing there when these items were found and he was apologetic and clearly not happy with his mechanic. They fixed those issues and we flew the plane home. Within the first 10 hrs of my ownership numerous deficiencies were uncovered that very clearly should have been caught during the pre-purchase inspection. I’m now a year and a half into my ownership and have only been able to fly the airplane for 32hrs as it’s been down for repairs for the majority of my ownership and cost almost $30k for repairs. When I spoke to the mechanic who performed the inspection she stated this is one of the better airplanes shes inspected and was basically told that it was in great condition. I found out that she had only been there a week and clearly had no oversight while inspecting my plane. Essentially had these items been found I likely wouldn’t have purchased this airplane and I certainly wouldn’t have paid what I did for it. This shop’s oversight has cost me dearly and I’m nearly to the point of giving up on aviation all together. Extremely discouraged, but now I’m past the point of no return on the plane financially … hopefully this will save someone else from having the same experience.