Aircraft Brokering

Why Choose Hangar50 LLC to Sell or Buy your Aircraft?

  • Trust – Whether selling or buying, any major transaction will be based on trust.  If you don’t trust the aircraft, the mechanic who does the pre-purchase, the other party involved, or the broker, the transaction will never happen. Don Muehlbauer, owner of Hangar50, is not just a marketer, but an experienced engineer, business person and trusted aviator, who eats, breathes, lives aviation.
  • Knowledge – A short summary of Don’s background:
    • Pilot – Over 30 years experience as pilot, aircraft owner, hangar owner, CFII, MEI, AGI, FAA Gold Seal Instructor and proudly one of only two American Bonanza Society certified instructors in the state of Wisconsin.  Flown 40+ different  aircraft types from LSA to King Air. Largest blocks of experience in Beech Bonanza (BE36/BE33), Piper Cherokee 6 (PA32), Glastar (GLST), Cirrus (SR20/SR22), Piper Arrow/Warrior (PA28/PA28R), Cessna (C172/C172/C152), Baron (BE55), Piper Seneca (PA34) but have experience flying and teaching in several different experimental types, including Glastar, Vans, Sonex, Zenith, Allegro, CT, Earthstar and Genesys.
    • Professional – Don is a professionally trained engineer as well as aviator.  He has an engineers understanding of aircraft systems to best analyze aircraft logbooks and history with special insight into “things to watch out for” from both a buyers and sellers perspective.
    • Business – Don has owned aviation and non-aviation businesses in manufacturing and consulting, as well as teaching.  He understands business economics, and has helped several clients with integrating their aviation activities into other business interests to maximize usage and minimize costs.
  • Honest, Focused, Personalized Attention – Some brokers will charge a fee upfront to “cover the costs of advertising” or “administration”, which actually incents them to get lots of listings, rather than focusing on providing personalized attention to just a very few customers.  We prefer to work with no more than 3 customers at a time on a straight commission basis with no upfront fees.  We have one focus, making your transaction happen in an expedient timeframe, at a great value to you.  Sometimes that will mean we will turn down business.  That’s OK with us, and it should be OK with you.  We are not in this business to maximize our income.  We are in it because we love aviation, and want to see aircraft put in the hands of people who value them and will put them to good use.

Want to get started or have a question?  Feel free to contact us.

Seller Services:

  • Development of a marketing strategy 
  • Pre-sale maintenance management
  • Photography and specification portfolio, including digitizing the logbooks for buyer downloads
  • Advertising
  • Fielding interest
  • Negotiations with buyers
  • Purchase Agreement drafts
  • Demo management
  • Pre-purchase management
  • Escrow management – Will use a formal title company
  • Closing and closing document management – Will use a formal title company and title insurance policy.
  • In a real hurry or have a difficult to sell aircraft — we can buy it directly! Note that we will pay 20% or so less than market value for this service but will close in a short timeframe.

Buyer Services:

  • Buyer “mission analysis” to determine ideal aircraft
  • Market Analysis
  • Negotiations with seller
  • Purchase Agreement drafts
  • Test flight management
  • Pre-purchase management
  • Escrow management – Will use a formal title company
  • Closing and closing document management – Will use a formal title company and title insurance policy.
  • Ferry flights
  • Transition Training – typically required by insurance companies.

Want to get started or have a question?  Feel free to contact us.

Case Study — How one customer saved time and money, making our services pay for themselves, and then some.

Gary and Jackie owned a 1974 Piper Arrow that had not been flown in over 3 years. They really wished they didn’t have to sell it, but they had retired and moved to a resort area, where hangar space was not available at any cost.  So they made the difficult decision to sell using Hangar50 to manage the entire process. When we went to look at their aircraft, we took  an “engineer’s view” of it’s condition.  We could see significant corrosion in the engine from sitting so long. An annual condition inspection was scheduled with a local trusted mechanic.  One of their cylinders had a compression reading of “5” (note, to be airworthy, that number generally needs to be more like “60 out of 80”).  Many mechanics would immediately replace that cylinder at a cost of about $3000 (parts and labor).  Based on our experience, we had the mechanic perform an hours work on the cylinder, resulting in getting the compression into the low 60’s and saving Gary and Jackie $3000.  Once the annual was complete, we flew the aircraft about 10 hours and reinvestigated it’s internals using our tools, which are more sophisticated/specialized than most mechanics have access to. Flying had reduced corrosion further, and we added detailed information and pictures to the aircraft portfolio to show buyers documented proof of it’s now greatly improved condition and increased value / sale price.

Want to get started or have a question?  Feel free to contact us.

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