Veteran aircraft appraiser Mike Simmons and his peers have formed the Professional Aircraft Appraisal Organization (PAAO) following the disbanding of the former National Aircraft Appraisers Association, in hopes of promoting trust in the aircraft valuation process and providing its members training, resources, and networking. “We’re focused exclusively on aircraft [appraising], ensuring our guys do the proper research by going out to the field,” Simmons told AIN yesterday.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based organization was officially formed January 1 and currently comprises 120 aircraft appraisers primarily located in the U.S. but also in Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, and South Africa. “It gives an infrastructure, providing training and mentoring you’re not going to get elsewhere,” he said of PAAO.
It’s important for aircraft appraisers to have an organization in a profession that’s not regulated, Simmons explained, adding there are instances where an appraisal of an airplane is made without an inspection of it or its logbooks. Some clients don’t really want to know the value of an airplane, he said. Instead, their only “interest is making the deal go forward, and that’s not the business our guys are in.”