Good Stories about Plane Purchases

[Jon Kraus]

I am looking into purchasing my own plane... I think that I am pretty
aware of the costs (as much as a non-owner can be). I would like to
hear from those of you who have had a good experience with a plane
purchase. I have the bad experience posts also. My guess is that the
good will outweigh the bad by a long shot (or at least I am hoping so)
Thanks !!

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL-IA
(possible Mooney buyer)

[Aaron Coolidge]

In rec.aviation.owning Jon Kraus > wrote:
: I am looking into purchasing my own plane... I think that I am pretty
: aware of the costs (as much as a non-owner can be). I would like to
: hear from those of you who have had a good experience with a plane
: purchase. I have the bad experience posts also. My guess is that the
: good will outweigh the bad by a long shot (or at least I am hoping so)
: Thanks !!

Jon, I had an extremely good experience buying my airplane. It was located
completely across the country. I flew out, looked at it, had a quick prebuy
done (2 hours of labor from a mechanic*), and agreed to buy it. It was exactly
as advertised by the seller. I have flown the airplane > 600 hours in the last
4 years, and I have had no significant surprises or unexpected repairs. I
try to be pro-active in maintenance instead of presenting a huge list of
broken items at an annual, I have those items repaired as needed. I make
every attempt to keep the plane in top condition, which often doesn't need
large sums of money - I keep the engine bay & belly clean which makes small
oil drips easy to find before they become big problems, etc.

* I believe that it's possible to do the entire visual inspection part of
an annual inspection on a Cherokee in less than 2 hours if the inspection
plates are off, and I took those off for this inspection. I had the mechanic
concentrate on areas of corrosion (none), condition of flight controls (good)
cables (good) and bearings (good), and engine condition (compression good,
no metals found in oil filter or screen).

--
Aaron Coolidge (N9376J)

[Dylan Smith]

In article >, Jon Kraus wrote:
> I am looking into purchasing my own plane... I think that I am pretty
> aware of the costs (as much as a non-owner can be). I would like to
> hear from those of you who have had a good experience with a plane
> purchase.

We found Lusty Betty (our C140) for sale at our airport before it was
even advertised (often the best buys go by word-of-mouth and sell before
they reach print). The plane was in very good condition and needed very
little work doing to it. I flew that plane coast to coast in the US.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

[Dylan Smith]

In article >, JJS wrote:
> Dylan is this the airplane that was tied down with chains and suffered
> wind damage? If so was it repaired? What happened to it?

It was repaired (another long story about terrible maintenance
organisations that lie) and then properly repaired when it got back to
Salt Lake City. I left the US, my partners bought my share and then
fitted a climb prop - it didn't climb great in the Houston flatlands
with 85hp and a cruise prop, and it was even worse at 4800 feet in SLC!
(The climb prop apparently made a useful difference without degrading
cruise speed much. She only did 85 knots in any case).

My partners, realising that 85hp really wasn't the best in all the high
country they wanted to fly to sold it to a gentleman in Georgia, and
bought a share in a Cessna 180.

Unfortunately I bought a wreck of an old house and spent all of my net
worth restoring it, so all I own aviation wise at the moment is a 1/4
share in a 1960s Ka-8 glider!

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

[A Lieberman]

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 12:28:05 GMT, Jon Kraus wrote:

> I am looking into purchasing my own plane... I think that I am pretty
> aware of the costs (as much as a non-owner can be). I would like to
> hear from those of you who have had a good experience with a plane
> purchase.

Hi Jon,

I can say I had a good experience. Frustrating at times, but a good
experience. I happen to be at my airport looking on the bulletin board,
when someone came to me and asked if I was interested in a Sundowner. He
was based at my airport. I said sure, we went to the plane, and everything
looked great to me. My main concern was the high time engine. He offered
44K for it. I said, let me get back to him as I wanted to do some research
on it. Did an AOPA Vref, found that he was about 2K high. Knowing the
engine was on borrowed time (1940 hours). The recommended TBO is 2000
hours. I said at this time, with the high time engine, that I am not
interested. The seller then came back to me 3 weeks later, dropped the
price to 38K. I then said, good so far, but I want a prepurchase
inspection. He wanted me to use his mechanic that was located in a
different airport. I said, no, I want the local mechanic. The local
mechanic did the prepurchase inspection, found some squawks, but nothing of
any major consequence. Compressions on the engine was 76 to 78 (more on
this later). My mechanic said it looked to be a nice plane for the price I
was looking to pay. Logs were excellent he said. Good deal I said.

I then went back to the AOPA website, requested a title search, the title
was clear. The next day, contacted the prior owner and asked him if my CFI
and I could take it around the patch so he could see any problems. No
problems noted with the plane handling except for the Autopilot. Autopilot
was the only thing not working. We didn't realize it at the time, but the
reason the autopilot wasn't working was that the turn coordinator wasn't
working. After flying it, looking at it, I went ahead with the deal. Very
little paperwork. A Bill of Sales, and a form to the FAA to get the
registration in my name. Registration arrived about 1 month later.

About compressions. A lot of emphasis is put on compressions. This is
fine and dandy on the top of the engine, but it doesn't tell you the bottom
half of the engine. I had an exhaust valve break on me in flight from
metal fatique. So, if you are looking at a high time engine, keep this in
mind.

Since owning the plane, I did have all sorts of quirky things happen (sadly
the plane was only flown 10 hours in the prior two years of me getting
it!). After the exhaust valve went belly up, I got the cylinder replaced,
and 10 hours later, a second cylinder started acting up on runup (couldn't
clear the mag). I taxied back, called the mechanic and asked him to get me
an overhaul. Overhaul was 13K on my 180 HP AK4 Lycoming.

I had a vacuum pump failure, turn coordinator replaced, New battery, Nav1
and Nav2 instruments recalibrated when I started my instrument training,
and my first annual last year was 3K for replacing things that go bump in
the night from the UNDERUSAGE of this airplane (wheel bearings replaced for
starters).

I have now flown 253 hours on this plane in the last 18 months. The last
12 months since overhaul, all I have done is change the oil and any other
maintenance my mechanic has recommended.

I will be the first to tell you, ownership has it's price, but the price
you pay is well worth the walk out on the ramp to fly YOUR OWN airplane
without thinking twice. I figured that 253 hours X 100 rental fees would
be 25,300. So, yes on the surface, I paid more for the plane and overhaul,
but saving money now as I am flying 2 times a week.

Fuel runs about $2.80 or so per gallon at 10 gallons an hour. I get the
15W50 oil, very expensive, but I am a believer you get what you pay for. I
change the oil every 50 hours which is working out to be about every other
month.

Tie down is $40 a month, and insurance is $1,200 a year. I suspect the
insurance will drop big time once I get my instrument ticket (checkride
date is 09/04.

Down the road, I will update the avionics. Original radios that came with
plane, and it does have a Garmin 250XL VFR GPS in it. Interior is
original, and needs to be refreshed down the road as well. Mucho bucks for
both, but both work, so I will not fix what works.

I have the plane now where I know it will be a very reliable source of
transportation (after all that was done above, it better be!). Engine
fires within three turns of the prop, hot or cold.

Hope this helps.

Allen