Colin W Kingsbury wrote:
: How much does an annual cost?

That's the largest "it depends" there really is. Best case scenario if
*NOTHING* is broken/worn is a few hundred if you get your hands dirty and the mechanic
watches and does paperwork. Since things are always broken/worn, it's more. Many
time *a lot* more. It's a gamble. I don't think of it as "how much does an annual
cost," but rather, "what needs to be fixed now." You either need to pay now or later,
and the latter generall costs more since things going bad can break other things.
The big trick is to make sure you don't buy a plane that someone else decided to "fix
later."

: Anyhow, if you do buy, a Skyhawk is about the best plane you can buy,
: stupid-simple in the best sense of the phrase. If I had it to do over again
: I'd look for one with the Penn Yan 180HP conversion for just a little more
: speed and climb, but the one I have is still my favorite because she's
: *mine*. When the bank account looks a little better I'll probably look to
: step up to a 182 or maybe a Mooney so I can go places but you'll never go
: wrong with a 172.

At the risk of starting a flamewar, not to knock anyone's personal choices (I
learned in a 172), but a PA-28-140 is an undervalued plane by comparison. A 172 is
overvalued (since everyone learned in them that's what they wanted to buy). To each
their own, but since buying a plane is such a huge investment in time and money,
choosing the model shouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction. To each their own, and YMMV...


-Cory

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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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