Splurging on Your Plane

Was looking at this beauty of an Arrow featured in Pipers magazine
(www.4979S.com). According to the article, the guy spent over $170,000
updating the thing and boy does it show. It got me wondering about other
examples so I figured I'd ask the most vocal group I know
of--rec.aviation.piloting!

What are some of the most extreme examples of, umm, "investing" have you
seen and/or heard of in a personal aircraft?

Marco



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Marco Leon mmleonyahoo.com wrote:

Was looking at this beauty of an Arrow featured in Pipers magazine
(www.4979S.com). According to the article, the guy spent over $170,000
updating the thing and boy does it show. It got me wondering about other
examples so I figured I'd ask the most vocal group I know
of--rec.aviation.piloting!

All that money spent and no form of anti-icing? Hmmm...

What are some of the most extreme examples of, umm, "investing" have you
seen and/or heard of in a personal aircraft?

Converting a B36 Bonanza's engine to Rocket Engineering's "Turbine Air"
turboprop system, somewhere in the neighborhood of US $495,000.

--
Peter

There was a guy on this list who put a pair of Garmin 430's in his
C150. In a splurge price to aircraft value ratio, that's got to be the
winner. I used to think this type of thing was nuts until I'd been an
aircraft owner for awhile. There are many reasons why its a good idea
to "splurge" on your plane vs. just buying a plane with what you want
on it...

1) In California, the cost to "flip" your plane is 8-10% the value of
the plane in sale/use tax, so you lose $17,000 on a $170,000 flip
anyway.
2) When you first buy a plane, even a "perfect" plane with a factory
service center inspection, you will spend a lot of money getting it
right for you. You can consider this a purchase cost you will have with
any plane you will buy.
3) Probably the most important thing, your plane is a known quantity.
Most of us are buying planes that are 20 to 30 years old. At that age
there can be a lot of gottchas. The risk of a gottcha with the plane
you know well is less than something you've never seen. There are many
gottchas that don't get caught on even the most complete inspection.

-Robert

All that money spent and no form of anti-icing? Hmmm...

I don't believe the Arrow has an anti-icing option. For that you need a
real plane, like a Mooney.

-Robert

Marco Leon wrote:
What are some of the most extreme examples of, umm, "investing" have you
seen and/or heard of in a personal aircraft?

One of my favorites is Jimmy Buffet's Grumman seaplane "Margaritaville".
Of course, it pales in comparison with some of these gold plated
jetliners some of these oil sheiks own.

"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

I don't believe the Arrow has an anti-icing option. For that you need a
real plane, like a Mooney.

Ah, that would explain it. However, if I were to build an IFR
cross-country, single-engine aircraft by starting with a base aircraft and
tossing lots of money at it, an airframe that accepts some type of
anti-icing system would be my starting point.

--
Peter

In a previous article, "Robert M. Gary" said:
There was a guy on this list who put a pair of Garmin 430's in his
C150. In a splurge price to aircraft value ratio, that's got to be the
winner. I used to think this type of thing was nuts until I'd been an

But in his defence he knew the C150 was just a "starter plane" and after
he'd got some hours on it was going to buy up, and move the 430s to the
new aircraft.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Don't you just hate them? Don't you just wanna break their ribs,
cut their backs open and pull their lungs out from behind?
-- Ina Faye-Lund, on script kiddies

But in his defence he knew the C150 was just a "starter plane" and after
he'd got some hours on it was going to buy up, and move the 430s to the
new aircraft.

Ah, I didn't recall that. When I've looked at putting one 430 in my
plane I've been quoted between $4K to $5K just for installation. Maybe
its somewhat less in a C150 but thats still a lot of dead presidents.

-Robert

However, if I were to build an IFR
cross-country, single-engine aircraft by starting with a base aircraft and
tossing lots of money at it, an airframe that accepts some type of
anti-icing system would be my starting point.

I was being a bit sarcastic, an Arrow is a good plane. You can always
add full deice to any Mooney J model forward. However, for the system
to be FAA approved for known icing conditions it must have been factory
installed. However, there are a lot of well priced Mooney 231's out
there that have their FAA approved known ice systems still installed
and working.
The FAA known ice also means that aircraft was designed such that
things like fuel vents, etc are vented in such a way that they don't
ice up. Its more than just the deicing system.

-Robert

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...

3) Probably the most important thing, your plane is a known quantity.
Most of us are buying planes that are 20 to 30 years old. At that age
there can be a lot of gottchas. The risk of a gottcha with the plane
you know well is less than something you've never seen. There are many
gottchas that don't get caught on even the most complete inspection.

Assuming a $70K purchase price on the Arrow, the math comes to over $240K
total. Quite a number of 2003+ glass-cockpit Cirrus SR-20's for that price
with comparable performance and payload. Maybe he doesn't like the Cirruses
but the options are wide open if he knew what he had to spend (that's a big
"if"). Very possibly could have been just a case of the update bug gone
wild.

Marco



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