expat wrote on Mar 12^th, 2008 at 7:23am:


It can be, I suppose, but it varies. I'm a first-timer, and I've never bought property, so I can't say. The tricky bit with this compared to a car is that some time and money is required to just see if it's really the one you want, which is why I'm not feeling so bad about the idea of settling on this one if I get 3rd-party confirmation that it's sound and the title's clean (title search is a must; the present owner may not even be aware of some old lien on the plane or something).
At $22K (or maybe less), it's not the kind of purchase you want to spend thousands researching... which one could: when buying a house, one usually chooses a location first- with planes, they can be thousands of miles apart; I'm hoping to avoid big trips just to go look at planes.

And in the end, you know how it is with any used item: no matter how much shopping around you do, the day after you pay up you always see one that's a better deal... it's inevitable.
Anyway, I have to try to stop thinking about all this until I get a loan... without that, it all becomes moot.

DaveSims wrote on Mar 12^th, 2008 at 2:17pm:


I should probably keep my mouth shut if you are really thinking of buying it    , but there's more to it than the pics... in fact, the appearance of the plane, even though it's OK, is nothing impressive at all. What's got me interested is the low-time O-235 (not a 320; that was a brain fart) and the most recent annuals: first one involved $15K worth of all the stuff that'd be most likely to make trouble right about now; second one cost him about a grand, I believe (I forget what was fixed), and the last one, in January, was clean... no squawks.

My pre-buy is really just a formality, although yes, the fabric needs closer scrutiny, and some consideration as to how to protect it if I am to store it outdoors for a while as planned. they're building new t-hangars soon at 47N, but it may be a while before I can swing that. Prob'ly need to pay off the bulk of the loan first.

I've already figured the fixed costs, including loan payments... very do-able for me. Engine overhaul is way down the line (over 1500 hrs estimated). If the wings need recovering before that, I should be ready to do it, money-wise, in a few years. I'd still like to upgrade it for IFR, but that's a long-term goal, dependent on getting some bargains on equipment and installation. I may leave it as is, including the funky interior... just want my own plane to fly whenever I want, for fun and travel, and with that engine and under-4000-hr airframe it has pretty good resale value as is.

Good luck! I hope it all works out for you.    

Cute little plane. I'm surprised you're even contemplating a ragwing after your recent experience.