I have a very nice 1968 Cardinal C177, just under 3,000 hours total time, and about 800 hours on the engine since overhaul. I love this airplane! I bought it 6 years ago for $42K, and have spent an additional $15K since then, on things like replacing old radios, and having the entire avionics stack rewired, new breaker panel etc. This is a good solid airplane, a nice flyer, not a darn thing wrong with it. It has a new powerflow exhaust, mags and vacuum pump. I just flew it 66.5 hours in the last three weeks, it ran beautifully, burned almost no oil (a quart every 15-18 hours. ) On the entire trip, only one squawk, one of the new mags failed (there is a service bulletin on them.) Replaced under warranty.
The thing is, the paint is about a 7, the interior a 5 and I have been anticipating all along that someday I would bring those up to a solid 9 or 10. That does not make a lot of economic sense, because it would cost $8K-$20K to do so. At that point I'd have far more money in the airplane than it would be worth. It makes more sense to simply sell this Cardinal, and buy an even nicer one with the more powerful engine for the extra money.
If you are not familiar with the Cardinals, they are excellent airplanes, much roomier and more modern than C172's, carry more and fly slightly faster than a comparable C172, and yet cost about the same or even slightly less. There is an excellent type club Cardinal Flyers Online
www.cardinalflyers.com [
cardinalflyers.com]
The 1968 airplanes are an especially good bargain, because they are equipped stock with a 150 HP Lycoming, which was replaced with a 180 HP Lycoming the very next model year. Of course everyone wants the bigger engine, but honestly, the 150 HP airplane is no dog, especially if you are used to a C150. My Cardinal has four seats, and the cabin is about 2.5-3 times as big as a C150, it cruises at 105 knots, has 48 gallons of useable fuel, burns 8.3 gallons per hour which gives it more than 5 hours of flight endurance with reserves. And get this: 860 lbs of useful load, which works out to nearly 600 lbs of useful load with full fuel!
OK, so why am I bringing this up here? I'm thinking about selling my Cardinal, and buying a better one rather than upgrading mine. In the current market, my Cardinal is worth about $35K, like I said I have about $57K in it. If you are wanting a really solid well maintained 4 seat airplane at a very reasonable price, this could be the one. I am not in a hurry to do this, I plan to bring the airplane to Oshkosh and Clinton this summer to use as a photo ship. I am not currently advertising the airplane anywhere.
I just want to plant a seed in case there is someone out there who might be interested. You would have plenty of time to do due diligence, test fly the airplane, raise the money, sell your current airplane, whatever. Email me if this sounds appealing, and I will provide photos of the airplane, and additional information.
