Talk about a dilemma:
For the past couple months I've wrestled with the idea of selling my plane and replacing it with a Maule or a 172. Why? I'd simply like to be able to occasionally take advantage of having more useful load being available. As some already know, my other passion is field training/hunting with Labrador Retrievers. I'd really like to be able to cart my labs along when my wife and I explore distant airports.
Anyway, a gentlemen (his young son actually) stumbled on to the listing for my plane in our clubs non-member classified section. He brought his wife and kids to look at my plane a couple weeks ago. I could sense he was very impressed because it was about 20 degrees in the hangar and he and his family stayed for about an hour. His initial response was typical of people who see 16G for the first time- "WOW!" (16Golf just has that affect on you). That night I told him that if he offered me a deposit, I would not accept it because I really needed to think things through and frankly didn't know if I was go to sell.
Last week, I flew to an airport halfway between us, took him up for about twenty minutes, let him fly a bit and then landed. Next day, he and his young son drove to my hangar, went through the logs and spent some time going over the plane. Long story short, he called me a couple days later and wants to buy my plane.
NOW, I'm REALLY wrestling with the notion of selling my plane. Turns out that the insurance on a tail wheel Maule is nine-fold (you read that correctly!) what we pay for our 150s. Insurance on a trike Maule is still five-fold what we pay. That really leaves only a 172 as a viable option. And flying a 172 is about as much fun as watching the Detroit Lions play football. But they do at least have a significantly larger useful load which would definitely accommodate my labs.
So here I sit, trying to decide whether or not to sell 16G and unfortunately, I have to decide quickly- the buyer apparently wants to wrap this up ASAP.
While in the process of showing my plane to this non-club member buyer, I've had three different club members call and/or e-mail asking for pictures and particulars. A couple have shown much interest, but I've flat told everyone that I wouldn't "play" two potential buyers against one another for the sake of making a few hundred dollars more. I've approached this by dealing with one potential buyer at a time. My wife and I agreed that whoever came to see our plane first would be the person that we would work with. In other words, there has been no behind the scenes negotiating going on with other potential buyers. All I've done is provide pictures and information to people who have called/e-mailed. But here's the thing, other than spending about $100 to list my plane in TAP about two months ago, I've put virtually no effort into selling my plane and the buyer and I have agreed on a price within $600 of my asking price. This makes me wonder if I'm selling my plane to cheaply.
16GOLF is an exceptional plane and I knew that as soon as someone came to see her that she would sell herself. I just had no idea it would happen with the first buyer! I know there are other really nice 150s around, but in two years of flying, I've never come across one as clean as 16GOLF.
The thought of being planeless is very unsettling. It took a great deal of effort to find 16Golf and the thought of going through all that again is very discouraging. I had to drive from MI to PA TWICE- twelve hours round trip! It's fun to dream and surf the web and browse TAP ads; but when it gets down to the nuts and bolts of buying a plane- the prepuy, log inspection, background search, the DRIVE to get to the plane- NOT FUN!
Anyway, my fear is that I'm letting 16golf go to cheaply. At this stage, I won't try to get more money for her, it's really comming down to the decision as to whether or not I want to let her go.
Just thinking out loud...
Mont
