I have been looking for a not so shiny 150 - to use as a rental to students here. I had browsed this one but am not thrilled about it. Look up the registration - seems it was a fish spotter plane. I have alot of friends here that are fish spotters and they all fly long hours hours in the salt environment. Corrosion would be a major concern to me with that one - look at the yokes in the picture.
The other thing that would have my attention is the maintenance - fish spotters don't make $ by putting it back into the plane - airworthy - SURE - but the niceities tend to go by the wayside. See the radios - If it still works - use it type thing...
Dave
I'm sure different companies do things in different ways and I've always suspected fish spotters might not be well maintained but then again, you are over water for hours on end......... I have a friend with a 1976 Cessna 180. It was a fish spotter from brand new till he bought it from the company that used it (in Louisiana, several years ago). It had over 9000 hours on it and was in excellent condition, probably better than airplanes with 1/3 the hours, nice paint and good radios, everything was up to snuff and a super clean airframe (it was speced as a seaplane, corrosion proofing, windshield brace, seaplane prop, never on floats) The only corrosion we found was exfoliation of the RH outboard landing gear fitting, and P.Ponk in Seattle told us that was normal of landplanes, seaplanes, whatever, and was probably caused by exhaust gases. The seller even put in a new battery for my friend, it did not need it, but was a couple of years old and the seller didn't want my friend to have any problems (they had never met previous to this deal).
Charles
