Yeah I've been bouncing around whether or not I should buy a plane for almost 6 months. First I was taking the free advice of many and going for a Cherokee 180 as "you will need the horsepower". I plan on commuting from work to home on a regular basis, wx permitting. It is about 250 nautical miles between the two cities. After having some sense talked back into me, it became apparent that if my goal is to build hours, then I need the slowest and cheapest thing to operate. Yeah I guess I want it to be reliable too. It has just under 800hrs SMOH and I believe it had about 5000 on the airframe. One issue is that it was overhauled about 14 years ago but the compressions are all 70+, according to the seller.
It has a VOR with glideslope and heated pitot too. Seller also says the comm's and nav work good. I'll be able to test that tomorrow when I visit. I guess my big question is - is this a good deal? If it starts, runs, flys, and the radios work, should I fly away like I stole it?
How good was the overhaul? On my airplane I figured out, after learning much from this group of folks, that the overhaul on my airplane was waaay less than perfect. Which is why I decided to have it overhauled.
The flip side to that...it was at 1790 hours when I decided to have it overhauled. Not bad. And compressions were all in the mid to high 70's. The bottom end could have gone for awhile, too, according to my mechanic.
Having said THAT...with a long time since overhaul, and few hours, some nasty corrosion can occur in the bottom end. Depending on the type of cylinders, you could have good compressions but a crank or cam (more likely in a Lycoming than Continental, but still...) that are about to puke.
Reg
