One thing which seems to be missing from this discussion is any mention of how much you have to spend, what you will do with it between purchase and ready to fly, and how long you are willing to wait between those two events.
If you have patience and a place to store it, you can save a lot of money. If you have a lot of money, you can get it back in the air rapidly.
I'm with the suggestion to go for first refusal, but make it "their bid plus $100" -- that's a big enough jump to entice him to say yes.
But INSPECT BEFORE YOU MAKE THE OFFER. It's been sitting a LONG time.
If you have the money to play with, you might get two of them, using one as a donor if necessary. For that matter, if they're in decent shape, if I had the money I'd be tempted to buy the entire fleet, then sell them off as projects.
This, of course, assumes that there is no corrosion worth worrying about.
I think you hit the nail on the head! It's a definitely formula of money and time. It makes the most sense to have a place to store it where I can work on it, and that has the need of a T-Hanger written all over it. At $450 per month, that also means it's best to return it to the air rather quickly, as there is no reason to pay for a hanger for an aircraft that doesn't fly. I've been discussing possible partnerships with some friends to help keep individual costs down.
I'm going to get out to the airport this weekend, and look behind every panel I can get off. Keeping my fingers crossed for no corrosion!!!
I am very tempted to buy the other two 152s in the fleet. They would be great if I needed any intimidate parts, and also a good reference resource for N67965 as I work on it. As well as being good projects for someone else!
