Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes An introduction and a question on N46CA

That's a good price and a great sounding airplane. Wing tips strobes are "the bomb."

Looks good, but as a two-time purchaser, get a pilot friend to look at it for you and have a prebuy done.

Welcome to the club and look forward to meeting you at Clinton. Bring your darts, we're throwing!

The only thing I'd add is that at 1146 hours SMOH, it might be needing a TOH or top end overhaul soon. But the mechanic who checks it out will know more.

What!!!???? Somebody in this club has an opinion!!!!????

Welcome, Cory. You will get to love these folks.

Reg

Welcome Cory. I trained for my private in a Cessna 150 and LOVED it. I personally think it's the best trainer out there. Then I purchased my plane Sally (a Piper Cherokee) immediately following my private pilot check ride. I used her to get my instrument, commercial, CFI and CFI-I and that made training costs much lower than they would have been. I honestly think she would have grown an extra engine and floats for me (to do my multi, MEI and float plane ratings!) if she could.

I purchased Wilbur (a 1979 Cessna Aerobat) in which to teach spins and aerobatics and think he's the cat's meow. I joined this group to find the most amazingly nice collection of people who know these planes. I've learned so much from them! So my advice is to go on with your training and buy the right plane when you find it. Don't rush. It might take a lot of looking and this group will be here to answer your questions and help you through the process.

It'll be great to meet you at Clinton!

Cheers,
Catherine

Hello Cory, and Welcome!! I did things a little bit different when we were in search of a airplane last time. I knew what I wanted so I placed and ad in Barnstormers [barnstormers.com] describing my perfect airplane. And then I sat back and waited for the sellers to come to me. (Truth be known, I thought our perfect airplane was a pipe dream! An STOL aircraft capable of carrying two people with a minimum 700 pounds of useful load for under $25,000? DRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMM!! )

Anyways, it took a couple of months, but the perfect airplane did come a knocking on our door. It was never advertised for sale on the open market. In fact, Jeff D. and I sent quite a few messages back and forth deciding that the initial offer had to be a scam!! How wrong we were!!

When this particular airplane came a knocking, there also just happened to be some very wonderful people here on the club near by and willing to go and give it a looksie for me. And then another offered to ferry it from Texas to here in Oregon. Now? How could anybody ask for a better and smoother transaction then that??

Welcome, Corey!

As you can see, this group is neither enthusiastic, nor opinionated!

All I can add to the above is to continue what your'e doing! Ask questions and read all of the old posts on the subject you can find, then read them again, then search for more! Every question has been answered more than once, and in more than one way, at one time or another. But, we're always glad to answer any question more than once, and there is usually something new added each time.

Again, welcome to the best type club ever!

Corey, welcome to the club, youve come to the right place, see you in Clinton.

This might have already been addressed in the previous posts but if so it deserves repeating. Get a "buying buddy" to be the disinterested party when you do locate a plane. There is probably a club member near you or the location of the plane that you are interesting in. Let them look it over, review the logs, and give their opinion. Also make a list of what's important to you, what you have to have and what you can live with. For example, I had to have complete logs from day 1. That's not critical to some but it was to me. I was not as concerned about the time SMOH as I was about the maintenance history. One question that I always asked was "are the transponder and encoder cert's up-to-date? It wasn't a do or die item but I would use that answer in conjuction with other items to determine, from my perspective, the owners attitude toward aircraft maintenance. To me TT on the engine was more important that TT on the airframe (when not the same)if all other factors were OK. Just take your time, ask questions, and get that third, fourth, and maybe fifth opinion before you jump. Aircraft ownership isn't cheap but for me and I believe most of us, it is very satisfying and worth the cost.

Hey! Its great to be introduced to all of you. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

With Hung's ' prebuy ' suggestion, I've had hours of reading!

I'm sure most of you see your past posts as just thread replies. BUT they are invaluable to new low time Cessna owners AND pilots. Honestly, I've learned more yesterday than in the last three months asking questions at the local Airport. Amazing.

Now back to reading.
-corey

COREY!!!!


You!!!! Welcome to de Club! Oh yeah.... everything you've red is true. This is unquestionably THE BEST type club around.

Make it the BEST club ANYWHERE. Super folks here.

On thing - don't fall in love with an plane. A sexy paint job and slick panel are nice, but they can hide a multiude of sins. Sometimes the dingy looker is the best one. Kinda like the cheerleader in high school that ends up ....well..... you know. As opposed to the wallflower that ya meet at the 10 or 15-year reunion that you can't (and nobody else can) take their eyes off because she's a total knockout.

Go slow. There's no rush. Get Mike Arman's book - available in the club store. It's worth it. Remember, it's a major purchase, and if done right, one that can the unending honeymoon (I'm in my third year ;), or a pilot for a reality TV show on walking on burning coals.

Ask questions - there are no dumb ones. If you don't understand, ask again until you do. Be anal about maintainance. Airworthiness directives complied with? What about ongoing issues and look for complete logbooks.

I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination. There are a bunch of very knowledgable folks here itchin' to be constructive.

Best of luck to ya!

AND KNOCK IT OUT!!!!!