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I have a very nice 1968 Cardinal C177, just under 3,000 hours total time, and about 800 hours on the engine since overhaul. I love this airplane! I bought it 6 years ago for $42K, and have spent an additional $15K since then, on things like replacing old radios, and having the entire avionics stack rewired, new breaker panel etc. This is a good solid airplane, a nice flyer, not a darn thing wrong with it. It has a new powerflow exhaust, mags and vacuum pump. I just flew it 66.5 hours in the last three weeks, it ran beautifully, burned almost no oil (a quart every 15-18 hours. ) On the entire trip, only one squawk, one of the new mags failed (there is a service bulletin on them.) Replaced under warranty.

The thing is, the paint is about a 7, the interior a 5 and I have been anticipating all along that someday I would bring those up to a solid 9 or 10. That does not make a lot of economic sense, because it would cost $8K-$20K to do so. At that point I'd have far more money in the airplane than it would be worth. It makes more sense to simply sell this Cardinal, and buy an even nicer one with the more powerful engine for the extra money.

If you are not familiar with the Cardinals, they are excellent airplanes, much roomier and more modern than C172's, carry more and fly slightly faster than a comparable C172, and yet cost about the same or even slightly less. There is an excellent type club Cardinal Flyers Online www.cardinalflyers.com [cardinalflyers.com]

The 1968 airplanes are an especially good bargain, because they are equipped stock with a 150 HP Lycoming, which was replaced with a 180 HP Lycoming the very next model year. Of course everyone wants the bigger engine, but honestly, the 150 HP airplane is no dog, especially if you are used to a C150. My Cardinal has four seats, and the cabin is about 2.5-3 times as big as a C150, it cruises at 105 knots, has 48 gallons of useable fuel, burns 8.3 gallons per hour which gives it more than 5 hours of flight endurance with reserves. And get this: 860 lbs of useful load, which works out to nearly 600 lbs of useful load with full fuel!

OK, so why am I bringing this up here? I'm thinking about selling my Cardinal, and buying a better one rather than upgrading mine. In the current market, my Cardinal is worth about $35K, like I said I have about $57K in it. If you are wanting a really solid well maintained 4 seat airplane at a very reasonable price, this could be the one. I am not in a hurry to do this, I plan to bring the airplane to Oshkosh and Clinton this summer to use as a photo ship. I am not currently advertising the airplane anywhere.

I just want to plant a seed in case there is someone out there who might be interested. You would have plenty of time to do due diligence, test fly the airplane, raise the money, sell your current airplane, whatever. Email me if this sounds appealing, and I will provide photos of the airplane, and additional information.

Wow Royson, and meaning it has been you owning and maintaining it, there is no doubts about it's mechanical integrity.

I have for a long time drooled over the lines of the Cardinal.

So, I just asked Justina if she would rather have a very comfortable cross country plane, but, with limited short field potential. Or keep the some what cramped plane that can pretty much get in and out of most places without question?

She voted to keep what we have.

Bummer being able to afford only one airplane sometimes!

Bill
Grants Pass, Oregon

I can't afford the 150 i have , but I sure like pictures
John

Here a couple of photos of the Cardinal taken last week in the Bahamas by Tracey and Mary New. I'll take photos of the panel next time I'm at the airport.

Having owned a Cardinal (a 180 hp model) I can say they are an incredibly comfortable airplane with wonderful handling characteristics.

The 150 hp with powerflow would be a nice alternative to the 180 hp model and lightly loaded would be capable for nearly all flying situations.

I miss my Cardinal badly and Royson is offering an excellent deal. The Cardinal Flyers is an excellent organization. While it is not as "warm and fuzzy" as the 150/152 club, the technical knowledge on these birds is incredible from the group there and they are ready to offer advice at any time.

Opportunity knocks!

C'mon Jeff! You'd have the wings in the right place too!

Does it have an autopilot by chance? Pictures of the panel would be nice!

I'll tell a friend of mine who is thinking about buying a plane. Even better, he is one of a handful of people who still have money and wife approval to do so. The more detail the better. Thanks. BTW we'll look at it in Oshkosh. We'll need a good way to find you. Would it be with the 150-152's?

Here's what's in the panel:

Note that I have hardwired connections for both a Garmin 496 and 696, providing power, audio to the audio panel, and accepting data from the XRX traffic unit to either GPS.

All engine instruments are stock, there is a single channel analog EGT. The only unusual instrument is a coguardian 553 clock, which is an great instrument, it simultaneously displays local time and zulu time and can be toggled to show the following:
Flight time (automatically counts)
Stop Watch
Inside and Outside Temp in both F and C
Battery Voltage
Cabin Altitude (provides a brief warning when you climb above 10,000 feet)
Density Altitude
Carbon Monoxide Level in parts per million

I just installed the coguardian last month, it cost $700,is impressive and easy to use.

In May I upgraded the avionics stack and had the entire stack rewired. This included: Radiorax for $400 (these are faa/pma approved u channel tracks that make it super easy to install/uninstall and adjust components in the avionics stack.) http://www.radiorax.com The Radiorax are such a solid mounting point that the radios no longer require additional support brackets on the back side. Note the Radiorax are the blue stripes on the side of the radios in the photos

We installed an avionics cooling fan, and disconnected the external air duct that has a tendency to draw rain and other contaminants into the avionics.

Anyway, here's what is in the stack from the top:

1. A Bendix/King Colormap III. This is a portable VFR only GPS that has all the functions of a KMD 150 panel mount GPS, including terrain database. It uses the King panel mount kit, and can be removed in seconds. I have owned this Colormap III for several years, and had it serviced and updated last year. I had used it as a portable all along and decided I liked it well enough to panel mount it. It could be used to provide GPS data to a fuel flow instrument, which I intend to install in the future.

2. A new PS engineering 8000B audio panel. I have one of these in my 150, and like it so much I got one for the Cardinal. It is stereo, and has the capability of providing stereo entertainment from two sources simultaneously. This allows the back seat passengers to listen to their own music separate from the front seats, I have it set up so the co-pilot can choose to listen to either the front seat or back seat entertainment output.

3. An Garmin SL-40 comm (new)

4. A Bendix King KX125 Navcom, this has a built in CDI but is also connected to a King 209 external CDI, which is also connected to a King glideslope receiver.

5. A King KN-64 DME

6. A Narco AT165 transponder (new) Nice unit, all digital and solid state, displays the altitude that the encoder is squawking, has an automatic flight timer, manual timers and can optionally be used as an altitude reminder.

All new breaker panel for the avionics stack, and breakers for portable avionics, including three portable GPS units, and a XRX traffic alerter.

I also installed a mini switch panel that allows the traffic info to be routed to any of the three portable GPS units, and the entertainment channels from various sources etc.

Far more sophisticated than my panel. Very nice Royson.