Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes 150/150. too cheap...

Chuck -
Apparently you mis-interpreted what I said, "but the niceities tend to go by the wayside."

Mechanically they are some of the best planes around - Yes long hours over the water.... They all corrosion treat the living daylights out of their planes. But when they sell the engines are usually RUN OUT! Why?-?- Because if they had anything left they would be generating cash with it. I had one buddy with a 172 that had 17,000 air frame hours on it and I'd fly it without hesitation. He upgraded to a 172RG. Couldn't get squat for the old 172 because of the airframe hours, I almost bought it but with or without a low time engine it would never have much value due to the high airframe time.

Most of the beginner fish spotters fly 150's to start and then graduate to larger planes with RG because of a possible water ditching, and larger passenger area because of long days in the air. I was advised by my AP to be very leery of these 150's because they are usually bought with the intention of flying and making enough money to upgrade. Spotters get paid by the hobbs hours and usually don't spend money on things like Rosen Visors, door seals, plastic trim, high dollar paint, or pretty interior carpet because this eats up income quickly. They will buy long range tanks, keep the motor in top shape, and usually one good radio.

As for wear and tear - interiors of these planes are usually fine - the pilot seat being worn and incidentals. They fly alot between landings - you can pretty much figure one TO and landing every 7 or so hours, therefore the usual things we think of being worn aren't. The pros do baby the planes they fly - they have to - repairs bite them twice as hard, once when they pay the bill and once because when it's down for repair the plane isn't turning the hobbs meter and therefore no income generated....

This is just my $.02... Take it for exactly that, but I can tell you from experience that if the yokes look like that it's salt air that did it - mine are comming off and getting refurbished after X-mas, paint is comming off in 1x1 inch pieces.... Never thought to ACF50 the yokes... Oh well - they will look better with leather wraps and installed PTT switches anyway.

Dave

I hear you Dave! I noticed how bad the yokes looked, almost moldy. Maybe they are moldy! Following this past hurricane season, they are a lot of salvage birds on the market that were once under water. Same thing happened after Hugo went throught the Carolinas a few years back. Some of these birds were flushed out (literally), dried out, and returned to service. Most likely should have been scrapped. There is a 150 on Barnstormers right now for less than half price. The text is misleading. But, in the accompanying picture in the ad, taken inside a small hangar, there is a folding table purched across one wing, with it's legs hanging down front and back. How did it get there? It floated there! The crankcase is probably still filled with seawater! No, I have no reason to believe the 150/150 above has been under water, but there has been some dampness inside, whether from a leak ...... or whatever.

David:

Perhaps a dumb question, but keep in mind that I'm an "inlander."

What kind of fish, and for whom do fish spotters spot? Is this a cottage industry for commercial pilots who own 150s?

Thanks.

I had a 1956 172 that was a fish spotter. Had about 5,000 hours, the bank guy thought I was out of my mind to even consider an airplane with that much time. This was about 1961. In those days 5,000 hours was a lot on a light plane. That airplane served me well till I traded it on my new 150F.

Geo.

Don,

I don't know about FL, but up here in New England, Fish Spotters go out and spot Tuna for the tuna boats. They can spot the schools and direct the boats to the tuna; it takes most of the guess work out of the fishing. Certain kinds of tuna bring big bucks in Japan. We are talking in excess of $10,000.00 - $15,000.00 for one fish.

It is dangerous work; you are out there sometimes 200 miles off shore on one engine; Droning along low and slow for 8 ? 10 hours. The aircraft are usually modified with extra external fuel tanks and operated under restricted utility or experimental categories. Lots of new Commercial pilots take the risk as a way to build time.

Found this article on a quick search: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/safina-ocean.html

In Florida, "Fish Spotter" also includes contracted aircraft used by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Game Wardens, too), EPA, Environmental Activist groups, Coast Guard, and others, for monitoring discharges into our waterways (by powerplants, paper mills, loggers, construction, and other industry), algae and other vegetative growth, endangered species census (manatees, sea turtles, whales, etc.), obstructions to navigation, and of course, fish and shrimp spotting and general Bikini watching!

Typically the big one here is menhaden, Omega Protien contracts the spotters to find them - used for fish oil, makeup, protein base, etc.(Google Omega Menhaden for more) - the schools are easily spotted from a plane and then the purse boats are radioed to them. They also use them for tuna as stated earlier - by the way - a giant sushi grade tuna can be worth as much as $80,000.00 for one fish - and many of the "upper end" charter boats do pay significant finders fees when on commertial or just party type trips.... For some of those captains if they land a money fish while on a charter, the captain claims the fish, comps the charter fees of 700 - 1200 dollars for the day, and pays for his boat with the fish. It is however a tough job as many of the Captains go 2 or 3 years without catching a big $ fish. You can always tell who did catch one though, usually drives a new truck...

Dave

[quote
a giant sushi grade tuna can be worth as much as $80,000.00 for one fish [/quote]

Too bad there isn't some way a person could do some tuna ranching. Raise a couple dozen of those big rascals and we could be living the good life. Hmmmmm. Wonder if steroids work on tuna?

Don

As David said, school of menhaden are actively pursued along the Viginia/N.Carolina coastline. Spotters are used to track the migration of bluefins from Hatteras to Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) and back, or from Bimini to NS in case of the giants bluefin. But even more importantly, spotters especially from the mid-atlantic up to the Grand Banks are used to find the gulf stream. This corridor of warm water that moves from around the keys to Newfoundland carries life. Planktons, baitfish, etc thrives in that warm current. The problem for fishermen is that the gulf stream constantly moves. Depending on where you live, it could be 70 miles away one day or 90 miles the other. Secondly, along the stream are eddies. Think of it as a vortice that broke away from the stream and is spinning away from the main body. As that eddie breaks away, so does the baitfish. As an eddie moves further away from the main stream, it also decreases in size and speed and it concentrates the baitfish. Remember that this eddie's temperature maybe 75F while the water outside it maybe be 70F. The baitfish,unlike tuna, can't regulate their body temperature so they have to stay with the eddie. So effectively, the eddie has become a trap for baitfish. I've run across eddies that could not have been more than 500 yard wide. Within that body of water were blue marlin, dolphin(mahi-mahi), yellowfin tuna and mako. They were feasting on baitfish. If you're into big game fishing and tournaments, finding such an eddie usually translates into a top finishing place.
Sorry for being long winded... fishing has always been a passion for me..