Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Airplanes Only Decided to sell my Cessna 150 E

The real stress is on the buyer, if you write a sales contract which specifies when payments must be made, what the minimum payment must be, and that all money is forfeited if a payment is missed beyond a certain time frame. Who knows, you might end up with half the money AND the airplane!

I've done this with houses and it works beautifully. The trick is to get a really good attorney to write the contract, which the buyer pays for since it's a convenience for him. States have different laws regarding what has to be done in what amount of time. If you agree the monthly payments have to be on the 1st with 10 days maximum before it all defaults, even if you agree in a contract, some states might say that you had to give him 15 days and when you go to Court it all gets thrown out and you end up losing. These types of sales work but with a good attorney.

Hi again Anthony.

3 quick questions:
1- When was the aircraft painted and was it due to some kind of hangar rash?
2- When was the engine overhaul done and how much has it flown in 2015?
3- Do you have a hangar available to perform the pre-buy inspection?

I'm definitely getting my runway extended so I won't necessarily be needing a 150/150 making me very interested in your airplane. Of course my problem, as I'm sure many here that would love to buy your airplane, is the distance so the logistics add up.

Aside from the slow economy, and soft aviation market, and not everybody is a pilot or wants to learn, and the fact that you can rent a 150 locally for $89 and hour, all of this makes this a luxury purchase, and not many people have a spare $15k laying around.

But aside from all of that I know there are people actively looking to buy an aircraft, I know because I'm one of them however I think distance is the main reason why you haven't sold it. It's an awesome plane for the price and I'm still very interested but when you add up all these costs it seems to me that people want to buy something closer to home.


For example this is what I'm looking at if I decide to buy a plane in the Northeast:

Day 1: Fly up there commercially with a trusted A&P to do the pre-buy inspection. Have you do a flight test with my A&P since she has a many hours in a 150, she used to own one. That night go over logbooks to prepare for the pre-buy and start it if you have a hangar available to do it.

Day 2: Complete the Pre-Buy Inspection and order a Title Search which I suppose hopefully should be done by that afternoon or next day. She's also an I-A so if anything pops up in the inspection she can handle it.

Day 3: If it's all good you get paid, we sign everything and we leave for Texas.

Day 4: If all goes well we arrive in Texas after about 11 or 12 flight hours if we get a good tailwind. If anything delays us then another night in 2 hotel rooms.

Day 5: Finally arrive at home !

That's 3 or 4 nights in hotels for two, food, airline tickets for two, a few days of A&P charges. It can quickly add up to between $2,000.00 and $3,000.00 of additional cost. Am I missing anything?

1. I believe there was a hard nosewheel landing in 1989. That is when they repainted I believe and put in a remanufactured engine. The pilot\owner who was an engineer had a heavy duty nose gear put on.

2. A remanufactured engine installed in 1989. I flew it 15 hours last year.

3. I have it in a community hangar, and the prebuy inspection can be done there.

People have been asking how much the useful load with a full tank of gas. The empty weight as configured is 1077. With 36 gallons it weighs 1293. So that leaves a useful load of 307.

Some other things. Mechanically everything works.

There are new mufflers, I had the carb replaced. When I first purchased I had to replace the wheels. I also had a spin oil filter adapter installed. On the last annual, the seat rails passed but barely. They will need to be replaced on the next annual. They are screwed down and not riveted. It has a new Gill sealed battery (not the older one but the new improved one)

Also, I use cam guard in it.

Hi Anthony.

I just spent a few minutes on Trade-a-plane's website. Based on what I saw there, your price is VERY GOOD (actually too low). I suspect with the sale that fell through, it has just put you at a time when not a lot of people are looking for airplanes. I hate to see you leave our nest here, but good luck. Be sure to recommend the Cessna 150-152 Club to the new owner.

Yup - you have it exactly right. The price is too low and I will be losing on it considering what I paid for it and the parts I put into it. But I do need to sell.

I think I know a guy from Arkansas who bought a 150-150 with LR tanks and the Horton STOL kit up in Alaska a couple years ago.

And about 10 years ago, I think that same guy and his wife flew commercially from Arkansas to Sacramento to inspect a 152 which was a total bust but two weeks later he was in Cleveland where he found "the right" 152 and flew it home.

East Texas to New York just ain't much of a hike for the right plane.

As you shop around looking at planes, you're going to kiss a lot of frogs as you search and search. There's a lot of used junk out there, AKA the Sacramento 152.....they are everywhere.

Ideally, a buyer finds the right plane in his own backyard and life is good but the odds are against that. As the fleet continues to age, finding "the right" plane is becoming more difficult as the passage of time is taking its toll.

I don't have a horse in this race but if you pay the 2k - 3k price of admission for a plane that's being sold under "market value" (whatever that is) and you end up buying that plane, don't you end up with a plane that is close to the perceived market value?

Maybe your biggest risk is spending the 2k - 3k and end up walking away because you found an issue or two that can't be resolved, AKA Sacramento again?

The cost of your pre-buy using your IA is going to remain consistent regardless of the 150/152 she inspects. It's the travel expenses that are the wild card.

Now, if the plane was brought to you and the inspection goes well, you buy the plane and pay for his ticket home (or split it) and you're money ahead??

Just my 2 penny's worth which buys food for thought.



Jim