Hi Royson, I believe you own a cessna 150L 1973 the same model i am planning to buy. I am sending you a photograph of the cockpit and want you expertise opinion as how it looks.
Ivan is heading away from us and i might pick up the plane today. This one looked pretty good to me. Just wanted to know in what condition the instrument panel looks to you compared to others 150s in the market. The outside looks in excellent condition, new paint, wheels, windshield, seats, carpet, new rebuilt engine (5 hrs). My concern only is that he is using car gas 87 to break in the engine and from what i read in needs lead the first 40 hours. I am enclosing another picture of the plane. ty
She is pretty! No doubt about it! It is obvious you have fallen in love with her, and I don't think anything anyone says is going to keep you from having her. I only hope you have done your homework.
There are many, many posts on this forum detailing what you should do and look at before deciding on a purchase. I strongly suggest that you review these various posts, and try to make an informed decision on whether or not this is truly the airplane of your dreams.
As for the panel, you will need to start building your savings for the day that old Cessna 300 radio quits on you. Repairs are expensive (if not impossible), and replacement becomes a more economical option in the long run. The "com panel" takes up an awful lot of space, and that old Narco transponder could be a future problem.
Have you used any of the online appraiser programs? They may not be accurate for a specific airplane, but they will give you ball park figures to work with. Bottom line, she's worth what you're willing to pay for her, but you have to be happy with your decision later on!
Good luck with your new love.
Carl
P.S. You might want to hold off on purchase until "Ivan" has passed! Several recent hurricanes have made last minute trak changes and have caught people off guard. A few more days shouldn't make any difference, and you don't want to buy anything just to have it damaged! Let the current owner take that risk!
The tan plastic on the sides looks in great shape with bright shiny screws where they should be.
Check for end play at the prop. If you don't know what that is, have someone who does know check for it. Check the bushings where the elevator attaches to the horizontal stab. No play there. If possible, have a mechanic check the torque on the cylinder bolts. (Don't ask why I know). Have you had a prebuy done yet by an off-field mechanic?
thank you very much Carl for taking your time to write me your comments and suggestions. severals people has told me the same about the radios and for what i am paying it is defenitely something to think about.
Have not done a pre buy, but i won't buy it without having a mechanic seeing it inside out. Thanks for the tips Greg!
Hurricane Ivan keeps moving further west, but like you said "better safe than sorry"
Is the plane currently owned by a dealer/broker or private owner? The FAA records shows "Sale Reported" around Feb '04. If it's being sold by a private owner, ask why he didn't own it too long.
He bought it from a person that died a short time ago. What he does is he buys planes and restores thems, he has his own shop. I really don't know what condition the was previously, that's something that would have to be determine from the log books. The plane has TT 1800 and 5 hrs smoh. The engine was rebuilt by a shop in his area. I do not know the terms very well, but he reskined entirely the plane, put new windows, seats, carpet, wheels, plastics, screws, rebuilt propeller and painted it. It really looks very nice, but has only few hours flying. I have to break the engine which only has 4 hours or so and as mentioned before, he is using car gas 87. That's a big gray area from my research. Also, i am finding out that the radios are not good and to replace them(MX300 and transponder) it will cost around $2500. He is asking $29,500 for the plane. It is much more than what i wanted to spent. My idea was to get a plane that i have to put very little money in the future. Anyway, this is a great club, you guys great, I feel like I have a whole bunch of new friends and i hope in the future i can return your favors by doing a video like i did to my other club www.lafa.com [lafa.com] (check it out).
I spent $25,000 for my plane and also figured I wouldn"t have to put a lot into it. It too was just overhauled. A suggestion made to me was to let the plane get more hours on the new overhaul because if something shows up, it should show up in the first 50 hours or so. (However, with this low hours, one can break it in as he wants it to be broken in.) However, if 50 hours were put on my plane before I purchased it, I could have saved the money in correcting corrosion in the fuel tanks and having the bolts pull out of the lower case. Someone said that with your first annual on the plane you buy, expect to spend more money than just the annual fee. I believe this is really true, even if you have a recently restored-overhauled plane. I believe now the "kinks" should be out of my plane and I should have many years where the major cost will only be the annual---$250 owner assisted in this area. (But I won't be holding my breath and I don't plan to quit my second job that supports my flying addiction).
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