Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes Finding the right one seems overwelming

My wife and I have danced around the issue for many years now but never been serious enough or to busy with the other demands of life to give it our full attention.

We both love to fly and not until recently did the love of flying bug bite me really hard. About a month ago I bought a piece of construction equipment from a guy who just so happened to also have his 150, his 172 and his friends 182 for sale. He had recently bought the plane of his dreams, a cardinal, and needed the hanger space. Plus, his interest and focus was now on the new plane.

At his urging I went to take a look at the planes never really taking the thought of me being able to purchase a plane serious. Since I had never taken it serious I really didn't have any idea what a plane costs.

We talked on and on about flying, differences in each type of plane etc. He started out from the top of the line he had on hand and moved down the scale. He pointed out all the main differences, features and prices. All the others were quite nice and all but not really within my affordability range. Then he got to the 150! Eureka! a plane I felt I could afford. When that barrier was taken away, I was hooked.

Quite honestly until that day I couldn't tell you even the most basic differnces between any of them. Boy oh boy what a months worth of total infatuation has done for me. I find myself on this website soaking up ever little shred of each post and then running back to the classifieds to then try to pick out the right one.

My wife is a little more reserved about this whole thing than I am. It's not that she doesn't want to fly as much as I do. It's that she is worried that this infatuation of mine will subside and if she gets her hopes up to much, well, she will be dissappointed in the end if we don't find the time to devote to this as we intended.

We went flying yesterday in a 150 that a local doctor has for sale. We both had a great time and she is starting to allow herself to get a little more excited.

I've been following you all for several weeks now and went back and read most of the archived posts. There are many of you that are very helpful with specific technical questions and none of you seem to be lacking in opinion.

I've read all the recommendations about about buying a plane, etc. But, the task of finding the right plane seems almost to difficult. Now this is where I hope that besides offering advice you will go out on a limb and get specific about helping us find the right plane.

What I'm asking you to do is review the classifieds here on the club wedsite and tell me your top 2,3 or 4 choices based upon your experience and the contents of the ad. No tail draggers please. Your bubget is in the mid twenties or less but still trying to get the most practical bang for the buck. If you saw something that caught your eye in the upper teens that would be OK as well. I definately won't discriminate because of low price.

Some may take the position that I am asking you to do my work for me. Believe me I am working plenty hard on it myself but with so many choices out there and spread so far and wide across the country the task of finding a plane seems overwhelming. All I'm really hoping to get out of this is a concensus of opinion that I hope will help me to narrow my choices down to three or four that I can go and visit. It's to cost prohibitive to see the 15 or so planes that have caught my eye. If there are those of you that would like to help but keep your comments private you can post me privately or email me at revans@hnb.com Also, for those of you that want to give me the benefit of your thoughts as to why you chose the ones that you did, I would very much appreciate the insight.

You good people have a world of knowledge more than I about avionics, and all the other considerations that should be taken into account and I hope to utilize your expertize and opinion to help speed this process up so that I don't get to eager and make a hasty decision that I will regret.

Rusty,

I don't think you'll get too many responses to your post.
You've got to narrow it down for us.
Find a plane (or two) that you think you are interested in.
We can work with that.

Rusty
Overwelming is probably the wrong way to look it.
Maybe a grand adventure would be a better description.
I bought my plane almost two years ago.(N150RW)It took me over six months and I visited a lot of airports. And probably look at close to 200 the different 150. This was great fun. what a great opportunity to learn more about these wonderful little birds. when you find the right one you'll know it.
good luck
Martin
N150RW
www.gowildlife.org [gowildlife.org]

Well, you got that part right, Rusty!

You've read the posts, so you know to take your time and learn all you can. Great start!

Here's a hint: If you want to know what to look for/look out for when buying a 150/152, go talk to a mechanic...or two...or several! Make sure they regularly do annuals on these birds! You already know how much info is available here, too!

Keep visiting the forum! Whenever a good deal shows up just about anywhere on the web (especially club classifieds), it ususally becomes a topic for discussion!

Carl

Also, Rusty, I think STephen or someone suggested getting a "Buying Buddy" to help in your decision making. This would be someone with some ownership experience and hopefully some 150/152 understanding to help overcome the emotional aspects of buying.

Getting a buying buddy was my idea.

Most likely, your personal taste will narrow the field.
Some guys like the older planes. Some like the later models. Some guys only want a 152.

If you aren't willing to scour the country like I did,
you might limit your search to your state or the ajoining states.

My point is--- with very little effort, "hundreds" narrows to "a handful".

Thanks for the advice guys. The 150G, N3760J, we went flying in Saturday afternoon is owned by a local Chiropractor who is now 74 and feels like he is on the verge of loosing his medical. The plane has been hangered and is only about 8 miles from our home. It is IFR equipped(so he says, I don't what constitutes this), TTAF 5084 SMOH 69 (Nov. 2002)with new magnetos this July 04'. Last annual was March 2003. It has a King 170-VOR and intercom system with pilot PTT with 2 headphones, At 150 Narco transponder and Garmin 195 GPS hard wired with yoke mount. Interior and exterior(original paint) are both probably a 6-7. Seats were redone in 2002 at the time of overhaul. All logs are available.

Ironically, this plane is the same plane that my neighbor's father used to own and he learned to fly in it. This neighbor is a CFI and will be training both me and my wife @ $25/hr and will only charge one money for the lesson time spent on the ground when we attend together. Best I can tell, that's a good deal!

The owner talks about the tricycle landing gear being replaced and upgraded to one from a 152. What is he talking about? Apparently the 152 nosegear is better? Also, at overhaul he replaced the engine with an 0-200 from a 1972 model. He felt like this was better in some way but I don't see how. I wouldn't think it would make much difference.

Everything seems to fit, right? The problem is he has kept every receipt for repairs and upgrades totalling over $22,000 from the day he purchased it(not a bad thing in and of itself), and has added this to his purchase price of $15,700 he paid for it 3-4 years ago, for a grand total of $37,000.

I've been researching our club classfieds, AOPA classfieds, tradeaplane, the plane exchange and watching eBay for about 2-3 weeks now. Based upon comparisons I've found, it seems to me fair market value should be $25,000 tops (probably $23.5K is closer to fair) and that's only because it is right here at home and he is willing to finance it for 25% down at 6.5%

You asked me to narrow it down for you a bit so I'm throwing this one out at you.

Yesterday, I went to the club classfieds and printed off probably 20 listings of planes that were comparable in one way or another. They were from $20,000 to $26,000 with many around that $23-24K range. I'm hoping to present him with these to him in an effort to open his eyes to what the market effectively is. I hope he will understand that although the money he has spent on the overhaul, new magnetos etc. add value, they are also simply a part of normal and routine maintenance that must eventually be preformed. Also, wouldn't it be customary or prudent to require a fresh annual at his expense since the plane is out of annual?

I have one incentive in my favor, he really loves to fly, been flying since the 1950's. He's owned several planes over the years and both his son's learned to fly, etc. He would very much like to sell it to someone local so he could go flying from time to time. I hope this will also influence his decision to revise his price.

Any comments or suggestions about the value of the plane(taking the intangibles into consideration), my strategy to try and get him to revise the price or anything else that comes to mind.

By the way, I talked to my CFI and asked him what training materials I would be needing when we get started. We both farm and the wet weather is delaying the conclusion of this years harvest. We both want to put it behind us so we can give this training our full attention.

Today I ordered FAA-H-8083-3A the newly revised 2004 edition of Airplane Flying Handbook from aerotraining.com
I also ordered the private pilots 141 kit from jeppesens.com which included the private pilots manual, PP Maneuvers, logbook, etc.

These were the only things he has told me to order at this point. I'm looking forward to getting this show on the road. Anybody got any other sage training advice, tips or materials they want to recommend?

From your post, I didn't really get the impression that this was the asking price ($37,500) but rather the "amount invested". If he has bought and sold other airplanes, then I would assume he knows to see what the market value is.

A couple of things you need to do. Get a list of the installed radio's and find out what "type" of major overhaul was done. Was it a field overhaul by the local A/P or to new limits or ??? I am guessing a field overhaul which does not enhance the value as much.

One other thing....the replacement with a 152 nose strut sounds fishy to me. You really need to carefully go over the logs, and see if there was damage. For instance...if the engine and prop were rebuilt at the same time the nose strut was replaced, it would kind of sound like she was made a one-off retractable for a day (i.e. crunched the nose gear).

If you are interested in this bird, approach the owner and say...okay...I am interested. What is your asking price? and may I start by going through your receipts and logbooks with my mechanic (you do have your OWN mechanic right?)?

If he gives you a $30K price....walk. If he balks on the logbooks....walk.

I guess perhaps I wasn't clear, but yes he is asking 37K for her. I hope to give him a reality check by presenting him with copies of the classifieds. I honestly think he is merely out of touch with the market as he has just this past week decided to sell her.

No I don't have a mechanic yet but thanks for the advice. I'll get busy talking to the local airports to see what's available.

Buy the way, he has indeed offered to share all logs, receipts etc. with me already. I haven't taken him up on it because quite frankly I wouldn't know what all to look for anyway. I think finding the mechanic is my next step so I can have someone to look at that stuff who knows what they are looking at.

Thanks, Rusty