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This 150 caught my eye --> http://www.codeape.com/forsale

It has good paint, nice interior, 1068 SMOH, 4952 TT, Nacro mode C, and KX-175B nav/com.

The good: mid-time engine, nice looking, clean aircraft for very good price

The bad:
The plane has only flown 6 hrs in the last 12 months.

Radio is old and will need a slide in replacement. Suggestions?

and the biggie...
A/C ran out of fuel and pilot ditched into a tall corn field in 1986. The plane did not flip, nor did the prop strike according to the owner, but the wings were badly damaged. Both wings were replaced with used airworthy wings and aircraft was re-painted.

Other than that, the log entries he sent me look good. Compressions are all at or above 72/80.

Just to remind... I am looking for a plane to fly for 1.5-2 yrs, then sell. This engine has higher time than I'd like. I plan to put about 200 hrs on it, so would be selling a 150 with 1200 SMOH. That's getting up there. Also, the wing replacement is likely to be a problem for resale (I think). A full wing replacement isn't a huge deal in my book since its been flying for over 20yrs with them, but how do you think that will affect the re-sale?

I can get the plane for $17k. I think it's a fair price for the aircraft, but I need (want) be able to get back what I bought if for when I sell it. What do you all think?

Thanks for the help!!

It would be my opinion that if the airplane is in as good of shape as it appears, it is worth $17K.

In the larger scheme of things, if you own it for a year or two, maybe put 200 hours on the plane, you will probably do OK on the resale.

The unknown is the market, but say it turns down even further, you could still probably get around $15K, especially if you put in an MX300 radio, and do some general pride of ownership sprucing up, maybe repaint some of the interior plastic etc.

Doing the math, that's roughly an additional $10 an hour cost of flying for depreciation. In the big picture of airplane ownership, that's peanuts. And there's an even chance you'll do better than that.

The wing replacement wouldn't bother me, but the high time engine might. If you ask a fair price when you decide to sell you might scare off one or two buyers with the damage history, but common sense will prevail. Also you might ask a little more to give yourself some wiggle room.

Also you might have to put a couple of jugs on the airplane which change the metric some.

Geo.

Yeah, I am worried about having to replace the cylinders. I'm waiting to get all the logs from him. He's over in Italy at the moment with the Air Force. Still not sure if the cylinders have been replaced or overhauled since engine overhaul

Unless the market takes a turn for the worse, you should get your money back out at $17K. The 200 hours you put on it will have almost no effect on the value. Ditto to what all Royson said.

And I will ditto what Royson and Dan said. As far as that accident in 1986. Sheesh! That was 20+ years ago. If there was anything wrong with the A/C due to that accident, it woud have been ferreted out long ago.

By the way, Mr. Ed also found it's way into a corn field in 1983. 150's must have a taste for corn, eh?

I wouldn't be too concerned about the lack of use in the last year. Let hte mechanic who is doing the prebuy know how little time it has had, and he should know what to look for. Get an oil change done on it, and make sure that it runs well.

I purchased an aircraft with an engine that hadn't run for a year. It has proven to be a good reliable engine.

Just don't forget the prebuy inspection.

When was the engine done?

It may have some time left on it...but if it was done in the '70's...it needs to get done now doesn't it???

Waiting on engine logs to arrive to get the date. It was done before the current owner.

Sitting for a year, I worry about the cylinders, not the engine as a whole. Good compressions now could mean nothing in a couple months after the engine starts running frequently.

Just 1 year of extra-low hours shouldn't be a problem. It would not worry me if I were considering buying the airplane.