RST Engineering wrote:
This is a good time to buy, the airplane market being somewhat depressed.
Whatever you buy, you need to be sure that it is either STCd or can be STCd
for autogas. Believe what you will, the world has exactly ONE supplier for
a critical component of 100/100LL. The ethanol thing will shake itself out
as the world braces for a sharp increase in the price of dinogas. There
will be a solution. THere always has been. Necessity, as somebody noted,
is a mother.

Skyhawk or Cherokee, whichever suits your fancy. Parts are a little easier
to get for the 172; the PA28 is a little roomier. Buy the airplane in the
WINTER. Summer prices are 10-20% higher.

You need two critical things right off the crack of the bat. One is an
A&P-IA that is a mean son of a bitch but will work with you to let you do
95% of the work on the airplane. Ply him or her with beer, (wo)men,
whatever to keep him or her around. The second is a set-aside of the
purchase money for a COMPLETE set of tools that is dedicated to the airplane
and not trucked to and from the airport from home.

Have your IA go over your intended with a fine tooth comb looking for
"stuff" that will have to be done to keep the bird birdworthy. There will
always be something ... tires, a cracked flap panel, burned out landing
light, all that stuff. Set your bidding price accordingly. If it means an
airline ticket for your IA and a day's wages to send him/her to the
airplane, cheap price to pay for finding a crack in the spar that will cost
thousands to replace.

Having said that, and being partial to Cessna for several reasons, I'd find
an ancient 172 with a mid time engine and crappy paint, lousy interior, and
terrible radios. Spend half your nut on the airframe itself and put the
other half in the bank. Fly the sucker for a hundred hours or so with rips
in the seats, crackly radios, and the "laughing stock" of the airport bums
for looks. To hell with them.

If your budget can afford it, a hangar is one of the best investments you
can make. It will pay for itself in allowing you to do 95% of the work on
the airplane in a semblance of comfort.

Do the radios/instruments first. You will have your filthy shoes on the
carpet and seats while you struggle with that one last nut on the tray on
the top of the stack and if you've done the interior first, you will kick
yourself silly for tracking crap all over your fine looking upholstery job.
I'm partial to used radios for a couple of reasons, not the least of which
you will spend half or less on a used radio than a new one. Don't fall for
the "yellow tag" trap. All that stupid yellow tag tells you is that some
radio shop puke ran it through its paces on the bench and it met certain
minimum standards. Will it crap out when the engine shakes the airplane?
Who knows. And don't fall for the "working when removed" line either. No
matter who you buy it from or where it came from, buy it with an ironclad
ten day or two week no questions asked money back (except for shipping)
return guarantee. As with your IA, make friends with your radio shop. TELL
them that you are doing your own work, but are more than willing to pay shop
labor to shake, rattle, and roll your prospective radio and find out if
there is anything that isn't up to snuff and back up their labor rate with
some sort of guarantee. The BEST guarantee, if you can find a radio shop
willing to do it, is a six month guarantee that if it breaks you will pay
actual parts cost and HALF the normal labor rate for repair during the
guarantee period.

Personally? I've got a pair of KX-170Bs with the associated nav heads. Old
radios? Sure, but there is a guy in Trade-A-Plane that specializes in this
particular model. They've never crapped out, but if they do, I know where
to get them fixed.

One last word on radios...make absolutely sure that ALL the connectors come
with the radios. If the connectors come with wires cut about six to twelve
inches from the connector, you may just wish to check out the various "hot
radio" lists to make sure yours wasn't "inadvertently removed" at midnight
somewhere.

Oh, notice all that yellowed cotton fabric insulation on the wiring that is
cracking? Hmmm...surplus stores nationwide have brand new mil-spec aviation
wire for pennies on the dollar. Might just as well do the wiring while you
are doing the radios. Hint ... use some sort of clear shrink sleeving and
color code the end of each wire as you replace it. Makes troubleshooting a
whole bunch easier. Hint #2. Download an old copy of Circuitmaker and
Traxmaker and become familiar with making your own schematic diagrams.
Again, makes troubleshooting a lot easier. Hint #3. Barrier strips and
crimp terminals are your friends. Again, again, makes troubleshooting...

At the same time you are doing your radios, pull all the instruments and
send them out for overhaul. (Nobody said this was going to be cheap.) I
personally prefer the Gyro House down in Auburn CA, but then again, I have
worked with them for thirty years or so. Get advice in this ng as to folks
who have had good results from the various overhaul shops around the
country.

Now your radio stack, wiring, and instruments are top notch. Give yourself
a year's flying with them. Enjoy.

Now do the upholstery. Tear the old stuff off right down to bare metal.
Prime the bare metal. Paint it with the best rattlecan paint you can find.
Go to Airtex and look at their catalog. They make, in my opinion, some of
the best upholstery stuff in the world. Or, you can do what Jay Honeck did
and find a local upholsterer that is doing a BIG leather job and have him do
your seats from the leather scraps from his big job. You will still need
carpet, side panels, and headliner from Airtex to match your seat color(s).

Fly the airplane for a year. Enjoy.

If you need any of the glass replaced, now is the time to do it. If you
don't, drilling rivets out of a new paint job will make you cry. Don't do
the windshield yourself. It is a lousy, dirty, messy job. Have somebody
else crack the new windshield and have to replace it out of their pocket.

Want a personal N-Number? Now is the time to do it. My airplane was
factory-christened N 5151 D. In '90 it became (ham radio operators note) N
73 CQ.

Now find a good paint shop and have them do the painting including the new
N-number.

Oh, did you keep a logbook of all this stuff? I don't mean the airplane
logs. I mean your personal logs. Any time you spend on the airplane
(including research and drawing schematics on the computer) is loggable
towards your A&P. YOu need 30 months of experience (35 hour weeks, as I
recall) just to sit for the exam, and after that (except for annuals) you
can sign your own work off. What's that? 5000 hours or so? Hell, you'll
have that halfway through the upholstery. Your IA can sign off verifying
your time. This is not an absolute requirement, but the local FSDO isn't
going to run you through the crap mill if you get the signature.

And what has all this bought you? Not only pilot time, but knowing the
airplane inside out. Knowing FOR SURE that when you flip the switch, the
lights will come on. And you can't buy that experience for love nor money.

Jim

(Oh, one last thing. You DID start your engine fund when you bought the
airplane, yes? By now it is probably a couple of hundred hours past TBO and
you might want to start looking at engine parts. You DO want to do the
engine yourself, don't you? {;-)

Jim,

As much as your an arrogant SOB at times you do make sense quite often.
I got my ap/ia in much the same way as you described.

It mostly started with my first airplane a PA22-150 and worked into a
Bonanza.

Airplane ownership is more than just flying an aircraft for less than
renting. Its making what you have better than the original and doing it
because you want to make it better and because you understand why it works.
Airplanes are not rocket science, that's why they are so reliable.
And an annual doesn't need to be as expensive as most IA's make it to be.
You fly because you love it, and you work on your own aircraft for the
same reason.

It's more than just dollars and cents, its a passion.

Dave