Ben Hallert wrote:

I can scrounge together around $20-25K out of pocket and I hate to
finance things. Since I'm an extremely low-time pilot, I don't want to
go flying with my family until I've got more practice. I've put this
together, made some cost of ownership calculations, and here's what I'm
thinking of:

Piper Tomahawk w/ IFR stack. I've seen nice looking, low time aircraft
listed in places for the 20-25 range. Here's what I get:

1. Full ownership, no financing.
2. IFR capable in the indicated pricerange.
3. Enough usable space to carry me and an instructor (I'm 250, leaving
about 160 to for a fully fueled plane).
4. Low wing
5. Low cost of ownership.

If $20-25K is what you have available, that's not enough to buy a plane with a
$20-25K purchase price. Take a look through the various threads here about
buying a first plane. There's one thing everyone here agrees on, and that is
that you don't want to blow your whole wad on the purchase. The cost of
operating and maintaining an airplane is widely variable and unpredictable. You
need to be ready for a multi-thousand dollar surpsise at any time. Doesn't
matter how good your pre-buy inspection was.

Nevertheless, I hope you go ahead and do it, join the rest of us in self-induced
poverty. :-)

Dave