Sonny, at your age and income bracket, stick to reading magazines and
renting.
Flying is a rich man's sport, a poor man's fantasy, or an up-scale blue
collar job. You can't afford it.
If you want to fly, go join the air force.


"John B" wrote in message
om...
Hello all,

I'm looking for an airplane to purchase or build, but I can't find one
that meets all of my needs/wants (yes, I know, all airplanes are a
bucket of compromises). So, I'm asking all of you out there for
advice on any airplanes that would fit this profile.

Important to Haves:
- could be kept outdoors (eliminates fabric?)
- can carry 2 people
- could be eligible for sport pilot flight (1232lbs gross)
- could cruise at 95+ kts
- could do limited/basic aerobatics
- has at least reasonable short/soft field performance (say
1500-2000' grass)
- is relatively cheap to fly (engine 115hp or so, decent TBO,
5-6gph cruise)
- it's not a one-off design that has no parts support or can't be
insured
- if I have to build it, it needs to be "easy" (I've never built
something, a quoted time of ~400hrs maybe?)

Nice to Haves:
- side-by-side seating
- tricycle gear (mostly for insurance)
- could be used to teach my Dad to fly (in terms of flying/landing
qualities..I'm thinking sport-pilot-esqe, so I don't know about the
regulations/legalities yet)
- I'm partial to high-wing, just because of the view down, rather
than the view up.
- Is a type-certificated airplane (I am seriously considering a
homebuilt, but would prefer something that I could be flying sooner
rather than later)
- could have gyros/ifr certified? This is very low priority, but if
it could not be grounded by "benign" ifr, that would be a bonus

From my research, I can't find an airplane that meets all these
ideals. Something like a Citabria might be close, but the fabric
wings/wood spar rule it out (hangars are 5x more expensive than
tiedown at my airport, and you can't get one anyway even if you
wanted). Something like a Zenith Experimental is close, but I don't
think you can do aerobatics in a 601, and the 701 is much more STOL
(and slower cruise) than I want. Also, the sport-pilot criteria are
greatly limiting, so that would probably be the first to go, although
I do have a few friends that are interested in the sport pilot license
and might be potential partners if it can fit.

I'm a 24 year old professional engineer, with about 190hrs total time,
with a private SEL w/ instrument rating. I don't have tons of money
by any means, but I think right now I could afford maybe
$20,000-$30,000 worth of airplane, as long as the operating costs are
reasonably low (in airplane terms ;-) I just want something that I
can fly around on nice days, take friends along sometimes, could learn
to do limited aerobatics (yes, I would definitely take lots of
lessons), and could take on trips of up to 80nm to visit family around
the area.

Thanks everybody, and I welcome any suggestions of airplanes as well
as suggestions of ways to change my criteria above from those who've
been through my experience before.

John Bumgarner