What would you buy with a 50k budget?

In article , Kirk Ellis wrote:

The only way to acheive the lofty goal of becoming an experienced
pilot, would require an aircraft in the 80k to 100k price range. Add
to that the cash reserves for the gotchas and the typical operating
costs and let's just say I will have to wait until I win the lotto to
see this dream come true.

Look at older aircraft that aren't quite as expensive to purchase as
"newer" aircraft. If you limit yourself to a 30 year old aircraft, you
are going to pass on older cherokee 140 and cherokee 160 aircraft.
These can have the useful load to carry 3 and you don't have to
spend $80,000 to buy one. They also are more likely to be able
to run autogas.

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

Horsefeathers. I just looked in the latest Trade-A-Plane with its somewhat
inflated prices and you can get a '56 172 with a 700 hour engine for $27.5
and that's the ASKING price. A '59 for $29.5. A '59 Tripacer for $27. A
'53 for $19.5. A '64 Cherokee 140 for for $24.9 and another one for $24.9.

My hit on it is that you wanted a reason to stop flying and the idiots in
this ng gave you that reason.

Jim




In the meantime, I have decided to push this long standing, all
consuming passion out the door. It will be difficult to turn in my
wings, but necessary.

Cheers
Kirk

On May 18, 12:27*pm, "RST Engineering"
wrote:
Horsefeathers. *I just looked in the latest Trade-A-Plane with its somewhat
inflated prices and you can get a '56 172 with a 700 hour engine for $27.5
and that's the ASKING price. *A '59 for $29.5. *A '59 Tripacer for $27.. *A
'53 for $19.5. *A '64 Cherokee 140 for for $24.9 and another one for $24..9.

My hit on it is that you wanted a reason to stop flying and the idiots in
this ng gave you that reason.

Jim





In the meantime, I have decided to push this long standing, all
consuming passion out the door. It will be difficult to turn in my
wings, but necessary.

Cheers
Kirk- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I am with Jim on this.. If there is a will, there is a way... You have
lost your will...

Ben.......

On Sun, 18 May 2008 11:27:48 -0700, "RST Engineering"
wrote:

Horsefeathers. I just looked in the latest Trade-A-Plane with its somewhat
inflated prices and you can get a '56 172 with a 700 hour engine for $27.5
and that's the ASKING price. A '59 for $29.5. A '59 Tripacer for $27. A
'53 for $19.5. A '64 Cherokee 140 for for $24.9 and another one for $24.9.

I have seen those ads, but from the reading I have done I am getting
the impression that we would need perhaps 15k to 20k in cash lying
around for any used airplane that we purchase plus the down payment.
On a monthly basis we could easily afford the payments on a ten year
note for a 50k aircraft and be able to afford the fuel, but that
reserve cash for those never ending maintenance items is not readily
available to us and is the deal breaker right now. One or our
considerations is to take out signature loans of about 8k to 10k each
but not sure yet if that is really an option. I think the best thing
right now is to quit renting / flying for the next two years and put
as much as I can afford each month into a purchase fund. Perhaps then,
I can treat myself to a 1/2 partnership in a reasonably sound XC
aircraft when I turn 57. All the while though we will keep our medical
current... FAA willing.

My hit on it is that you wanted a reason to stop flying and the idiots in
this ng gave you that reason.

Jim

I have never wanted to stop flying, ask my wife. She is tired of
hearing about it constantly, but she doesn't understand what it means
to me. All she wants is the boat and couldn't care less about flying
in a single engine spam can. Next year the boat will be paid for. Then
I can put a few more dollars away for another year. After that it will
be MY turn. But there are so many variables that can pop up over a 2
year period that we have no control over. Just gotta keep our fingers
crossed.

But two years go by very quickly at this age. My pilot friend and I
only hope we will be able still fly into our eighties (if we make it
that far) as Bob Hoover was able to do. Maybe then we will consider
ourselves adequate pilots.

Kirk

In the immortal words of a very dear old friend who passed away a few years
ago:

"I had a wife like that once." (G.Baxter)

Jim

--
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it."
--Aristotle


I have never wanted to stop flying, ask my wife. She is tired of
hearing about it constantly, but she doesn't understand what it means
to me. All she wants is the boat and couldn't care less about flying
in a single engine spam can.

On Sun, 18 May 2008 12:54:03 -0700, "RST Engineering"
wrote:

In the immortal words of a very dear old friend who passed away a few years
ago:

"I had a wife like that once." (G.Baxter)

Jim

Great line that I vaguely recall seening somewhere before...

And from a rather well known author....

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea."
-- Robert Heinlein

Kirk Ellis wrote:


I have seen those ads, but from the reading I have done I am getting
the impression that we would need perhaps 15k to 20k in cash lying
around for any used airplane that we purchase plus the down payment.
On a monthly basis we could easily afford the payments on a ten year
note for a 50k aircraft and be able to afford the fuel,


$50K budget for a cross country machine that won't eat you alive with
fuel bills? Late 50's Bonanza. 180-185 MPH on 11-12 GPH. 150 MPH on
8.5 GPH. Mine's a 64 and I have a bigger engine but the airframes are
basically the same. I would guesstimate $1000-1500 per year in
maintenence outside the annual. You don't need any cash "laying
around", that's a foolish way to keep an asset like that anyways. You
just need access to cash if you should happen to need it, no need for
there to be instant access. Get a home equity line of credit but never
tap it.

On Sun, 18 May 2008 14:29:18 -0600, Newps wrote:

$50K budget for a cross country machine that won't eat you alive with
fuel bills? Late 50's Bonanza. 180-185 MPH on 11-12 GPH. 150 MPH on
8.5 GPH. Mine's a 64 and I have a bigger engine but the airframes are
basically the same. I would guesstimate $1000-1500 per year in
maintenence outside the annual. You don't need any cash "laying
around", that's a foolish way to keep an asset like that anyways. You
just need access to cash if you should happen to need it, no need for
there to be instant access. Get a home equity line of credit but never
tap it.

Are half century old airplanes still viable machines? It sounds scary
buying something that is almost as old as I am.

The point about the cash is well taken. I may be able to work that
out....of course the "partner" I share the boat with will have
something to say about the equity line of credit.

I have had my mid-fifties Bo for three years and love it.I trust it
with my families lives. I don't fly it much but the guy I bought it
from was putting over 200hrs a year on it.
As long as it has been well maintained and has no corrosion problems,
there is nothing scary about a 50 year old airplane.
Robert


On Sun, 18 May 2008 16:41:16 -0400, Kirk Ellis wrote:

On Sun, 18 May 2008 14:29:18 -0600, Newps wrote:

$50K budget for a cross country machine that won't eat you alive with
fuel bills? Late 50's Bonanza. 180-185 MPH on 11-12 GPH. 150 MPH on
8.5 GPH. Mine's a 64 and I have a bigger engine but the airframes are
basically the same. I would guesstimate $1000-1500 per year in
maintenence outside the annual. You don't need any cash "laying
around", that's a foolish way to keep an asset like that anyways. You
just need access to cash if you should happen to need it, no need for
there to be instant access. Get a home equity line of credit but never
tap it.

Are half century old airplanes still viable machines? It sounds scary
buying something that is almost as old as I am.

The point about the cash is well taken. I may be able to work that
out....of course the "partner" I share the boat with will have
something to say about the equity line of credit.

In 1967, I bought my first airplane, a 1947 Cessna 120. Flew the sucker for
a half a thousand hours from San Diego to Lake Tahoe a dozen times, St.
Louis twice, and Boston once...not a lick of problems. Swapped that one for
a 1948 Cessna 170 in 1969 for 1500 hours. Flew that one from San Diego to
Oshkosh half a dozen times, no sweat. When I started teaching, I swapped
that one for a 1964 172 in 1975. Flew that one from San Diego and Grass
Valley from '64 to '98 to Oshkosh every year, up and down the coast a few
dozen times, 3000 hours, but finally had a "character building experience"
that totalled the airplane but not a scratch on me or my passengers. Took
the insurance money from that one and bought a derelict '58 182 that I found
in a farmer's henhouse (literally) down in Fresno for $4500, completely
steamcleaned the chicken **** out of it, completely stripped every wire,
nut, and screw off of it, replaced everything with all new wiring and
hardware, did a "new" used radio stack, had all the instruments overhauled,
upholstered, painted, and still had cash left over in the bank from the 172
insurance payoff. For all intents and purposes, since 1990 it has been a
"new" airplane (except for motor, and we've done a pristine top about 200
hours ago), it's been all over the western USA and Oshkosh more than a dozen
times, with around 1500 hours and only one minor glitch.

Ask anybody that has seen it - Jay, Jack, Bob, Montblack, Dan, Mike, and
all the rest of the Oshkosh Mafia. It isn't a "show" airplane, but it is
right up there with anything the factory has ever put out.

So, no, I have nothing but good to say about older airplanes. After all,
they've been "proven" for half a century and most of the nastys have been
taken care of. Fatigue is a factor, but not as much as you might think.
Clyde Cessna built one hell of a machine back in those days. So did Bill
Piper.

Jim

--
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it."
--Aristotle



Are half century old airplanes still viable machines? It sounds scary
buying something that is almost as old as I am.