First non-pilot passenger

Louis L. Perley III wrote:

This wasn't a rental, I own this C152, so today I'll be heading back to
the airport with some Febreeze. Whoever came up with that stuff is a
genius!. Overall it mainly stayed in the carseat, so it wasn't as messy as I
feared it would be. It was one of the rare occasions when I was grateful to
have a plane made in the '70s complete with orange seats and carpeting which
will make any stains that much harder to spot.

First, congrats on your first passenger.

Beyond cleaning up messes, you'll find lots more reasons to be glad about
owning an inexpensive, older plane over the next few years. Of course,
you'll be down to driving speed (or worse) with a headwind, and I'm sure
you've already heard the joke about the Airworthiness Directive for
150/152's requiring you to reinforce the tail against bird strikes, but when
you're paying US $10-15/hour for gas, I bet that you'll be flying a lot
while the gas-guzzling twins and high-performance singles are just sitting
on the ramp (fuel-efficient Mooneys excepted, of course).

You'll probably also love your $500-$1,000 annuals, low insurance costs, and
the total lack of any temptation to go out and spend $20-30K to put in a new
leather interior or a Garmin stack. You also won't always be hovering
around fretting that the line guy is going to scratch your perfect paint
with the tractor or gas nozzle.


All the best,


David