Is ownership worth it?

To explain, there is an aircraft paint shop in ‘beautiful’ Compton, CA (not too far geographically from @172driver) that does reasonable work at reasonable prices (e.g. $9K for a Cherokee) but for those of us who are a bit uptight and detail oriented it may not be the place to go. As I understand it the next step up in that densely aviation centered area is Corona ($12K-ish), and from there of course the sky is the limit… you can spend as much as you’d like or more, no problem, because there’s always a way to improve the job with more labor.

You got it, @Silvaire, ours was done in Corona. They did a great job. Of course, as you say, the sky’s the limit and you can also spend tons of $$$$ on shops that have a great reputation and work on high-end biz jets but then don’t really deliver value for money. There’s one a bit up the coast, as I’m sure you know ;-)

Silvaire wrote:

To explain, there is an aircraft paint shop in ‘beautiful’ Compton, CA (not too far geographically from @172driver) that does reasonable work at reasonable prices (e.g. $9K for a Cherokee) but for those of us who are a bit uptight and detail oriented it may not be the place to go.

When I was last in the US, my checkout included a landing at Compton. The CFI happily explained that the place was better avoided on Saturday evenings because intoxicated locals had been known to fire at aircraft on final. After I got back home, a friend in my club who had family in LA went bananas when he heard I’d landed at Compton. The place has some reputation…

Airborne_Again wrote:

The CFI happily explained

Obviously the City of Compton was featured in the 2015 movie ‘enhancing’ the areas reputation worldwide, and as a result the cities airport has become fertile ground for jokes, stories etc among pilots. There aren’t a lot of truly inner city airports. However you may not want to believe 100% of everything you see from either Hollywood or (maybe especially) from pilots

Three old aircraft were bought locally from England in the last few years.
One was a write-off due to wing corrosion – detected easily at first check by local A&P.
One required extensive corrosion work.
We took our Inspector to the aircraft before buying. The expense so far is more than the purchase price, but NO surprises.
Mode S, 8.33, oil filter cartridge and easy drain mods, replace tach cable, bleed brakes, replace vacuum pump gasket for oil leak, strip and repaint, replace flap motor rubber, replace DI and VSI.
Landing light, instrument lights, USB port, EGT/CHT to follow.
Engine is mid time, purchase £14,500. The seller was 100% honest about defects. Only the paint job kept her grounded.

Apparently there are huge differences how planes are being looked after from place to place.

I was involved in some purchases of “hangar queens” in the last several years, where prospective buyers asked for my advice. All of them proved to be very easily to revive and none of them had any corrosion, neither airframe nor engine, after several years of inactivity but hangared and in one case treated with conservation oil.

One was a PA28-180, O360-A1A, 7 years out of annual in a hangar. Obviously the main concern was the engine. I sourced a specialist recommended by an overhaul shop who found the engine flawless after in depth checks which also included corrosion checks. A ferry flight to the maintenance base was without incident and it was turned over to the happy buyer after an annual during which engine and brake hoses were changed

One other was a Robin HR100, IO360, which was actually put into annual before it was sold. As far as I understand it is flying after a much needed avionics upgrade but otherwise fine.

So far I know of only one case where a plane was left to rot too long outside (while still operated) so that the buyer actually took it apart for parts. I guess he primarily wanted the engine which was half time. That one was a PA28-140, where the seller insisted on a much too high price for much too long, missing the chance to sell while it was still salvagable.

Otherwise I’d think the yearly ARC renewal checks prevent such wrecks in Switzerland for a large degree.

I’m just doing my first annual on my plane, with the same examiner who checked it the years before. I’m still learning a lot and it’s a great experience – knowing, that in the end it’s all looked over again by someone with a lot of experience in general and on that type of aircraft in particular.

Honestly, it’s a pleasure, as those old airplanes are made for this type of maintenance. For most of the parts the plane tells a story and you just need to listen. And for those parts, where signs of wear of breakage are not so easy to find, there are ADs (and luckily, on my plane the ADs which involve more labour have all recently been complied with).

Regarding costs, as a “first annual” of the “first plane owned” I think I’m going just fine. And we did the checks quite extensively, so I’m quite sure that there’s a high chance that we didn’t miss a thing. There are some smaller items, which show first signs of wear, like a hose, which will pass through the annual but I noted them down, so that I can buy them “with time”. This is by far the best when doing maintenance yourself, that you can see what is, so nobody can trick you on what needs to be replaced, and that you can buy spare parts in advance, which may turn out cheaper, or at least prevents the plane from having more downtime, as you can do it during the annual.

One small item (in terms of money, not in term of safety) needs immediate replacement on my plane, however, and I’ll have to wait for it to be delivered. So all in all, not too bad for the first annual.

And from what I’ve seen and “listened” from my aircraft, I don’t think that there will be many surprises in the next years.

Neil wrote:

hmng wrote:

> 4 seats, new, certified.
Tecnam P2010?

Seems to be a tad more expensive than the Vulcanair?
The (academic) question is about what is the lowest you can go, when shopping for a new, certified, four seater. I’m not promoting, nor interested in the Vulcanair, just curious where the base line is.

Stay cool. With a 40 year old aircraft the one just buys „off the market“, without knowing its exact history, one just has to expect every songle electrical connection there is to be marginal at best. I would first spray some WD40 into the PTT buttons for now.