bcg

At the end of the day, they're all just expendable things. The most important and valuable part of any aircraft are the people sitting inside it so if it comes to sacrificing the thing and saving the people, I'll make that choice every time over someone getting hurt and the plane living to fly another day. What I mean when I say "I'll fix it and move on" is that is that if something were to happen, even if it got totaled, it wouldn't be financially ruinous and so I'm willing to take the risk of flying it without hull insurance, not that I don't care about breaking it. Obviously, the goal is to never break anything but, sometimes things happen and it's a lot more likely that they'll happen when I'm a low hour pilot than when I have several thousand hours in the seat. For that reason, I see some advantage to knowing that if I buy something now, I'm going to have someone more skilled than me in the right seat more often than not for the next 30+ hours to help prevent things from happening vs buying after I have my license, getting a few hours of transition training and being on my own after that.

I could afford the Bravo now, insurance would be the trick. Plus, I would constantly be worried I was going to bend something. With this B, if it gets bent, I can just fix it and move on, I won't have so much invested in it that I'll be worried about it, which means I'll be more relaxed flying it and less likely to bend something. Funny how that works out...lol I started out with a 172 and have spent the last 3 hours in a Cherokee. I like the Cherokee a LOT better, I really just like the way the low wing handles vs the high wing during takeoff and landing. I think the ground effect is increased and it makes landing smoothly easier. I really like the way you have to pop the low wing out of ground effect when you take off, it makes it feel like you're literally leaping off the runway. It took me a couple of takeoffs to figure out that I needed to be more deliberate about pulling the yoke back initially, once I did though things got more fun.

My personal umbrella will force me to get liability, whether I want to or not. I would even if they didn't though, it's just silly not to. I've flown in both STEAM and mostly glass cockpits now and to be completely honest, I find it a lot easier to scan the STEAM gauges and keep my head out of the cockpit. With the glass, there's so much information in such a small space that I spend a lot of time trying to decipher what I'm looking at. I know it'll get easier with time but for now, the STEAM gauges reduce my workload and make it easier for me to pay attention to everything else.

I'm about 10 hours into my PPL training, planning to go straight into instrument when I finish this and an ultimate goal of getting into a 252 or a Bravo. I'm shopping half-heartedly right now just to get a feel for what pricing is in the market and how quickly they sell when I came across this little gem - https://www.controller.com/listing/for-sale/215941843/1961-mooney-m20b-piston-single-aircraft Now in thinking this might be a great trainer for me as it's inexpensive enough I could easily pay cash and not stress out about self-insuring it to build up time in a Mooney so the insurance companies will hopefully feel better about insuring a more expensive 252 or Bravo when I get there. The TTAF seems really low to me for the vintage, which could be good or bad, and the engine is pretty fresh. I think there are enough avionics in it already to be able to use this for my Instrument training, although I'm not sure if it's got ADS-B out. I'm thinking I could get a couple hundred hours in this and then start to seriously shop for my lifetime plane. Anyway, what to do you guys think? Anyone know anything about this plane in particular? Are there specific things to this model I should be looking for? I'm only about a 1.5 hour drive from GMAX and 45 minutes from Kerrville so it's not a big deal to go look at it, in fact Bulverde is only a 15 minute flight from my flight school and in fairly confident I could easily convince my CFI to pop over with me during a lesson to take a look at it. What do I not know to be asking and/or considering here? Forget the financial side of it, while I could make a case for buying being cheaper than renting, it's not really about that. There's lot of toys here that I could technically rent cheaper, I just like owning stuff and being able to use it on my schedule. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Yeah, I'm expecting insurance to be expensive initially and hopefully decrease over time. I wonder sometimes if after a gear up if it wouldn't be cheaper in the long run to just fix it out of pocket and never tell the insurance it happened. I imagine they would probably find out anyway from the NTSB or FAA reporting. Maybe if it didn't cost them anything they would be more lenient about it though. Probably not, insurance companies generally suck...

I wasn't happy the day I sold any of my boats either. Life had just changed and they were being neglected. Like an airplane, the worst thing you can do to one is not use it.

This is just like boats, there's no such thing as the perfect boat, there's just the least objectionable compromise.

Done, thank you!

My dad is up that way, in Dallas. I'm planning to fly in and see him when I get my Private, maybe we'll be able to arrange something then.

It's hard to say whether it will be before or after the instrument rating, it'll depend on when I decide for sure which model what I want and/or if I find a deal I just can't pass up. I'm going straight into instrument though so, if I buy it before I'll use it for my instrument training and check ride. My dad has flown for 45+ years, 22 flying tankers in the AF and then as a type rating instructing on the Falcon 10, G200, G350 and PL-24, he made me promise I wouldn't go anywhere until I had my instrument rating. I would like to use it all over, I have to be in Atlanta later this year and was in San Francisco last month, both trips I would like to fly myself in the future. We like the West and will be in the mountains of Co, Wy, Mt and Id some as well. I would rather have the turbo and not need it than the other way around, I think the extra cost is easily justified even if it's not used every trip. There will be some shorter trips around the state occasionally but, I want to buy for the longer trips. Other than some time in an LSA with my step sister's husband when I was a kid and the pilot training now, everything I did with my dad in the SIMs for the corporate aviation was instrument and I really prefer it. I like flying an instrument approach and following the command bars to stay on the glide slope better than doing it visually, I like trusting the instruments and not having to worry about clouds or traffic as much. VFR flight at lower altitudes is fun for just screwing around and seeing some sights but if I'm going to be traveling and actually want to get somewhere, I would rather file and fly at higher altitude where I can go faster and will usually have smoother air. My wife is going to be a lot more likely to fly with me in those situations as well, she would not enjoy getting bounced around at 4,000 - 5,000 feet in the summer time.

Cool, let me know when you get back. I really appreciate it!

Wow, your work is amazing. I wish I had the patience to do things like that. I tend to get 90% done with something and then get bored with it, that last 10% is 90% of the work.

Hi guys, thanks for letting me join the group. I'm a student pilot located between San Antonio and Kerrville (Bandera if you know the area) with the goal of completing my PPL and then getting the instrument right after. My goal is to buy a 231, 252, Encore or Bravo and use it for travel so I (hopefully) never have to deal with commercial air travel again. So here's my ask, is there anyone near this area with one of those models that would be willing to give me a ride? I'm planning to head over to GMax and start browsing but, sitting in a plane on the ground and actually being in the air in one are totally different experiences. Plus, it would be great to be able to be able to pick your brain about your experience with the plane, what maintenance has been like, and to hear from you what you wish you'd known to ask or look for when you were shopping. I'm starting to look more seriously now so I'd really like to be able to experience a few different variations and make an informed decision. I really appreciate anything someone can offer. Bernie