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Getting close to purchase time


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18 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

I love this! And I often think/dream of doing something similar myself.

  • If I'm retired with time and money to spend on a project.
  • If my wife is understanding and frees up my time and money to spend on the project.
  • If I have a hangar close (walking distance from the house).
  • If I have a friendly A&P/IA close by who's willing to sign log books while I do the work.
  • If I have another airplane (Mooney) in ready-to-fly airworthy condition that I can use in the mean time.

Paul, what you just described for me is my idea of Heaven. :D

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46 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:
  • If I'm retired with time and money to spend on a project.
  • If my wife is understanding and frees up my time and money to spend on the project.
  • If I have a hangar close (walking distance from the house).
  • If I have a friendly A&P/IA close by who's willing to sign log books while I do the work.
  • If I have another airplane (Mooney) in ready-to-fly airworthy condition that I can use in the mean time.

 

24 minutes ago, 0TreeLemur said:

Paul, what you just described for me is my idea of Heaven. :D

I agree, but I want the hangar a little bit further away from the house...and with a coffee pot!

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3 minutes ago, KLRDMD said:

I get first dibs!

You'll be the first to know...  B)

We flew her about 50 miles offshore this past Sunday on a "social-distancing" sight seeing trip over the mouth of the Mississippi out in the Gulf.  Photos in the "Flight of the Day 2020" thread.  Purred the whole way.

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1 hour ago, Oldguy said:

 

I agree, but I want the hangar a little bit further away from the house...and with a coffee pot!

You supply the hangar, I've got the coffee pot! Need space for my Mooney, too . . . .

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8 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

First a disclaimer. Shit can happen. But...

I maintain that the more careful you are with the up front purchase, the less your yearly costs will be. I looked at every C and E on the market for a few months. My budget allowed me to buy a low end E or a high end C. So I bought the best, most expensive C advertised in the country at the time. It had been very well maintained and was flying regularly. I had a very thorough pre-buy where a few things were fixed at the sellers expense. My annuals after that were about $2500. I added an engine monitor and ADSB. I replaced two tires. Hangar, Insurance, Oil changes, Fuel. 

At $15K a year all in including fuel, oil, hangar, insurance, maintenance, everything, I could fly as much as I wanted. Which turned out to be about 200 hours per year.

Okay, that is about the amount of flying I anticipate doing which should save me some money from the rental fees and taxes I currently am paying now.  To do 200 hours in a C172 at the flight school would cost me $30,000.  

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7 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

I love this! And I often think/dream of doing something similar myself.

  • If I'm retired with time and money to spend on a project.
  • If my wife is understanding and frees up my time and money to spend on the project.
  • If I have a hangar close (walking distance from the house).
  • If I have a friendly A&P/IA close by who's willing to sign log books while I do the work.
  • If I have another airplane (Mooney) in ready-to-fly airworthy condition that I can use in the mean time.

Then I'd like to find an M20E that needs everything. I'd like to build it into a very light, very slick, very fast, two seat, short body Mooney.

But... if I'm a thirty something with a business to run, a family to raise, and an itching to fly... buy something ready to fly now.

I don't think I have the patience for this sort of work.  I'd rather be flying than becoming an A&P.  Though I do maintain a fleet of 11 rental boats every summer for my side business...now that is a beast of work.

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18 hours ago, MikeOH said:

$360 per month for hangar in southern California

I had IR and over 100 hours in a M20B before I bought my 'F'; I'm at $1200 per year $1MM/$100K (I passed on $3200/year for $1MM smooth!)

I've owned for two and half years and am around 90 hours/year.  All in I've averaged $16K per year.  I was shooting for $12K/year...I'm doing a little better this year, so we shall see.

Aside from your 3x hangar fees in southern CA it doesn't seem bad.  That's a really good insurance rate, where did you get that from?  I just know of Avemco basically and someone mentioned they weren't really the best over on the Grumman site.  (Looking at Grumman  Tigers also just hard to find those and not quite as fast...)  Comparable with what I'm getting for fixed gear but I'm just about to hit 200 hrs now in Cessnas.  My goal would be $12k since the math is easy per month.  :)

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22 hours ago, carusoam said:

If speed and efficiency drives your decision making...

Congratulations, you have found the Mooney!

Where is your boat business?

Best regards,

-a-

I run the boat business out of Omaha, NE believe it or not.  We have several large lake complexes within 3 to 6 hr drives and we allow renters to trailer the boats there.  Yes speed is probably by primary driver in all things I do....I work in the auction world in the off season.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/5/2020 at 5:19 PM, Hank said:

Full fuel payload of 700 lb will be difficult.

My C has 970 useful, and I carry 312 in fuel, leaving 670 lb (me and my favorite 470 lb) ready to go. That will take me 5 hours with IFR reserves, but that's too much sitting. I've done 4:45 twice, landing with 11-12 gal or 1:15 - 1:20 remaining; my plane trues at 147 KTAS.

F and J can have useful loads of 1000-1100, but they carry 64 gal (390 lb) of fuel, leaving 610-710 of load. Flown LOP, they can stay aloft for 6-7 hours at about my speed, or go 10-15 knots faster for about the same time.

Es are in between, most have 52 gal (I think), but the same IO-360 as the F & J. But you still will be very unlikely to have full fuel plus 750 lb payload.

If you think this is bad, check sime of the newer Acclaims, they atw full full (100 - 130 gal) plus pilot and sometimes a small bag . . . . But you don't want to pay the upkeep on one of these anyway.  ;)

I think 670 would work for me and wife and baby.  We're probably around 430 with no bags.

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