Buying an Airplane
I've had a lot of positive feedback via e-mail on my flying diaries. In some cases, we've had on-going dialog. One person turned out to live a few miles from me so I took him flying. Two others ended up joining our pilots' club! Anyway, several people wrote to ask me if I ever bought a plane and whether I'm still flying. In addition to maintaining my log, I still keep a diary entry of all my flights but I've never posted them 'cause I don't figure anyone else would give a rats butt. It's just nice for me to go back and look up a detail of a particular flight now and then. Here are a few entries from that log that might be interesting given the questions I've received.
Buying an Airplane, Part 1(This part was written when I was still a student pilot)
Since I’ve been so frustrated with maintenance, I decided to get serious about the search for a plane. I’ve been looking at Trade-a-Plane for a while and on Feb. 1, I decided to do something else. I’d been in touch with a woman on the net who said she’d found her 180 by calling every FBO within a 2 hour drive. I decided to write to FBO’s and started looking for addresses on the web. Found www.airsport.com which had a way of sending messages to a lot of FBO’s. Within an hour or so of starting to send the messages, I got a call from Tim Kennedy at Hawthorne Aviation at Queen City. His wife works at Hawthorne at ABE and they got a fax saying I was looking for a plane. Gave me a lead and I contacted the seller, Bruce Nash, on Monday. On Tuesday, I took a 1/2 day vacation to look at N8857N. It’s a 1969 PA28-140 in cherry condition in appearance. Engine time is only 1066 SMOH but the overhaul was done in ‘73. That’s 1/2 TBO as measured in engine hours but twice TBO by calendar time.
Next night was Pilot’s Club and we had a presentation by Morgan Brown and Jim Ryan from the FAA. A lot of the discussion revolved around “my plane” Hard to know what to do.
Buying an Airplane, Part 2 (Also written when I was still a student pilot)
The more I think about N8857N, the more nervous I get. It’s a beautiful plane but the calendar time is twice TBO while the hours are 1/2 TBO. Lycoming says it’s "buyer beware"; my friends are divided. I’d asked Bruce to bring the plane up to Jim Scrabola but he needs a BFR and can’t move it. He wanted me to bring Jim down but Jim says he wants it flown before he sees it. (He says otherwise, they could steam clean it and cover a lot of sins.) I’d decided to play it cool for a while.
In the meantime, I found N1704T on the internet. It’s located at Biplane Adventures in Quakertown. I talked to Will at Biplane and got the details. Then called AOPA for the blue book. Retail is over 33K, wholesale is over 27K not considering some things like the almost new interior. Asking price was $29,400.
Meantime, I got a call Friday night from a guy at Queen city who got my name from Bruno’s friend, Peter, at Flying M. Told him we were going to UKT on Saturday and maybe we’d drop by to see it but that he needn’t be there.
Saturday, Feb. 22 was a very windy day so Linda & I drove rather than flew. Actually, I’m not sure she’d have flown anyway and there’s no way I’m taking her on less than a silky day! First we stopped at Queen City to look at N8857N and the new entry, N6691W. I’d called Bruce and gotten his blessing to look at the plane. He had someone in his office and I said it was unnecessary for him to come over. Bruce’s plane is certainly beautiful! Linda loved it but that engine is still the issue. N6691W, on the other hand, is a wreck. It’s interesting in that it has 180 HP and a constant speed prop. It looked bad on the outside and worse on the inside. Priced at $18K, "negotiable". I guess! For all I know, it was mechanically perfect but, based on appearance, Linda said there was no way she'd want me flying in this thing. I agree!
Next to UKT to see N1704T. This is a sweet plane. Paint and interior not quite as nice as N8857W but still quite good and an engine installed in 1995 which now has 123 hours on it! Full IFR with a wing leveler (poor-man's autopilot). Agreed on a price of $28K subject to Jim Scrabola’s inspection. I have a money-back out if I chicken out, too. Agreed Will would deliver it to WBW the next day and either I’d take him back in the Warrior or Tim Schiller, the owner of Biplane would come for him.
As it happened, Linda and I had first visited Biplane during the summer when owning a plane was a distant dream. We’d stopped there while driving to King of Prussia. We’d met Tim and taken a liking to him. He has a Stearman and I’d asked him how one got a ride in it. He said, "You buy a plane from me and you’ll get a ride." After we signed the papers, I started to remind Tim of the conversation and he remembered it. More importantly, he’ll honor it! Nice bonus!
My checkride fits into the story right here...
Flight 72 - My first as a Private Pilot (AKA Buying an Airplane, Part 3)
Well, since Jim Scrabola liked the plane, I called Tim yesterday and told him I’d take it conditional on a test flight. (Seems silly to pay 28K for something you’ve never flown!) They agreed to come up early in the AM to give me a chance to fly it, then take it back to fix the few "squawks" that Jimmy had found. They were supposed to arrive at 8:45 but at 9:00, a Centurian pulled in with three folks in it, Will in the left seat. A guy got out of the back and the Centurian left. The guy was Biplane’s A&P, John. I got in the left seat and off we went. Went over to the practice area and just played around for a while and did one power off stall. The plane handles nicely but comes down pretty quickly when the fan stops. Tried out the wing leveler and liked it a lot.
Landed, rolled to the apron and talked for a bit. John gave me a valuable little demonstration of what can happen with someone in the right seat. With the seat forward and the person’s feet on the floor, his knees get close to the yoke and can actually keep it from turning! That’d be a treat if a wind gust hit on short final! We went over the squawk list and John left.
I called Tim and we discussed delivery of the plane. Since my 50th birthday was coming up soon, I said it'd really be a kick to take ownership on that day. He agreed to shoot for that.
Dad and I had planned on going flying today since they’re going to Florida on Tuesday. Will, who works at Biplane adventures, was to deliver '04T to Jim Scrabola at our field for a pre-flight inspection. I'd agreed to give him a ride back in '25U, which I'd been renting and in which I took my checkride. Dad was going along. Last night, I went downstairs to plan the flight to UKT. I’d just started when Lin came down with my birthday present, a Garmin 195 GPS!!! Sure will make navigation easier!
Today was maybe one of the best days of my life! The weather was "severe VFR". Somewhat windy but aligned pretty well with runways at both ends of the trip. Lin and I picked up Mom & Dad around noon. Got to the Club and my friends were all smiles over my passing the checkride. Pretty neat! Will hadn't arrived yet with 04T so we hung out for a while and eventually Dad and I went out to preflight '72U. We took the handheld and pretty soon heard N1704T asking for advisories. As always, no response from Unicom so I said, "Hi, Will; we’re using 24". He said, "OK, thanks, Jack". Dad and I watched him land & taxi in and I parked him next to the Warrior. Linda, Mom and my friend George came down to check things out. Eventually, I finished the preflight, got an update briefing, and filed a VFR flightplan. While I was filing, Will hooked up the intercom and the GPS. Finally, we left, Dad in the right seat and Will in the back. Pretty windy (26015G20) but not much crosswind component. Tossed us around a little on the climb-out and remained a little bumpy over the hills but not all that bad.
As we climbed out, I tried to open my flight plan and '72U's radio was dead. Obviously the avionics switch again. I could get it to work only intermittently. Fortunately, the GPS made it possible to skirt the class C at ABE with ease! Dropped Will off at UKT and headed out, back around the west edge of the class C.
At about White Haven, I asked Dad whether he wanted to go to the lake. (We both have cottages at a small lake in the NE corner of the state.) I’d already programmed it into the GPS so off we went! Skirted the AVP class D very nicely. Dad got a kick out of being over areas he knew so well. Did two turns around the cottages in very light snow and headed back. Passed over 9N3 but didn’t stop. With the wind, I really didn’t want to deal with 22 at Seamans. Eventually we were back to WBW and I greased the landing. :o)
We’d just gotten tied down and had walked over to the Cherokee when Mom and Linda returned. Mom climbed in the plane quite easily and seemed to like it. I’m sure she’ll go up on a calm day. Then Don came with my grandson, Julian. He sat in my lap, holding the yoke and saying, "Fly airpane, Gampa." Not too shabby!
Eventually, got squared away and headed home. Stopped for supper and Dad kept talking about the flight. I think he enjoyed it as much as I did!
Flight 73 - Test Flight (AKA Buying an Airplane, Part 4)
Well, since Jim Scrabola liked the plane, I called Tim yesterday and told him I’d take it conditional on a test flight. (Seems silly to pay 28K for something you’ve never flown!) They agreed to come up early in the AM to give me a chance to fly it, then take it back to fix the few "squawks" that Jimmy had found. They were supposed to arrive at 8:45 but at 9:00, a Centurian pulled in with three folks in it, Will in the left seat. A guy got out of the back and the Centurian left. The guy was Biplane’s A&P, John. I got in the left seat and off we went. Went over to the practice area and just played around for a while and did one power off stall. The plane handles nicely but comes down pretty quickly when the fan stops. Tried out the wing leveler and liked it a lot.
Landed, rolled to the apron and talked for a bit. John gave me a valuable little demonstration of what can happen with someone in the right seat. With the seat forward and the person’s feet on the floor, his knees get close to the yoke and can actually keep it from turning! That’d be a treat if a wind gust hit on short final! We went over the squawk list and John left.
I called Tim and we discussed delivery of the plane. Since my 50th birthday was coming up soon, I said it'd really be a kick to take ownership on that day. He agreed to shoot for that.
Flight 74 - My Plane! (AKA Buying an Airplane, Part 5)
Since it was my birthday, I really wanted to get the plane. An added incentive was the bad weather forecast for the weekend. Will said they’d meet me at WBW at 4:30. Left the office around 4:15 and heard Will’s radio calls when I was crossing the river. I had him pull it to the pumps and filled it to the tabs. By that time, Tim arrived in his twin Comanche and we went into the club to do the deal. Linda showed up before we were finished and got to write the big check!
It was a beautiful night and I was hoping Linda’d ask for a ride but she didn’t. We were going out for dinner so I didn’t have a lot of time but went up for a few minutes. Winds were calm so I took off on 24. As I was departing, a guy announced crosswind for 06. I repeated that I was departing 24. He asked if the active had changed and I reminded him the calm wind runway was 24. I’d planned on doing T&G’s but decided to get out of there while he was figuring out what to do. Departed straight out, then went over to Dallas, turned around and came back. The lights were on when I got back. Nice landing! Short flight but it’s sure nice to fly your own machine!!!!
