Re: Are these planes bad ideas? Looking to buy inexpensive without shooting own foot
The Cavalier I just sold went for $8500. IFR panel. Ceconite, even though it was put on in 1974, inspected thoroughly "as new". Underneath the paint it was still perfect. Amazing. Paint in places was chipped but the plane still looked great. New owner is delighted. Always protected from water and UV by being hangared. Plane really needed nothing except new tires and really didn't even need those - just needed the old ones switched on the rims but I put new ones on to make the A&P happy that did the condition inspection.
A few days later, an RV-3, with the spar mod and a full panel that usually flies twice a week got sold for $7K simply because the owner was getting old and bored with flying - or maybe it was medical - you never know. Couldn't believe this plane sold for so little. Sold by word of mouth, wasn't advertised. Owner took a huge loss on it just because he didn't want to go through the hassles of dealing with tire kickers. Sometimes, at a certain age or stage in life, you just don't give a damn about how much you sell something for. Selling a beloved old plane to a good home is more important to some than getting market value.
Either one of these planes will leave any of the ones mentioned far behind in speed, efficiency, maintenance costs, and just plain fun. It is not fun to go 90 miles an hour in something with wings, at least not for very long.
If cost is a factor, buy something like the two examples I've mentioned. They turn up, as do good deals on Pipers and Cessnas. All those hangers at the mostly deserted airports around the country are full of mostly pretty nice planes. Eventually the owners get tired of the hangar rent and realize they are never going to get but a fraction of what they have invested in what was once their pride and joy. The market just isn't there anymore and it has little to do with the economy. Kids are growing up more interested in drones or simulated flying than in the actual devices that make flight possible. We can thank TSA & HS for the fences around all the airports for at least part of that situation but my point is the market for all these once treasured planes is narrow and getting narrower. Eventually the owner just puts the word out that they are looking for a good home for their plane. They had it on Barnstormers twice and TAP once with nothing but a lot of calls from bored people who wanted to talk about how they flew one of those twenty years ago. What do you do then? If still alive you put the word out and sell it for whatever offer comes along or you die and the wife sells it for whatever offer comes along. It's a pretty good time to be buying a decent airplane, if you're not in a hurry. There's no reason to buy junk.
It takes a bit of patience and putting the word out that you're looking. The ones I've seen sell recently are in the Experimental category and that RV-3 especially was an exceptional steal. But there are decent spam cans out there that are also selling, word of mouth, for really small sums. Bellanca Vikings can be bought especially cheap and good ones are not rare. They are pure joy to fly but because of their certification you're stuck with pricey annuals and overpriced parts.
You're looking for really inexpensive so you're limited, at least in the spam can world, to junk that will cost a significant amount of money to maintain properly. They're boring to fly and expensive to improve or modify thanks to their certification. Going 90 miles an hour in an airplane is not fun I'm sure you know. Learning to handle a Luscombe or an old taildragger Cessna is fun . . . but once that's under control there you are. 90 miles an hour. What do you do with that? Buy some goggles and a flying helmet and pretend it's 1946? That gets old quick. Airplanes are for travelling. Or for training. If you want a trainer any of these will do if you can afford the expense of maintenance.
I have seen very nice old C-172's and Cherokees of various kinds sell incredibly cheap in the last two or three years. Within the last year I saw a current and decent Cherokee 180 start out at 15K and ended up going for $6500. Word of mouth is how it happens. Put the word out at your local airports. Get to know some old timers who know what's going on. Just relax and keep your eyes and ears open and eventually somebody will mention something to you that will be just perfect, and it'll be right in your own back yard. I suggest the (perhaps novel to you) idea to think in terms of planes in the Experimental category. You get a lot more for your money and they are much less expensive to maintain. They're generally far more fun and go twice as fast as the the factory builts, especially those you've mentioned out of TAP. You need some mechanical aptitude and interest to own an Experimental, but nothing special. You can easily learn anything you need to learn if you have the time to research and do your own work. You know it's done right, which is the primary advantage as I see it.
Both of these planes, the Cavalier and the RV-3 - or any other aircraft in the Experimental category - can be modified, improved and maintained by the owners. No $40 - $80/hr A&P's required except once a year to sign off the condition inspection for which you've already done all the work. No FAA approved overpriced and often counterfeit parts or TSO'd avionics required. All you need is an interest in learning how they are put together and how to keep them that way. And a hangar. Don't buy anything that's been left out in the elements and don't leave your new plane, whatever you wind up with, out there either. If you can't afford a hangar you can't afford an airplane.
Just some thoughts. Please forgive the repetitiveness, it's late and I'm sleepy. If you don't have natural aptitude for flying and an interest in how your plane works, please ignore everything I've said focus instead on keeping lots of money in your checking account so you can keep up with that clapped out 150 you seem to be considering. All those planes you listed make very good training aircraft. As always, your choice of aircraft depends on the mission. If your mission is to do some training they'll all do fine. If you're dependent on A&P's and certified parts they'll all be a lot more expensive than they at first seem, I guess that was my main point with all this rambling. Sorry. Others have said the same thing much more succinctly. I type faster than I think and this is what happens.
