My wife wants a twin, too. Travel Air a good choice?

[Fearless Tower]

I'm an experienced twin owner, moving to my third twin as we speak (only reason I'm selling). Trust me, I know what it all costs and I know that you can't count it home in 2 years. But please refrain from trying to insinuate by writing "trying to offload" that I somehow couldn't 'handle' the costs of twin ownership or that I'm somehow mis-representning or trying to sell a deficient plane. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It was your own words bub when you first put the Aerostar up for sale.

'Financial commitments' was the reason you cited......and now you want us to believe you are upgrading. Okay. Sure thing.

 

[retailguy]

Given that you have insight into the financial records for both partnerships, how do they compare in terms of fixed and maintenance expenses over the last 5-10 years ?

Apples/oranges, in this case. The Baron has undergone a complete restoration, and my partner and I paid handsomely for the privilege. It was not a partnership prior to us purchasing it, and not much if any maintenance in the 6 months he's owned it and the month and a half I've had it. We talked with the prior mechanic and asked him if it needed anything - he laughed. Then we asked if there was anything that wasn't rebuilt. He thought for a moment and said - the nose gear, but it doesn't need any attention at all.

The Travel Air on the other hand, has not been completely restored. We purchased that about 18 months ago and the three of us learned to fly multi in that plane. The prior owner maintained it mechanically, but wasn't as thorough with the rest of it. We've had the normal items you'd expect in the first year. It's slowed way down in the last six months, and is a really nice plane.

Over the long haul, it's clear that the Baron will require more $'s to maintain it related to the engines IO-520's vs IO-360's, however, I think that's the extent of it. The planes themselves are very similar.

The T/A has magnesium control surfaces and a specialized heater (that we've already paid the freight to rebuild), but other than those weird things they are very similar.

I'll miss the T/A, I really enjoy flying that plane, but who wouldn't enjoy an extra 30kts too.

I'm really blessed to have this problem.

 

[weilke]

I'm really blessed to have this problem.

Known as a FWP (first world problem). Always glad to have one of those. Thanks for the overview. Hard to draw any conclusions with the brief ownership of both. Congrats on the planes.