Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Cheap Wings...Not Luxurious, but airworthy...

Bringing this up for a couple of reasons: First, to answer the challenging assertions that there's no inexpensive way into flying; second, to show what's out there to get you started...

So, after a recent swing through no less an authority than the Trade-A-Plane Third Issue July 2007 -- the one handed out at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh -- I quickly found about a dozen birds from a cross section of two- and four-place machines priced from $40K, down...

All were at least 30 years old...most were older. Some were classic tailwheel birds suitable mostly for low-and-slow cruising; some were IFR and cross-country capable. Eight were under $30K, one was under $20K. None were showpieces, none were what we'd call fast for airplanes.

Nope, not a Cirrus or Columbia, nor even a highly modernized version of a Skyhawk, Arrow or Bonanza...

But the larger, newer, nicer ones would get you up the airways at 110, 115 knots carrying two to four and a little to moderate luggage, VFR and IFR...And all would make decent investments if (a) flown regularly (b) maintained appropriately and (c) upgraded appropriately...

And they would fly whenever and wherever you might want to fly at a livable cost level...

Just add the will to fly, a smaller financial commitment and stir...

1 Comments:

Anonymous Landis said...

I'm drooling Dave. I've found myself thinking down this road for a little while. I'm not quite in a position to do this yet, but it's nice to know that my line of thinking isn't that unreasonable.

12:44 PM  

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