Maintenance

The typical owner-flown airplaneflies less than 100 hours a year. Since many of the costs of ownership-annual inspections,insurance, hangar, and so forth-are fixed costs that don’t vary with flight time, it’soften difficult to justify the cost of owning an airplane that flies so little. Some pilots want the benefit of owning their own airplane, even […]

Lie #1:Lycoming engines are better than Continental engines.(Or vice-versa.) Ibought my first airplane 30 years ago. It was a Cessna 182 powered by a ContinentalO-470-R engine. Since then I’ve owned a succession of airplanes, and each one-quitecoincidentally-was powered by a big-bore Continental. My engines have always made TBO andbeen relatively trouble-free. So it’s not surprising […]

Part of my job as an aircraftappraiser is to research the logbooks of each aircraft I inspect. It’s amazing how much,or how little, you can tell about a particular airplane by what’s in the maintenance logs.Some airplane records detail every nut and bolt that has ever been tightened, while otherstell little or nothing about the […]

At my home airport, there isalways a copy of Trade-A-Plane sitting on the table in thelobby of the terminal building. The airport manager marks it “Lobby Copy — Do notremove.” That single copy is probably the most widely read of all the periodicals(and there are many) that are left for the reading pleasure of those […]

Partnerships for those seekingto buy airplanes can be the solution to aircraft ownership for some, while for others theyare nothing but trouble from the very first day. Why do some succeed and others fail? Thereasons vary with the individuals involved, but the problems with most unsuccessfulaircraft partnerships usually revolve around money and scheduling the use […]

The airplane purchase process isa long and difficult one for most people, especially first-time airplane buyers. That’sbecause there is a great deal of hard work involved. If you want to be sure that theairplane is worth the purchase price and is in the condition that has been described toyou, several essential steps must be taken […]

Myintroduction to the high cost of replacement parts came shortly after I first bought mytwin Cessna in 1987. I hadn’t yet started doing my own maintenance at that time, and Iinnocently asked my A&P to check the deicing boots and find out why they weren’tinflating. A week later, I got the plane back with a […]

It’s only human nature. There you are, looking through the Bonanza or Cessna 210 or Mooneyads in Trade-A-Plane to check out how much your retractable single has appreciated-or maybe to find out what it would cost to trade up from your fixed-gear bird. Suddenly,without warning, your eyes are drawn down the page by a mysterious […]

In the search for your dream plane, one of the foremost considerations is value!If you’re like most of us, you don’t mind paying a fair price for anything you purchase.But in the case of an aircraft, it’s often difficult to determine exactly what that fairprice might be. Is the Skyhawk advertised above really worth $33,500? […]

Start looking at the airport closest to your home, because you have a chance to see theaircraft without incurring any expense. This works well if you’re looking for a Cessna 150or other small common aircraft. But by the time you’re stepping up to a four placeaircraft, you should begin to look farther afield. The best […]