AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2011 - 87

I set a budget for $30,000 to include a reserve for maintenance and upgrades, and eventually decided that a Piper Cherokee 140 would best fit my needs.

By 2005, the Tampico no longer held all of us and full fuel, so I got checked out in a Cessna 182. Problem solved! Except I couldn’t afford to stay current in the 182. A few years later I did take the kids to the beach and to Sandusky, Ohio, for a wonderful amusement-park visit. For that trip I got checked out in a Socata Trinidad, and it, too, was an expensive date that I couldn’t really afford. These past few years, my flying has been for my work here at AOPA and to take my daughter to visit colleges. My son will be ready for those trips next year. And I plan to do some animal rescue flights plus the usual breakfast and lunch runs and the occasional overnighter with one passenger. For those, I don’t need an if-I-win-the-lottery type of airplane. I set a budget of $30,000 to include a reserve for maintenance and upgrades, and eventually (after regretfully rejecting the Ercoupe) decided that a Piper Cherokee 140 would best fit my needs. Other things that factored in the selection of this particular make and model: lots of aircraft available on the used market; plenty of parts still available; and more than enough capacity for two people, luggage, and full fuel. How far are you willing to go? Some people have no problem with traveling great distances to seek out the perfect airplane—but with a limited travel budget and a busy work schedule, that didn’t appeal to me. I limited my search to Maryland, Pennsylvania,

and Virginia so that I could readily fly myself to look at airplanes. The search functions on Trade-a-Plane and Barnstormers.com proved invaluable for this type of shopping. A few months’ perusing produced three viable candidates amid a lot of overpriced offerings. One of them was practically delivered to my doorstep: When I called the owner to inquire, he told me it would be at Frederick Municipal Airport for some planned maintenance. I went to investigate, and sure enough, it was sitting on the ramp. I got to give it a good once-over and discovered that, although it was equipped to my specifications and within my price range, it had a 40-year-old paint job that had developed a flaked, reptilian pattern along the tail. The owner wasn’t interested in dropping the price any further, and I wasn’t interested in spending another $10,000 to give it a facelift. On to candidate number two, a Cherokee 140 owned by a partnership. Two of the three owners were no longer interested in flying, and the airplane was priced to sell. But it wasn’t equipped with the 160-horsepower upgrade that I wanted and its panel was strictly VFR. Those are two upgrades I didn’t want to take on. And, although I felt badly for the remaining owner, I didn’t want to buy it out of pity. Once you have found her, never let her go? When you’ve found a keeper, how far will you go to make the deal happen? What’s a deal-breaker? It’s best to figure this out before you make an offer. I contemplated walking away after making an offer on that third viable candidate—a 1964 Cherokee 140 based in Pennsylvania. The owner, a retired gentleman, had taken beautiful care of 7301J, and sincerely hated to let her go. The price of fuel coupled with the fact that he was flying her less and less brought him to the reluctant conclusion that he should sell. He accepted my offer. But when I mentioned taking the airplane to a maintenance shop in Maryland for a prepurchase inspection, he hesitated. And then he called me and said, in essence, no dice. He’d heard stories from his airport friends about airplanes being “held hostage” by nefarious shops. If I wanted to use his mechanic, fine. If I wanted to bring a mechanic to the field to do an inspection there, fine. But he wasn’t letting the airplane leave.
AOPA PILOT • 87 • SEPTEMBER 2011

ing point to determine the general retail value of the airplane you have in mind. • AOPA’s Aircraft Financing Program (www. aopa.org/info/certified/afp/index.html) offers online application through Bank of America. • The Legal Services Plan (www.aopa.org/ info/certified/lsp/) can be used to review your sales agreement.

• The AOPA Insurance Agency (www.aopaia. com/) offers member discounts, online quotes, and a knowledgeable staff that will work to find the coverage that fits your needs. • AIC Title Service (www.aictitle.com/ index.html) offers escrow and title services, title insurance, and lien clearance, and can even act as a qualified intermediary for a taxfree exchange. —JWT

http://www.Barnstormers.com http://www.Barnstormers.com http://www.aopaia.com/ http://www.aopaia.com/ http://www.aopa.org/info/certified/afp/index.html http://www.aopa.org/info/certified/afp/index.html http://www.aictitle.com/index.html http://www.aictitle.com/index.html http://www.aopa.org/info/certified/lsp/ http://www.aopa.org/info/certified/lsp/

AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2011

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