AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2016 - 36

PILOT BRIEFING
BUDGET BUY

VREF VALUE

Vref, an AOPA partner,
lists the aircraft lumped in
with a Cessna 120, converting to a Cessna 140 in 1949,
and lists the 1946 Cessna 120
as $17,000. The value of a
1951 Cessna 140A is $21,000.
The price assumes minimum
avionics. A single GPS can
increase the price by $4,000
to $8,000.

RECENT ADVERTISED PRICES

Listed in Trade-A-Plane at the
time this was written were
five Cessna 140s, and all
were priced from $20,000
to $28,500. Barnstormers.
com had 10 priced mostly
in the $20,000s with additional ads for parts.

Actually affordable
Cessna 140/140A

INSURANCE COSTS

B Y A LTO N K . M A R S H

TOO OFTEN the term "affordable" is applied to airplanes that would take many years of earning,
as long as you live in a van down by the river. This time I really mean it; a Cessna 140/140A can
be purchased for less than my Honda CRV and operated for $5,000 to $7,000 a year covering all
possible expenses. Why go 90 knots? Because it is less expensive than going faster in a bigger
airplane. The 140A is much different than a 140 because it has a Cessna 150 wing. A Cessna 120
looks just like the 140 without flaps. The 120/140 has a strong owners' group with 1,100 members who fly anywhere and everywhere for annual meetings, making friends all over the country.
THE REAL WORLD

Jeff Tourt, merchandise manager for the 40-year-old International Cessna 120-140 Association,
has owned his Cessna 140 since 2006. He learned to fly in a Piper J-3 Cub and transitioned to
a Cessna 140. He gets 91 to 95 knots true airspeed and finds the aircraft inexpensive to operate.
"They have a semi-symmetrical wing and ground performance is not that great. If you
load them to the maximum they're not healthy on the ground getting off quick. You just gotta
let them do what they are going to do," the 1,000-hour pilot said. He averages six gallons an
hour. He doesn't covet a faster airplane. "Bigger, better, more money," he said. "For me, just
staying in general aviation at a bare minimum, it's the biggest bang for the buck for me."
Tourt flies 20 to 30 hours a year. He said he thinks pilots should not be afraid of tailwheel
aircraft, adding that the biggest problem they might have is finding training. Even with winds
(he doesn't press bad weather) the slowest groundspeed he has seen is 67 knots. The fastest
was 158 knots on a flight home to Sandwich, Illinois, from Tucson, Arizona.
Virgil Warren, president of the International Cessna 120-140 Association, also has a Cessna
140 near his Macon, Georgia, home. "When I bought it in Phoenix, and it took five days to get
home, I was thinking about that. When you're flying down I-10 the trucks are going faster than
you are. That's not the mission of this airplane. This airplane is an economical plane to fly, a
very forgiving taildragger," he said. "My airplane is the airplane that
taught thousands of people to fly after World War II," he added, notWHOM TO CONTACT
ing that a tailwheel airplane really isn't hard to fly, it's just different.
International Cessna 120-140
Association, 261 Pierce Ave,
"If I wanted to go faster I would have a different airplane," he said.
EMAIL alton.marsh@aopa.org

36 | AOPA PILOT May 2016

Macon, Georgia, 31204; 478335-4210 (www.cessna120-140.
org); s-t@cessna120-140.org.

AOPA Insurance Services
estimates a $25,000 Cessna
140 flown by a 100-hour
(total time) pilot with a tailwheel endorsement will cost
between $800 and $900 per
year to insure.
HOW MANY IN THE FLEET?

Airpac PlaneBase shows
2,092 registered Cessna 140
and 140A aircraft.
FINANCING

AOPA Finance estimates
$230 per month for a
$25,000 10-year loan at 6.5
percent with 20 percent
down.
AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVES

Ongoing inspection of
wiring in wings for corrosion. Couple of minor
ones.
BIGGEST PLUS

Affordable for real.
BIGGEST MINUS

A bit slow.

THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Takeoff is slow, especially
heavily loaded.
WHAT ELSE TO CONSIDER

Cessna 170, Cessna 150/152.

http://www.Barnstormers.com http://www.Barnstormers.com http://www.cessna120-140.org http://www.cessna120-140.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2016