Welcome to this episode of Dwaynes Aviation.
Cheap and aircraft ownership are mutually exclusive terms, it seems. If you own
an airplane, you’re resigned to the fact that the privilege will cost you a handsome
sum, perhaps much of your disposable income. Yet if flying isn’t the centre of your life
but you still want to own an airplane, there are affordable ways to have both an airplane and
enough money for dinner and a movie once a month. For the sake of simplicity, we are looking at five
categories: soft cruisers, entry-level trainers, fixed-gear cruisers, economy retracts,
and an affordable twin. If you’ve got the wallet to consider a medium or cabin class
twin, cheap-to-keep is not a consideration. When purchase and maintenance
costs are primary considerations, airplane shopping is tricky. It's sometimes
worth spending a little more for an airframe or a type that’s easy and cheap to maintain
than buying rock-bottom into a maintenance hog. Older Bonanzas are a good example of this. They’re
out there for a song, but the airframes are dated, some have been historically poorly maintained,
and parts can be both hard to find and expensive. For that reason, picking the oldest model of
anything is not always the least expensive way to own an airplane over the long haul.
When buying cheap, it’s important to avoid models with long as your arm recurring
Airworthiness Directives lists. These can be both a nuisance and expensive.
And watch for nice airframes that have oddball, expensive-to-overhaul engines, such as
pre-1968 Cessna 172s. We’re not saying they’re not good buys, but know the
engine numbers going into the deal. Generally, when cheap tops your list, the more
of a particular model that was built, the better. Why? More have crashed and are in the boneyard,
where they can be cannibalised for parts. We know it sounds cynical, but would you rather pay
$1200 for a new aileron or $300 for a used one? Last, resale. If you buy something truly
odd—dare we say it, a SeaBee—the market may be limited at resale time if you really want to
unload the thing. On the other hand, if you buy a fast appreciator—a J-3 Cub—you might actually
realise a slight profit at resale time, and you won’t lack for buyers when you’re ready to sell.
That also argues against something that’s too weird or likely to be considered an acquired taste
by a potential buyer. Examples: an ERCO Ercoupe or a Rockwell Commander 100. All are cheap, but
hardly what we would call mainstream choices. Looking at soft cruisers, there are
a number of choices in this category, ranging from the venerable Piper Cub, the
Aeronca Champ, to more shortwing Pipers such as the Super Cruiser, the Pacer, and the
Tri-Pacer, plus the Cessna 120 and 140 series. A lesser-known choice is the Luscombe 8.
Avoid the Piper Cub; the price of a decent Cub is a shocker, and if you once
flew one of these things, the cramped, uncomfortable cabin is still the same.
Instead, look towards the Cessna side of the equation; the 120 and 140 series sell in the
$40,000 to $60,000 range, and they’re excellent values, still well supported by a combination
of Cessna and used parts and owner groups. Trolling near the bottom price-wise, look for the
Aeronca Chief, Champ, and Super Champ. These sell for upwards of $30,000, well below the price tags
sellers are slapping on Cubs these days. Bluntly, they’ll do anything a J-3 will. Although a
Champ doesn’t quite have the snob appeal of a yellow Cub, well suffer the snubbing and pocket
thousands of dollars price difference, thanks. The best choice is the Aeronca
Champ, but there’s one problem: to keep it cheap, it will need to be hangered,
or else you’ll be faced with damage to the wooden spar. If hangaring isn’t a choice,
a metal-winged Cessna 140 is a good, cheap alternative that can live outside. In closing, one
sleeper worth considering is the Taylorcraft F-19, a ragwing made as recently as the 1970s. It's
not as good as the Champ, but it's just as cheap. Looking at Entry-Level trainers, tri-gears
are the best option because they have a great relationship with insurance. When most buyers
think trainer, they automatically start with the Cessna 150/152 series, which is logical
because that’s what the airplane was designed for. Other possibilities in the two-place category
include the Pipers Tomahawk, the Beech Skipper, and the AA-1 Yankee. An oddball is the Varga
Kachina, a tandem two-person trike with sticks and a sliding canopy; it's sexy and cheap
but a little too exotic for everyone's taste. For absolute cheapness, rule out the Cessna 152
and stick with the Continental-powered 150s, which range in price from $35,000 for a 1959
model to about $40,000 for a later model. Piper Tomahawks are a bit cheaper,
selling for about $10,000 less, but there are fewer of them on the market.
On price alone, the Yankee Series AA-1 Clipper is also competitive, but the problem is that the
handling is too sporty for a trainer. The Beech Skipper is probably the best handling trainer
of the lot but also one of the most expensive, averaging about $60,000. Its Lycoming O-235 is
cheap enough for Beechcraft, but all Beechcraft parts are expensive, and the low population
of the Skipper makes it a relative rarity. An automatic nod then to the Cessna 150?
Yes, but before buying, consider this: There’s no reason a trainer can't have four seats,
so it can double as a modest cruiser, too. That automatically includes two other aeroplanes
that are worth considering in this category, the Cessna 172 and the Piper Cherokee series.
Back all the way up to the first Cessna 172 in 1956, you could have one for $70,000, while
the early Cherokee models, the PA-28-140, went for exactly the same price. A decent Cessna
150 will sell for a little less than the 172, so why not get the backseat and a much
roomier cabin?. The early Cherokees weren’t true four-place machines, but they
could carry three people of average weight. Looking at cruisers Cruisers, the best value
in a cruiser is complicated by defining just what a cruiser is. Certainly, it’s a true
four-place airplane. There’s obvious overlap between models like the Cessna 172 and 182 and
the Warrior and Archer. But adhering to the lowest price-best value equation helps narrow the field.
A model worth considering is the 177 Cardinal, the Piper Cherokee series, and the Grumman
Tiger. Newer models, such as the Cirrus SR22, are obviously out because they aren’t cheap. The
Cessna 170/180 series taildraggers are also worth a look, but the 180s are too much in demand
as utility aircraft to be considered cheap. Looking at the Cessnas first, a very early
1956 Skylane model retails for a hefty $80,000. The earliest Piper competitor in this realm
was either the 1962 PA-28-160, which became the Warrior-or the 1963 PA-28-180, which became
the Archer. The earliest Cherokee 160 retails for $45,000, while the 180 retails for $50,000.
Worth noting is that during these early years, the useful loads of the 180 HP Piper products
were a bit less than those of the Skylane, but comparable. As both models matured, the Skylanes
payload outpaced the Pipers significantly. $100,000,What about the cardinal? Nice looking,
nice to fly, but the 150 HP was no prize in the performance department, and the 180 HP Cessna
177B version didn’t arrive until 1969. One of those will cost $100,000, $100,000 which,
considering payload, cruise speed and a relatively small population, is no bargain.
The earliest Grumman Tigers, which are wildly popular with their devoted owners, didn’t appear
until 1975, so it’s a relatively recent model. It retails for about $49,000 (the same as
the Cardinal) and carries about the same, but cruises a solid 10 knots faster.
For example, the $80,000 you’ll spend for a 1956 Skylane will buy you a 1970 Piper
PA-28-180E, an airframe that’s 14 years newer and with a cheaper-to-overhaul four-cylinder
Lycoming, rather than the six-cylinder Continental. (The overhaul difference is about
$1500, plus the Continental burns a bit more gas.) What’s the trade-off? Not much. The
1956 Skylane had a useful load of about 1000 pounds, while the Cherokee beats it by about
80 pounds. Both carry comparable fuel loads, so the Cherokee can deliver about the same
range, even though it's 10 to 12 knots slower. Despite the fact that the 180 is better supported
in terms of parts and service, the Cherokee is just as easy and cheap to maintain, so the
Cherokee is the better value of the two. Looking at retractibles, moving up from a
fixed-gear airplane to a retractable is not always a step up in the sense that you gain significantly
more speed or payload. What you'll definitely have to confront, however, is a higher purchase price
and marginally greater maintenance costs, to account for the gear and controllable pitch prop.
The candidates here are the Beech Sierra and Bonanza series, Pipers early Arrows, the Cessna
172/177/182/210 retracts and pre-201 Mooneys. Later stuff like the Socata TB-20
is too new to qualify as cheap, and the two-place Swift is too weird. The
Commander 112 is a possibility, however. There are so many choices here, the Beech
Sierra is too slow in this field of choices, even though it's cheap to buy if not cheap to
maintain. Bonanzas after 1964 are nice airplanes, but not cheap, the Cessna 172RG is slow and
complex, although a good retract trainer. In the Piper Arrow market, $100K buys an average
1970s model with the more desirable and reliable fuel-injected Lycoming IO-360, a cruise speed of
135 to 140 knots, and 1100 pounds of useful load. Throw that money at the Cessnas, and you’ll
be about $60,000 shy of the cheapest 182RG, close to the range of a 1971 177RG, and good
to go with a 1963 Cessna 210C. Of this lot, the 210 is obviously the fastest,
most, most and burns the most gas. In the Beech product line, you’re back into the
Eisenhower administration, with a 1959 or 1960 K or M model 35. Nice airplanes and serviceable, but
a full decade older than the modern Mooney series. Squeak the budget up a little and you can
afford a 1960 Debonair, the straight-tailed 33. Except for classic taildraggers, is
good to note that airplanes made earlier than about 1960 aren’t always good bargains.
Given the price of Beech parts, a bargain buy could be no bargain to bring up to snuff.
That same $100,000 budget will buy an early 1970s Mooney M20F, with a bulletproof
and cheap-to-overhaul 200 HP Lycoming IO-360. The F-model was the most immediate
forerunner of the popular J or 201. You can expect an honest 145 to 150 knots on 10 GPH.
If you take your budget up to $150,000, you can afford a late 1970s F model Mooney, a late 1960s
Cessna 210, a mid-60s V-tail or late 1970s Arrow. Looking at Economical Twins, saying “twin
engine and economical in the same sentence” is probably one of the most ridiculous thing
one can say, but if you’ve always wanted twins and you don’t want to pay much, you’re
limited to the realm of the light-light twin. The choices in light-light twins are the Piper
Apache, Aztec and the Piper Twin Comanche, then the Beechcraft 95 Travel Air, an often-overlooked
twin. Early Apaches-the model first appeared in 1954-are dirt cheap, even by twin standards.
You can snag one for under $50,000. But just as with a single, we prefer an airframe
no older than mid-1960s vintage, a period which gets into the Apache PA-23-235 series, with
235 HP Lyc O-540s. Decent performance but also thirsty engines and not cheap to overhaul. These
airplanes retail for about $100,000, I’ve seen models listed for less than $100,000, but I can’t
assure how decent they are, probably high time, with a crash history, or as clean as it gets.
Aztecs are both better performers and better values, since all were equipped with the O-540
series engines either carbureted or injected and have roomier cabins than the early Apaches. Expect
to pay a little bit more, for a good mid-1960s model, you will $150,000 or more. Despite the fact
that most pilots like Aztecs for their payload, respectable speed and voluminous cabin, the
fuel burn relative to speed don’t addup. Looking at the Twin Comanche, which sports a pair
of miserly 160 HP Lycoming IO-320s, engines that are reliable and relatively cheap to overhaul.
Putting numbers on that, if you had an Aztec, you’d pay about $15,000 more to overhaul both
motors over the cost of doing the same for the Twin Comanche. That’s a piece of change that’s
worth three or four years of fuel for a twin. But Twin Comanches aren’t exactly the cheapest
to buy when compared to Apaches and Aztecs, just cheap to own. To get a 1972 late model
Twin Comanche, be ready to shell out anything from 150 to $200,000, more than twice what an old
Apache sells for. That sounds a little overvalued, compared to what else that much money will
buy. A mid-1960s Twin Comanche retails for about $90,000 and even though its pricier than the
Apache/Aztec line, it’s the better cheap-to-keep value because of the economical engines. This
is especially true if you fly many hours a year. The downside: Twin Comanches have
dated panel layouts and systems and they’re not exactly easy to land well.
But there’s a second choice in this category, and that’s the Beech 95 Travel Air. This
model was made from 1958 to 1968 and had 180 HP Lycoming O- or IO-360s throughout
the production run. Rare for Beechcraft, even a relatively late model-1968-sells
for about $84,000; cheaper than the Twin Comanche. But you’ll spend more on maintenance
for the Beech so the two are very close in value.
