New old pilot

[marshallarts]

Hi Steve here, just landed here by following a link - like many do I suspect. I'm a licensed pilot, but have not flown for about 25 years.

 

I got my PPL in 1982 flying out of Jandakot in WA, and over the next few years added endorsements for things like constant-speed prop and retractable gear, tailwheel, and night VFR. The idea of aircraft ownership was always in the back of the mind, and in 1990 we became able to consider it after selling a share in a piece of land in the country that we had almost forgotten about. I had always been very interested in the idea of building my own aircraft, but when I sat down and thought seriously about it, I decided that I'd rather be out flying than building for the next 3, 4, 5 or however many more years. So after looking around a bit, we ended up buying a lovely old (1967) Beechcraft Debonair - basically a 4-seat version of the Bonanza. Beautiful to fly with very benign and forgiving handling, and almost landed itself. It was a far better aircraft than I ever imagined owning - fast (145Kt cruise), comfortable for 4, and able to carry almost anything you could push though the baggage door. It was like sitting back and driving a big old Cadillac around.

 

But being an old aircraft, there were a few unwelcome surprises during the ownership that cost quite a lot of dollars - a situation that was to get far worse. By the middle of 1994 there had been some changes to our life activities and I wasn't flying as much, so decided to sell. When she was getting checked out ready for sale, corrosion was discovered - in places that were definitely NOT ok to have corrosion. It could have been repaired of course, but nobody would quote a fixed price, except to suggest that it would be very high. It would have been like signing a blank cheque, which we simply could not do, so sadly the aircraft was sold off to a place that dismantled them and sold off usable parts, at a substantial financial loss to us of course. It was a very hard life lesson, and that was me out of flying overnight. In recent years I've been watching developments in light aircraft developments, and am blown away by the capability of what is around today. When I was flying, GPS was only just beginning to be available to civil aircraft, and no privateer could afford it. Now even small LSAs have the full glass cockpit, autopilot, the works. And of course GPS is on every mobile phone and tablet as well. A different world.

 

I registered so I could add a comment to a thread, so I'll look in from time to time. Cheers.

[TimH]

Hi Steve. I am only new here as well but welcome

[facthunter]

Yes aircraft can be unbelievably efficient at parting you from your money. Maybe your Beech was exposed to salt. There's not much that is better built out there. Nev

[marshallarts]

Hi Nev. Yes, possible I guess. And yes, the Deb was built like a tank - in fact I think it and the Bonanza have the same landing gear as the Baron. There was no internet in 1990, so not so easy to do thorough research back then. And it didn't help that I was probably as green as grass! But just the 23 years or so of usage could have been arduous, especially if she hadn't been hangared for a lot of that time. The problem is the metals aircraft are made of - they come from the earth, and as time passes, they want to go back to the earth! I meant to add in the initial post that despite the traumatic ending, owning our "Debbie" was a fantastic life experience, and I will always treasure it. It brought me some of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life. If a windfall ever came my way I'd be trying to get back into flying in a heartbeat. Cheers.

Edited May 17, 2020 by marshallarts

[Yenn]

It possibly doesn't cost as much as you think to get back into flying. I did it about the time you were getting out of flying. There are a lot of reasonably priced planes for sale and there are a lot of highly priced , high spec'd plastic fantastic also. The big difference between affordable flying and what you have done is the fact that the modern light planes are very light and do not fly in as stable a fashion as the Debonair, Which I have never flown or the Cessnas and Pipers.

Whatever you fly, just the joy of leaving the ground makes it worthwhile.

[marshallarts]

Hi Yenn. Yes you are probably right, and if it happened that I became an owner again, it would almost certainly be a small/light 2-seater, nothing like dear departed Debbie - for a start, I wouldn't be very comfortable burning 50 litres/hr, even if I could afford it. I do have a look at planesales.com.au occasionally, so I know what is around. The other issue is that I am running out of time - I turned 70 a few months back, so don't even know if I could pass the medical. I'm quite fit and healthy as far as I know, and I'm sure plenty of people in their 70s are flying perfectly fine, but you don't know until you do the test I guess.

[poteroo]

Gday,

You'll possibly have seen this C33, which I was lucky enough to have been able to fly around in 1971-72. It was good for 145 @ 65% as you say, and avgas was really cheap back then so 48LPH didn't bring tears to ones wallet! It started life in Derby, (WA), in the 60's, and was owned by a business in Perth 1970-72. It turned up in Cowra NSW at the Brumby factory when I was purchasing my high wing in 2015. Believe it's in Canberra or thereabouts now. Happy days,

[marshallarts]

Happy days indeed. No, I don't think I've ever seen that one. It's a year older than our Debbie was, and its serial number is less than 100 lower. According to the Aussie register it has been owned/operated by a lady in Qld since 2017. It's unclear to me how often they update the owner/operator info on there - I know of an aircraft that was sold over here a few weeks back, but the register still shows the previous owner/operator.

[red750]

I really enjoyed flying the Bo. Learnt on the B19 Sport and B23 Musketeer. Progressed to the Bonanza below. That was about 40 years ago.

 

 

[Yenn]

I flew a B23 Musketeer for my last BFR. Did about 45 mins of instrument flight and thoroughly enjoyed Nice and stable, especially compared to the RV4 and Corby I had at the time.

You are not too old yet Marshall. I was a teenager when you were born.

[Thruster88]

Hi Yenn. Yes you are probably right, and if it happened that I became an owner again, it would almost certainly be a small/light 2-seater, nothing like dear departed Debbie - for a start, I wouldn't be very comfortable burning 50 litres/hr, even if I could afford it. I do have a look at planesales.com.au occasionally, so I know what is around. The other issue is that I am running out of time - I turned 70 a few months back, so don't even know if I could pass the medical. I'm quite fit and healthy as far as I know, and I'm sure plenty of people in their 70s are flying perfectly fine, but you don't know until you do the test I guess.

 

There are three aero clubs near here that all have very nice LSA aircraft for rent around $125 per hour wet, it is cheap. Join an aero club, start your RAA conversion, see how you like it. No medical required.?