Help with new plane decision

[Guest northern33]

Hi everyone,

 

I am new to flying. I am in the middle of flight training; just waiting for my medical to start flying solo. I am trying to purchase a C172 to complete my training along with a couple of other folks that will all go together on this airplane. Having a heck of a time trying to find a suitable C172 for us somewhat close to where we live in Canada. Our group is contemplating a few planes for our first airplane. Two of which are from Upper Valley Aviation in British Columbia. He's got two on his website (C-GHJX and C-FBFW).

 

http://www.uppervalleyaviation.com/airc ... -FBFW.html

 

Any advice you could give would be really appreciated. The plan is for 4 us to complete our PPL and do some flying for fun. I plan on continuing on to my CPL. From the description on each plane they look great. I am a bit curious on the avionics though. One of them has two Collins NAV/COM's and two VOR instruments (please excuse the poor descriptions - I'm still a student!!); while the other only has one of each. I really like the idea of having a backup radio, as our school planes have experienced radio failures quite a bit this Spring already. I just don't know how important it is to have two, nor any idea the cost of adding another radio to a plane.

 

Our other option is the plane I found in a aviation paper; it's a 1982 172P from http://www.nixonair.com Not knowing much about what surprises there may be with a repaired plane we are a bit cautious on this one of course. The owner has told me that there was lower firewall repairs from a landing and repair to the leading edge of a wing from an unrelated incident. He says that the repairs are well documented in the logs and the engine has been recently rebuilt with 15 recent hours on it since.

 

Any thoughts??

 

 

[turboplanner]

Buy the book Airpane Ownership by Ron Wanttaja (Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more - about US$26.00)

 

His key piece of advice is to pay for a detailed inspection

 

Don't worry about the instruments - the biggest issue to look for is corrosion because that will cost you big money to rectify.

 

Last time I checked there were still heaps of cheap 172's across the US. Just google "aircraft for sale" or airplanes for sale". There are some on Trade a plane.com starting at US$36,000. Good Luck.

 

 

[Guest northern33]

Thanks Turboplanner. I agree, there are lots of planes for sale in the U.S. right now that are way better deals than here in Canada. The only thing is the challenge exporting them to Canada.

 

 

[turboplanner]

They may be pleased to get export income. I just heard that a truck load of Americans had been caught trying to enter Mexico.

 

 

[skeptic36]

They may be pleased to get export income. I just heard that a truck load of Americans had been caught trying to enter Mexico.

 

 

[Guest drizzt1978]

Thanks Turboplanner. I agree, there are lots of planes for sale in the U.S. right now that are way better deals than here in Canada. The only thing is the challenge exporting them to Canada.

What is the challenge to fly it over the border....Other than being shot down by Maverick??

 

Seriously, I know canadians go down south to buy cars sometimes, Is it really complicated?

 

 

[Guest northern33]

Your 337 form is something our Canadian officials are not fond of.

 

 

[turboplanner]

It does rely heavily on the LAME being scrupulously honest, but most are.

 

However, there's nothing like geting your man to open all the inspection points and look inside the wings etc.

 

From memory the book covers ways of indentifying major crash repairs, and gives some examples of suspect aircraft.