In the course of searching for a "low time" 152 for our flying club I came across an ad for a 1979 model with "536 original hours, hangared all its life, stored as a collector's item, original paint/engine/interior/glass in perfect condition." The photos in the ad seemed to confirm this, the airplane really did look great.
The price? 75,000$ That's how hard it is to find a low time 152 right now. And with an engine that's 31 years old and hasn't been overhauled, expect to pay for that right away, roughly 20,000$.
Looking at controller there are 15 152's for sale and the average total time is over 8000 hours. The highest time airframe has 14000 hours, there are two of them available with that kind of time, the lowest time has 2500 hours (tailwheel converted, privately owned). One of the 14,000 hour airframes available is our club's previous 152. Please take a look, the price is great for a time builder and I can assure you it's been well maintained.
We eventually settled on one that had 2300 hours and a damage history (nose gear collapse at least twice, not uncommon for a trainer), but it seems to have been well repaired. All told, after repairs and upgrades, paint and interior to bring it to our standards we will have paid roughly 45,000$ which is a slight discount from what we'd expect to pay for a similar time airframe that did not need paint or interior.
so this one is in our colors and will last us until such time as we can pick up a 162 to replace it on the used market.
It's a 152 killer, and the 152 needs killin'
