1971 Cessna 150, should i buy it

flyboywbl

3rd regional in 1 year
Hey guys i was thinking about getting a 1971 Cessna 150 and leasing it back to my flight school i'm going to be working at. I know the owner (my future employer pending my MEI ride next week). They just put a brand new engine in it so that has zero hours. The prop has a fresh overhaul. and it has 5000+ hours TT. It has always been in a hangar since they have owned it. They are asking 27,900 for it. is that too much? Before i bought it i would get a lease back contract signed with the flight school owner saying that i could keep it in his hangar and rent it to students. I'm not looking to make any money on the deal. If i broke even and got some hours with it, I would be happy. I just thought this would be a cheap time builder for my wife and I to putt around the Valley in Bozeman. Maybe take it up to Kallespell for the weekend. If i financed the whole thing it would be about 300 bucks a month for the loan. Insurance would be about 300 a month as well if students are going to be flying it.

Here is the web site. Let me know what you think.

http://www.flysummit.net/aircraft_detail.php?ID=55

Thanks for the input

-Matt
 
Hey guys i was thinking about getting a 1971 Cessna 150 and leasing it back to my flight school i'm going to be working at. I know the owner (my future employer pending my MEI ride next week). They just put a brand new engine in it so that has zero hours. The prop has a fresh overhaul. and it has 5000+ hours TT. It has always been in a hangar since they have owned it. They are asking 27,900 for it. is that too much? Before i bought it i would get a lease back contract signed with the flight school owner saying that i could keep it in his hangar and rent it to students. I'm not looking to make any money on the deal. If i broke even and got some hours with it, I would be happy. I just thought this would be a cheap time builder for my wife and I to putt around the Valley in Bozeman. Maybe take it up to Kallespell for the weekend. If i financed the whole thing it would be about 300 bucks a month for the loan. Insurance would be about 300 a month as well if students are going to be flying it.

Here is the web site. Let me know what you think.

http://www.flysummit.net/aircraft_detail.php?ID=55

Thanks for the input

-Matt

That's a nice looking little airplane.
 
Older, got some time on it but 0 SMOH......WOW! its a new engine. Was it a trainer? How is the airframe? could use all new avionics...maybe 25,000 max. 5,000 TT is a little high...but its 1971...I like 1975 + planes...anything near the 1960's scares me....plus the 1,000 dollar annual is coming up....
 
Yah it was a trainer. I think they have put about 2000 hours on it in the flight school. The main reason i don't want to buy a different plane is that i know the two guys who own the plane now and they use it in the flight school. If it was unsafe or something was wrong with it i don't think they would let students rent it. Also i don't think they would sell it to me if it was a lemon. Since we are a Diamond school if i bought a different plane i don't think he would lease it from me. This plane is special because there are a bunch of people who love to fly it and they know it. It's already in the rental line up. The only thing that would change is who owned it. Since my CFI rides are next week i'll be living off of a CFI job and won't be able to afford to rent they Diamonds like i use to. I thought it would be nice to learn about aircraft ownership as well. If it is a total money pit, i'm not out that much compared to a Twin or something with retractible gear. I figure the maintenance won't be too bad either.

Any thing else i need to be thinking about?

-Matt
 
make sure you get pre-buy from a non biased a&p. Also get an issue of trade-a-plane i've seen some good deals in there. Don't forget its a buyers market so negotiate.
 
is that like a home inspection? Yah i'll do that. How much do those usually run? I'm gonna go take a test flight next week some time. I think i've got the basics
Make sure the engine starts easily
Look for oil/spills
Make sure radio works well
Look for sediment in the tank
make sure it flies hands off straight and level.
check for slop in the controls
check for rust and other corrosion in hinges and all around
check for moisture damage
check for leeks in the windows in the air

anything else i'm missing, let me know
thanks
-Matt
 
is that like a home inspection? Yah i'll do that. How much do those usually run? I'm gonna go take a test flight next week some time. I think i've got the basics
Make sure the engine starts easily
Look for oil/spills
Make sure radio works well
Look for sediment in the tank
make sure it flies hands off straight and level.
check for slop in the controls
check for rust and other corrosion in hinges and all around
check for moisture damage
check for leeks in the windows in the air

anything else i'm missing, let me know
thanks
-Matt


Most of those things are fairly low priority other than the corrosion, the motor is the most important as it is the most expensive part of the airplane. The prebuy better be very in depth in reference to engine. Sloppy control cables are one thing, a camshaft that's making metal is another.
 
Also check the registration for crashes and mishaps. The pre buy is very important just like a house an a&p will look at everything I think the cost is around 250 and up depends on the airplane. But if I was buying a 28000 dollar plane I would easily cough up 500 for a pre buy. If you know some a&p's I would consult them before you even think about buying.
 
alright thanks. sounds like the Pre-buy is the way to go. As well as making sure the engine is tip top. It should be, It's brand new. The owner has flown it once in the pattern to test it out. Any way thanks for your help
-Matt
 
alright thanks. sounds like the Pre-buy is the way to go. As well as making sure the engine is tip top. It should be, It's brand new. The owner has flown it once in the pattern to test it out. Any way thanks for your help
-Matt

Look into the shop that did the new engine too.
Make sure they do trustworthy work.

And you cant just go to any A&P.
Ask around and find a trustworthy no bull##### guy.
 
5,000 TT is nothing for a 150!

I was flying a C152 the other day when the Tach rolled over to 10,000.0 hours. Its been a trainer flying a few hours a day since new in 1978 though. :cwm27:

Sounds like an ok deal on the 150 if everything works out in the pre-buy, maybe try to drop it a few thousand in the negotiations.
 
Just a couple points on my end. If you are going to be a CFI next week you probally won't need a 150 to go out and build time in. Unless you are going to use the airplane reguarly it will be cheaper to rent for those trips up to Kellespell and your wife probally won't be as thrilled about flying in a 150 as you are. If the airplane was making them money, they would not want to sell it. Most of the time, when a person does an engine overhaul on a plane they are about to sell they do it for the lowest price they can find. Find out who did the overhaul and whether they actually put anything new on it. I can't see the website, so I can't give you an opinion on that specific airplane, but $28,000 is a lot of money for a Cessna 150. If it had a good overhaul, nice paint, and IFR avionics it would be worth it.

Alex.
 
but $28,000 is a lot of money for a Cessna 150. If it had a good overhaul, nice paint, and IFR avionics it would be worth it.

:yeahthat:

For $28,000 you could get an IFR 150. Save yourself the headache and expense and just rent when you need GA transportation.

As a CFI you will get plenty of time in low-powered single-engined Cessnas.
 
Hmm... you make a good point. The engine is brand new, not overhauled. But i get where you are coming from. If it was making money and students were using it then thats probably a red flag. Also as a CFI with 3-4 students a day, come the weekend, probably the last thing i'll want to do is fly some more in a small plane. I donno, the plane has been for sale for a couple of months now. I don't think it's going any ware. I could try to lowball it and see where that gets me. If i could get an IFR certified 150 with like a G430 in it why wouldn't I for the same price? I also just looked into how much a CFI makes working full time, and it aint a lot. I would say over half my paycheck each moth would go towards the loan/insurance. If the plane is not flying, those bills still need to be paid so it would be out of pocket. If it is flying alot it should sustain its self. Also i just looked at the useful load and with my wife, me and baggage we could not even fly with full fuel. So then i'm thinking of a 172 but thats a whole new can of worms. Oh well i think i'm just gonna wait because the opportunity to buy a plane is probably never going to go away any time soon.

Thanks for the info guys

-Matt
 
You will need it to fly at least 50 hours a month, possibly more, depending on your leaseback agreement to even break even. Commercial insurance is about 10x more expensive than personal insurance.

Is that you in your picture? You look a little on the big side. I am 6' 205 and can't stay in the 152s we have for more than an hour without cramping up. Do you have 10% for a down payment? Can you afford to make the payments on it if you aren't generating flight school revenue?
 
Yah i'm 6'2" and 245. I told my wife she would have to weigh 135 for us to fly with full fuel. She laughed and told me i needed to weigh 200. well maybe this is incentive to lose some weight. THe only time you can ask a girl what she weighs is when you fly a GA airplane. My wife and I and one of her friends took a DA-40 out (before the 100lb gross weight increase). I knew how much my wife weighs but i asked her friend and she said she weighed and she said 120. I knew she weighed more then that but i did not want to be a jerk about it. I explained to her that the plane would not fly right if we were over weight (i did not want to scare her and say the plane might not fly) Finally she said she weighed 160. If i remember we could only fly with 1/2 fuel and the three of us. Obviously with the 100 lb gross weight increase we would of been fine flying 40 lbs over weight but being a new pilot (who wants to fly commercially) i don't need to be fudge'in weight/balances.

Any way i've opted not to buy the plane. The bottom line is i will be cash poor if it does not fly enough to pay the loan/insurance payment each month. Then you have to think, why are the owner's selling it? Probably because it does not fly enough to pay the loan/insurance payment. Also i will be building plenty of hours this fall. There are 25-40 new students this fall and there are 9 CFI's (including me if i pass my ride next week).

I just really want to own my own plane some day and this seemed like a good deal. If i could afford to buy a brand new DA-20 It would get flown a ton but allas thats not the case. I just feel bad for the guy who bought the DA-42 Twinstar for our school. He must really be hurting with the whole Theilert debacle. Fortunately the plane is still flying but it's gonna need new engines soon and that not gonna be cheap. When you rent a plane you may be paying more per hour but if your only going to flying 10-20 hours a year recreationally it's really not worth it to own.

Thanks for advice guys
-Matt
 
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