vaguely recalled her hangar neighbor mentioning that a friend of his was thinking of selling his 170. After working my way through the three degrees of separation, I struck up a friendship with the owner and, ulti- mately, ended up buying his airplane. While you’re out nosing around small airports, be sure to seek out the physical bulletin boards that are invariably found inside each FBO or clubhouse. There, you'll find leads on airplanes, many of which will never appear online. Powerful though the web may be, it doesn’t contain these lush grapevines of local gossip. Embark Upon Fact-Finding Missions When you manage to narrow your choices down to two or three types, there’s a good chance one of them will be something other than a com- mon Cessna 172 or Piper Cherokee. Maybe it’s an old Cessna 140 tail- dragger, maybe it’s a Piper Tri-Pacer, or maybe it’s a Mooney. If that airplane is indeed one of your finalists, seek one out that's available to rent, and travel to it. Go up with an instructor for a couple of les- sons. Evaluate and consider how well it matches your tastes. This may involve the purchase of an airline ticket to the opposite end of the country. It may involve two or more nights in a hotel. But in the overall scheme of airplane ownership, it’s a drop in the bucket…and the invest- ment will steer you toward a good, well-researched decision and away Ask any aircraft owner, and they’ll tell you that one of the most valu- able assets imaginable is an experienced mechanic available locally who is familiar with your make and model. They'll be able to identify issues before they become problems, and they’ll likely be pretty quick with routine maintenance. Personally, I’ve had good luck reaching out to owners groups. Some host their own website with a dedicated forum from a hasty, ill-informed one. Discover Local Resources
where you can ask about experienced mechanics in your area. Other groups may only have a Facebook page. After you’ve narrowed your search down to a few different models, ask each type’s respective owners group what mechanics and resources exist in your area. It may be the case that there are none nearby, and that you’d have to take a unique type, like a Porterfield Collegiate or Culver Cadet, to a local mechanic who’s never actually seen one before. That A&P will almost certainly overcome their learning curve, but it will take a while—and you’ll be footing the bill along the way. Should you happen to be torn between two types and are seeking some sort of tiebreaker to help determine which to choose, the pres- ence of local expertise might very well break that tie. Buy With Your Heart—and Your Brain My own airplane-shopping spreadsheet contained about six tabs, many formulas, and an entire sheet of color-coded charts that compared the airplanes I found. Important as it is to pay attention to the technical de- tails, it’s also important to pay attention to the less quantifiable factors, e.g.: a paint scheme that you find completely irresistible; a fascination with a type’s overall design; or maybe the attachment to a model that comes from a parent or grandparent having owned one during your childhood. When it comes to a purchase of an airplane, sound deci- sion-making should be grounded in the usual fundamental issues: lack of corrosion, a well-maintained, regularly-flown engine, etc. But so long as those boxes are checked, it’s acceptable to err toward the one that tugs at your heartstrings. ]
JASON McDOWELL is a private pilot and Cessna 170 owner based in Madison, Wisconsin.
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