Best Private Airplane to own

Although most singles are four-digit planes, the vast majority cannot transport four grown-ups and still have enough load capacity for luggage and gas.

Do you want to drop off your plane and go? From what kind of take-off and landing runways do you intend to use? When you have many short/soft squares, a highdecker such as a Cessna can be a better option than a low wings such as a Piper, Mooney or Beechcraft.

A tailwheel aircraft can also be considered, which can be more difficult to touch down, but can touch down at a much closer range and high propeller play can make it a better type of aircraft. The Cessna 172 is ideal for a $100 Hamburg trip, but not so good for a 400nm overland trip where a Mooney or Beechcraft would be a much better one.

Unless you are orchestrated, this is likely not an immediate problem, but if you are planning to get an instruments rating, you are definitely going to want an aircraft fitted for flying instruments (I would suggest at least a WAAS-supported global positioning system, an HSI, a two-axle auto-pilot, and some kind of back-up vac system). When you are planning to travel to the south of the USA in summers, having good meteorological conditions is a must (you can usually get it cheaper on a portable device).

Even if you are planning to use instruments to fly in the wintery parts of the world, you can consider a FIKI plane (one that is capable of flying into the known ice). Regarding prospective blueprints, there are advantages and disadvantages in purchasing a more "entry-level" model and then in upgrade if you gain more expertise or purchase a more powerful or sophisticated airplane and conduct extra trainings to familiarize yourself with it.

Naturally, you cannot speak about owning airplanes without speaking about a certain amount of money. There is a $500,000 Cessna 182 for a newly built aircraft, but there are many used aircraft under $100,000 or even $50,000. Speaking for myself, I would not be recommending an aircraft for a first purchaser, as manufacturer and model club coverage is generally restricted.

Nor would I be recommending an LSA (light sports aircraft), as the FAA currently believes that they cannot be flown in instruments unless you never intend to get an instruments score. One Mooney can incinerate 10 gal per hours on the same plane on which one Piper Lanze burns 17 gal per hours.

Insurances can also be a big consideration and rebates usually don't come until you have and instruments evaluation and 100 hrs on the airplane (especially for airplanes with retractable undercarriage). In the following reply I spoke more about my experiences with owning aircraft: I' ve had a 1970 Mooney M-20G for over two years and have used it in the USA and Canada.

I' ll probably have it flying almost 200 this year. I was an orchestrated private pilot when I purchased the aircraft and had about 350 hrs and some amount of experience in intricate aircraft and high powered aircraft, so insurances were never an option (I am now a professional pilot with about 600 hrs and I am paying more for insurances on my Toyota RAV4).

Mooney will burn about 10 gal per minute and I can transport 3 adult and luggage with about 4 hfu. As I looked at airplanes, I was very worried about the state of the plane, how well it was fitted out and the running costs. I have over 8700 hrs on the cabin and about 1700 hrs on the jet engines, but have been serviced all my live by some of the best air services in the state.

In addition, the motor was reconditioned in 2004 and has since flew 200 hrs or more per year. It is well known that airplanes that are used a great deal have much fewer troubles than airplanes that are used seldom, so an aircraft that has been promoted with an obsolete power unit for only 1000 operating hours since 1980 and for only 100 operating hours since 1990 is probably a source of income.

Apart from my physical fitness, I often travel long distances at nights and in all weathers, and frequently approach instruments to a minimum, so good electronics were my next priority. I have a Garmin 430W (WAAS fitted GPS) GPS connected to an HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator), another HSI receiver and VOR/Glideslope, a JPI EDM-700 motor display and an S-Tec 50 2-axis vertical attitude auto-pilot.

I' ve done many long trips (from 11 hours) with planes without auto-pilot and it's really tiring, so I wouldn't want to own a plan without auto-pilot now. Prior to choosing a Mooney, I chose an aircraft powerplant because it is generally the most costly part of an aircraft (engines have to be refurbished about every 2000 flying hours and the costs can range from $20,000 to $50,000 or more).

If you look at non turbocharged 200 hp or less turbocharged aircraft, the forgotten 180 hp Lycoming O-360 is generally regarded as the cheapest running costs per hp and makes it to the 2000 hours TBO rather than the fuel-injected IO-360, so I then went to look at aircraft cells using the motor and found that the Mooney M20-C was the most effective aircraft and the best for my missions.

In fact, I found my plane by selecting the incorrect Mooney model on Controller.com (I selected the slow M-20G instead of the M-20C). Looks perfectly on it for what I was looking for, but I had no flying in Mooneys, so I went to Kerrville, TX and flown it for 3 hrs, but I felt like it was the right plane for me after only 3 take-offs and 3 landings. What I was looking for was a good plane, and I was very happy with it.

I know your missions can be very different from mine, but if you can respond to my question about your missions, your objectives and your budgets, I am sure that I and other flyers here can help you get to the right plane for you.