Oh, wait - not like that! Yeah, poor choice of words, I s’pose :smack:
But I do need a little reassurance - my husband is buying a plane. Gulp.
He’s a brand new pilot, about 80-85 hrs and has an appointment for the final testing in a week or so. He’s having a ball, this is something he’s wanted to do forever and so I hate to rain on his parade… but I can’t help being a little freaked out.
The plane he’s buying (assuming it passes all its prepurchase exams) is a 1957 Piper Tri-Pacer. It’s currently not airworthy because the previous owner ran out of fuel and put her down safely enough in a pasture, but ran through a fence or two and bent the wheel strut thingies and did some other relatively minor undercarriage damage. A mechanic my husband (and many other pilots with MUCH more experience) trusts says she’s in great shape, and it won’t take much to get her going again.
I want him to have fun, I really do. He comes back from flying still sky-high and that’s a wonderful thing to see. But the plane is a year older than he is, and it’s a fabric exterior -I know it’s coated and more like fiberglass but still… :eek: And damn but this is expensive. I shouldn’t bitch, I’m trying so very hard not to. He earns 99% of the money and he’s funded MY expensive and dangerous hobby all these years, I have no right to tell him how to spend what he earns.
On the other hand, I don’t want him augering in and leaving me a widow with a pile o’ bills.
Does he have pilot friends? Someone with that little experience would really be better off flying with a more experienced friend. Maybe you could ask him to please do that as a compromise.
I doubt I’ll ever fly with him unless I’m full to the eyeballs with Dramamine. I can get motion sick when I’m driving a car. And no real pilot friends, not close by anyway.
As for my hobby, I keep, ride, and show horses. Specifically Eventing, which is the sport that ultimately killed Superman, aka Christopher Reeve.
Holy crap! Well, you are a daredevil and so is he. Y’all seem well matched with each other.
Surely he knows your misgivings, and assuming he isn’t an idiot, he will very likely have a wonderful new and rewarding hobby. I would suggest he not take any jobs crop-dusting or fighting wildfires just yet.
Good luck.
Are there any flying clubs in the area? It is a way of sharing the costs of plane ownership. yes, you share access as well but if the ratio is good it usually isn’t a problem.
Nothing wrong with cloth-covered airplanes. I flew steadily for 10 years, in 17 different types of aircraft. Something like a third of them were “ragwings”, that is, cloth-covered wings. They ranged from a 1942 Stearman biplane to sportplane type that was only a couple months old when I flew it. I particularly liked the Citabria, a fully aerobatic airplane capable of withstanding more g’s than most of the metal wing airplanes I flew. Ragwings require some maintenance and attention, but so does every other sort of airplane. Frankly, I’d take a 50 year old well cared for cloth wing Piper over some of the newer, non-cloth wing things I’ve flown that I didn’t think were as well designed, easy to fly, or as fun.
Likewise, many of the airplanes I’ve flown are older than I am. Not a problem provided, again, they are properly maintained.
Not exactly crazy… but a little more concerned than you should be. Definitely support your husband in regards to continued training if he wants it, encourage him to attend FAA safety seminars, participate in the WINGS program, and so on. The more you know about horses the safer you are as a rider. The more you know about flying the safer you are as a pilot.
A LOT depends on your husband’s personality. If he is, by nature, a careful and cautious person that is definitely in his favor.
Despite your proneness to motion sickness you still might benefit from a “pinch-hitter’s” class. That’s where the (usually) spouse of a pilot spends a weekend with a little ground school and some actual flight time. The purpose isn’t to make you a pilot, it’s to acquaint you with flying and how to deal with in-flight emergencies up to and including landing an airplane when the pilot is incapacitated. It would probably do a great deal to reassure you about such things and the resources a pilot has to deal with problems.
The plane should be evaluated by someone with nothing to gain by the sale. Or by someone in a position to make some $$ doing repairs or selling parts for needed repairs.
I’m a flight instructor and I have a fair bit of experience in Piper Tri Pacers and Colts (the two seat version of the Tri). They are excellent planes and a good value for the money depending on the condition of the fabric.
The common sense part of my brain tells me that while he’s a slob about things like socks and dishes and the inside of his car, he’s incredibly anal about things that really matter. He’s a chemist-turned-physician who’s other loves are motorcycles and whitewater boating; safety and minutiae are pretty much ingrained at this point, so I’ll tell the worrywart side of me to shut up and go lie down
And perhaps I’ll look into upping the life insurance before he gets his final certificate
To echo what Broomstick posted, the age of an airplane isn’t that much of a factor. They have to be inspected annually, and you are not allowed to fly them unless they are airworthy. Fabric does degrade, but it can be good for decades depending on how the plane is kept and where it is.
My concern is the cost of repairing a damaged plane. Might make sense; but he might be able to find a non-damaged plane for less than he would pay for the damaged one plus repairs.
FWIW, I bid on a ‘project’ on the weekend – a 1953 Beechcraft T-34B. I was the highest bidder for a couple of days, but I didn’t meet the reserve. Not that I could have afforded to rebuild it even if someone gave it to me. (Where do you buy T-34B wings, anyway?)
There are several AD’s available to address the spar-cracking problem, so you may not have to. You could also use Bonanza wings, which are nearly identical, although you’d probably have to go Experimental if you aren’t already.
saje, are you looking for safety stats here, or reassurance? You’ve mentioned a risky hobby you have; have you ever asked hubby how *he *feels about it? If you did, would that free you to tell him your own fears and get an open conversation going?
To be clear, they’re built into the shoulder harness, not the panel or the yoke.
It’s about a $10K option on a new plane that’s already certified for it. Probably isn’t a service bulletin that allows retrofits without recertifying the plane as Experimental.
Not really. A newer plane would have shoulder harnesses, which an older one may or may not have. Newer planes might have better avionics, but so might older ones.
The Cessna 172 has been in production (except for an 11-year hiatus) for going on 60 years. This list of variants shows what refinements have been made over the years.
I wondered if Bonanza wings were swap-able. I also wondered about the spar AD. How much of the old wing is used? Maybe they could just build new ones.
I bid on the plane on a lark. $2,345.67. That’s about 1/100 of the current selling price of a flying T-34 at controller.com. Even at that, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. I know that one company that does the AD for the spar charges $45,000. Not to mention having it all put together by an A&P so it can be in the Normal category. And of course, I’d want to upgrade the engine. Hangar, insurance, maintenance, etc. … Realistically, if I were able to afford to fly one I’d just buy one that’s already airworthy.
If I were going to do something stupid, I’d buy the 1970 Cessna 172K dad used to own, and in which I learned to fly. If I were just going to buy ‘any plane’, a 1969 or 1970 C-172K would be at the top of the list (it’s interesting for several reasons not related to nostalgia); or a -M, -N, or -P.
Suggest that rather than buying a craft, he join a co-op or club where pilots pool resources and co-own a number of planes.
Better yet, give him a gift of a test flight on a sailplane! There are probably soaring clubs in your area (most likely, sharing a small airfield with a pilots’ co-op.)
