An O-300 172 (or 170 for that matter) makes a GREAT two place airplane - if that's your mission.
We've flown '81D, an O-300 170B with a climb prop, for 5 year (just sold her).
On the east coast, where the worst density altitude I've ever seen is 3,000 feet, she did wonderfully with my wife and I and a few bags.
Having said that, We're putting a TCM IO-360 in '95D.


As someone has mentioned earlier, some parts for the O-300 are becoming tough to find but it's mostly the C-145 parts. Namely the sump and the crank.
The sumps are rotting out from water sitting in them. They look fine from the outside but are rotting from the inside. They are difficult to repair in an approved way. The 8 bolt C-145 cranks don't seem to exist anymore. The six bolters are still around and can be bought from TCM for about 5 large as it's the same as the TCM IO-360 crank.

As an East coast two person low lands airplane, a straight tail 172 is tough to beat in price and performance.


Really sorry to hear about your plane. It looks like you really took care of her and cleaned her up nice.
Best of luck finding the next one to do the same.

That is such bad luck, the chances must be one in a hundred million.
I too would be very disappointed initially, but I think you're in the right mindset seeing it as an opportunity.
I also support others suggestions of seeing this as a chance to make a change. You don't often get such a good chance.

Frank, very sorry to hear about this.

But glad you were getting yourself in shape and getting some good flying done.

My 2 cents...get another plane ASAP. If you go for the repairs you will be months down the road without resolution by the time they determine whether it is feasible. I can't stand not flying.

But there are other folks that like building planes...I like it too...as long as I have a flying airplane while I am working on another...

Frank, this is terrible news!

I hope, which ever way you go about getting flying again, that it is quick and painless!

On barnstormers if you search for "airglas" there is a fast back swept tail with big tires for 33k. Might be worth looking into

Sorry about the tree. What a bummer. FWIW this one is mid-time engine in dry Arizona in your price range.

http://www.controller.com/listings/airc ... 72-skyhawk

Oh man, I genuinely feel your pain. I was meant to do a long-planned trip last weekend and it had to be cancelled at the last moment because I damaged the plane fooling around in a corn field. So sorry to learn of your problems...

Bit of trivia: One of the common ways to say "I'm sorry" in Spanish is "lo siento". Literally it's more like "I feel you".

So, lo siento amigo.

What a $#@%.

So sorry to hear.

Found another airplane locally, a 172B with less than 3000TT and less than 40SMOH on a reasonably recent overhaul. Not the straight tail I wanted but a nice airplane.

There's a lot of 172's out there-- don't settle for something other than what you want.

Hotrod180,

You're right, there are a lot of 172s available on the market and I've been aggressively looking for the "just right" airplane. In the course of doing that I've learned quite a bit about what's advertised compared with what's real. That included a 7 hour round trip flight to look at a '56 that should have been perfect but in reality had little in common with what was advertised other than 2 wings. I can go months or years looking for the "just right" airplane or I can get back to flying. I'm going to choose the later and continue to look for the one that's perfect. You sure you'd sit grounded and wait?

Thanks to Pburns for offering up his 150 for the 7hr flight and sharing in the adventure. If it gets picked up we might make Avweb a stuck mike incident with Allentown Approach.

Frank

fshaw wrote:Found another airplane locally, a 172B with less than 3000TT and less than 40SMOH on a reasonably recent overhaul. Not the straight tail I wanted but a nice airplane.

Awesome...buy it and fly it. Good to hear you are getting it sorted.

a list...

1. god. shit happens.
2. i admire your tenacity and ability to shake it off and look ahead and start placing one foot in front of the other. i try to keep my eyes out for traits in other pilots that i want to have, and you just added one
3. starting with a disclaimer: i have a very, very very tiny number of hours, even less in 172's, but...i recently flew an o360 powered 172, and hot damn if that extra power is not the most incredible thing. i didn't do anything that required that power, but i can vouch for its significance.

cheers, keep on keeping on

dave