GumpAir wrote:"Well, you can always sleep in the airplane, but ya can't fly a house!"

Well said Gump, I hope it's not copyrighted because I intend to steal that one.

SD

Dammit, I hate it when I post a reply and it don't go nowwhere

Anyway, tried to buy a J5 in about 1980 when I was headed back to Alaska but couldn't swing it, had some money saved up a few years later and my daughter broke both legs so money flew away but I stayed on the ground. Finally bought my plane when I was about 42 or so and have been scratching for cash to keep it flying ever since.

To answer the other question about money, it seems I can either own a plane or fly a plane but not both. It is a definite strain on my finances.

C-140 before I turned 15, one week of hard work removing a piece of equipment from a factory they gave us to 'get it out', turns out it was VERY valuable & sold it. My 1/2 paid for the plane. Sold & upgraded not long after, still own my 2nd one.

Wanted to fly since I was six, dad could always find me at the airport when he came home from work. Got a bank loan for PP, $400.00 at 31, very understanding wife and two little boys. Got PP in two months and I and two others bought a 1948 170 for Three grand, that was in 1966. Now it's 46 years later and my two little boys are flying their own 57 182 for the last 20 years and I'm still flying the 185 I purchased back in 1976. Next year the boys hope to get into the 185 and they will be abe to fly me around in it when I no longer can fly. I hope to fly up in to my eighties or more, good Lord willing.
Ron

Ron,

Where do you keep your planes? Do you live up in Frisco?

skywagon guy wrote:Wanted to fly since I was six, dad could always find me at the airport when he came home from work. Got a bank loan for PP, $400.00 at 31, very understanding wife and two little boys. Got PP in two months and I and two others bought a 1948 170 for Three grand, that was in 1966. Now it's 46 years later and my two little boys are flying their own 57 182 for the last 20 years and I'm still flying the 185 I purchased back in 1976. Next year the boys hope to get into the 185 and they will be abe to fly me around in it when I no longer can fly. I hope to fly up in to my eighties or more, good Lord willing.
Ron

I live in Frisco, we moved here from Littleton in 1971. Son's live here in Summit County also. We hanger the planes in 20V, (Kremmling). I flew out of the old Breckenridge dirt strip for a number of years. Are you from the Boulder area? If so do you know a Terry Edwards? He did our owner assisted annnuals for a lot of years.
Ron

Yes i live in Boulder and since i just bought my first plane i dont have a long history of contacts. No don't know him.

Maybe I'll run into you some day over at Kremmling.

I was 26 when I got my first plane. It was for me to buy a truck or a plane. I got the plane cheaper then a new truck. A lot more fun to fly then drive.

Ken in Alaska

Hi All,

This is a great thread, fun to read. Well now I'll tell my story. I was 47 when I got my PPL. I rented a 152 from a local FBO and one evening on a flight back from picking up my son I had the alternator's insides come apart, about 10 minutes after sunset. So about 6 months after getting my PPL I bought a C150L and put about 200 hours on it the first year. After a very rough ride from St Cloud, MN to Dell Rapids, SD that absolutely beat the s*** out of my wife and I, an extraordinary thing happened, my wife said to me and I quote " We really need a bigger plane". Then she proceeded to tell me about a C172 up for auction about 100 miles away. So my son (an A&P) and I flew up in the 150 to look at and bid on this 172. Well it was a nice plane but went for more then I was willing to spend. So home we went. Upon getting home I immediately went to search EBay, and much to my delight found a Beechcraft F35 with 2 hours left on the auction. I called my son to come and look and contacted the owner and he emailed logbooks etc. With a couple minutes left I decided what my top dollar was and put in a bid, and won. I now owned a C150 and an F35, all I needed now was a high performance & and complex endorsement. I flew as often as I could.
Well a few years later we decided to move to Alaska. After being up there for awhile I realized that a Bonanza was not really an Alaska plane and my wife said to me " we really need an Alaska plane" and I said " have I ever told you how much I love you". So the search began and I found a C180H with skis and bush wheels, and factory float kit, and we bought it. Now all I needed was to get my tail wheel endorsement, but with the help of Rick and Hiedi Ruese in Anchorage (both of whom have over 26,000 hours) I received my endorsement. So now I own a C150L (that my son and wife are training in) an F35 and a C180H the 180 being my favorite. Well I've rambled on enough thanks for letting me tell my story.

180jocky

180jocky wrote:Hi All, <snip>
So now I own a C150L (that my son and wife are training in) an F35 and a C180H the 180 being my favorite. Well I've rambled on enough thanks for letting me tell my story.

180jocky

Always buy. Never sell. Or so an old timer once told me. Great story. My wife has been almost the same through the years.

EB

Yeah my wife just read the thread and informed me "yeah you've got a really cool wife" what could I say she's right.

180jocky wrote:Hi All,

This is a great thread, fun to read. Well now I'll tell my story. I was 47 when I got my PPL. I rented a 152 from a local FBO and one evening on a flight back from picking up my son I had the alternator's insides come apart, about 10 minutes after sunset. So about 6 months after getting my PPL I bought a C150L and put about 200 hours on it the first year. After a very rough ride from St Cloud, MN to Dell Rapids, SD that absolutely beat the s*** out of my wife and I, an extraordinary thing happened, my wife said to me and I quote " We really need a bigger plane". Then she proceeded to tell me about a C172 up for auction about 100 miles away. So my son (an A&P) and I flew up in the 150 to look at and bid on this 172. Well it was a nice plane but went for more then I was willing to spend. So home we went. Upon getting home I immediately went to search EBay, and much to my delight found a Beechcraft F35 with 2 hours left on the auction. I called my son to come and look and contacted the owner and he emailed logbooks etc. With a couple minutes left I decided what my top dollar was and put in a bid, and won. I now owned a C150 and an F35, all I needed now was a high performance & and complex endorsement. I flew as often as I could.
Well a few years later we decided to move to Alaska. After being up there for awhile I realized that a Bonanza was not really an Alaska plane and my wife said to me " we really need an Alaska plane" and I said " have I ever told you how much I love you". So the search began and I found a C180H with skis and bush wheels, and factory float kit, and we bought it. Now all I needed was to get my tail wheel endorsement, but with the help of Rick and Hiedi Ruese in Anchorage (both of whom have over 26,000 hours) I received my endorsement. So now I own a C150L (that my son and wife are training in) an F35 and a C180H the 180 being my favorite. Well I've rambled on enough thanks for letting me tell my story.

180jocky

That's awesome!! That's one special girl you have. I still hope to find a girl like that myself one day.

Great thread.....

1st Airplane- 25 years old living/working in rural Nevada (Beatty). 1962 C-172 (N8345X). Got transfered after a year to Memphis, TN and flew it across the country with something called a map, a ADF, and a VOR. How wierd is that

2nd Airplane- 28 years old living/working in Memphis,TN bought a 1977 C-172 (N737HE) well equiped for the sole purpose of getting my instrument ticket.

3rd Airplane- 35 years old living/working in Berthoud, Colorado 1964 Money M20E (N1940Y). Lot's and lot's of fun. Flew that baby all over the country including to Fairbanks. Alaska.

4th Airplane- 50 years old living/working in Idaho Falls, Idaho 1959 C-182 (N2408G) with PPonk WOW- more fun and you get to play in the dirt

As some one who has been lurking here for years I thought I would make this my introduction to the BCP. I recently acquired a 59 182 and it seemed like there was more then a handful of them here.

My first airplane came to me. It was about fifteen years ago, this guy walks up and says to me, I hear you want to buy a plane? I guess I had been talking about flying my whole life but even after becoming an A&P aircraft ownership never seemed to be possible. Anyway, guy is walking on sticks and his speech is a little slurred. I knew his story, drunk driver takes him out, losses medical, and his two planes are collecting dust. I make him what is called out here in Western Alaska as a PAF offer: pay after fishing. Half this year half next year. We shake on it and the next day he brings a signed registration form and hands it to me, don't want her in my name if you take out a row of planes.

She needed a lot of TLC but after a month I was able to climb in with a CFI and fly around the patch. The following morning it blew 140 mph, ripped the struts out of the wings and laid the bitch on her back! One flight!

Four years later and she is flying again. I solo on floats! After 9/11 it seemed the state troopers were frowning on us high time student pilots flying all over the state, you know more then the allotted 25 miles, so I went down to Sheblies and finished up my privet with this  young man who had about five more hours in his logbook then me. 

Rocket

May as well put my story here too.

I was 27 when I finished my ratings in 1969. My first paying job was instructing 4 gung-ho guys in their 1946 C-120. Gradually, each lost interest in flying and just me and the owner flying the airplane. He lost interest too and I bought the airplane for $1500.00. Flew the airplane for about 5 years. Had a ball with that airplane. What a spinning fool!!! Airplane was damaged in a wind storm and I sold it for $1200.00. This airplane, N72512, is still flying in Michigan.

Airplanes since have been a 1956 C-182, at age 36, then a 1966 C-182 at 46 and present Maule M5-210C in 1994 at age of 52.

To answer the question of ownership, I would have to say there has never been an issue to provide the maintenance and time to fly. I do all of my routine maintenance and only have to pay for the IA inspection.

Right now touching on 2000 hours of logged time and probably another 200 hours unlogged.