2007 is when I bought my first plane. 1958 Cessna Skylane. When I was a much younger 39.

hicountry wrote:Bought my first plane in '96, my second in '06, and I just bought my third plane on Nov 1. The first, a '52 C-170 was traded in on a new '05 Citabria. The Cub I just bought was bought outright. Have never went into the RED (borrowed money) to have a plane and never will. This is an agreement between my wife and I. Been a pilot for 18 years and have no plans to change that at the present time.

Ernie, you just bought a cub? Congrats1 Which one? Now you have a stable. Are you keeping both?

Bought a Cessna 150 with my brother and good friend in 2009. None of is had our licenses, but my neighbor taught me how to fly" and I had 20 hrs solo before I went to flight school. Got out of the 150 last fall and bought and imported my Citabria last fall. Put bushwheels on it and haven't looked back.
David

where there is confusion there is money to be made.

As a kid, my dad took me on a lot of hunting trips in Alaska. He, not being a pilot, chartered bush pilots to drop us off and fly us out. Hunting with my dad is a blast, but flying and hunting is pure heaven. Man I was hooked! I planned to be my own bush pilot when I got older. When I was 23 I made a goal to own a plane in less than a year. I made a wall chart of a thermometer in $1000 increments. Between my regular job and side jobs I saved every scrap of money and kept filling in my wall chart. In less than a year I did it! I bought a 1974 IFR C-150. Not a bush plane but that 150 got me in the backcountry. Later I bought a PA22-20 and then later on a 1956 C-182. The same principle applied on the PA22 and 182 as the 150. No buying a plane unless I saved the $ first then buy it outright. To this day nothing has changed for me in the peace and happiness I get flying into the back country to hunt, fish, camp and explore. Its my "heaven"

I was 31 when I was part of a 3-partner purchase of a cherry 70 Skylane with only 300 hours on it, well "Kinged" with 360 and 90 channel navcoms and ADF. We added wing-tip strobes and a Narco DME, and then flew and flew. In only 3 years, we had added nearly 1100 hours to the tach, and instead of replacing 2 jugs when the annual showed too low compression readings on them and marginal compression readings on the others, we opted for a complete overhaul.

A year later, now down to just 2 of us, we swapped off the Skylane for a new Turbo RG--faster, but a lot less reliable than the old bird. It was nothing but trouble, spending lots of time in the shop to fix everything from a leaky fuel flow gauge to a completely fried avionics stack.

Two years later, we traded the TR182 off on a new T210, and a year after that, I had to leave the partnership--just couldn't afford to fly such a high-cost airplane for the kind of flying I usually did, which didn't include filling the seats and going long distances very often.

From 1982 until 2002, I rented or had access to, as well as flew SE charter and instructed in, a variety of airplanes, including a Mooney 231, a Cherokee 6, several different Skylanes, several 172s, an XP, an Archer, a couple Decathlons, and a Citabria.

In 2003, I received an inheritance and a year later decided I wanted my own airplane, no partners to please. After analyzing my "needs" and likely uses, I found my Little Red Bird, a 1963 P172D with a Lycoming conversion, low time airframe, lower time engine which I thought would last me for many, many years. Instead the engine threw a rod after only 15 hours, and I landed in a field. While down for some 3 months, I had not only a newly built engine installed but also had a lot of upgrades done. Over the past 8 1/2 years, I've flown her for nearly 500 hours, made lots more upgrades and changes, and I've really enjoyed her. I've decided that this really is the last airplane I'll own--she's a good little airplane, solid, well-equipped, and suits my needs and wants very, very well. I can get into the back country relatively well, sight see with friends, go places at a relatively leisurely but quick enough 115 knots, do the occasional Angel Flight, visit OSH annually, and just enjoy flying. After almost 40 years of flying and the realization that there are only so many years left to fly, I'm satisfied with what I have.

Cary

At 29 yrs old I bought a VW powered Flaglor Scooter with no electrical and a homemade wood prop. The day I flew it home from the owner's strip his wife said as I climbed in, "I'm just so glad he finally got rid of that flying coffin". I flew it three years and just kept it tied down in the front yard then I sold it to a man who neighbors said was scared of heights. At 49 and not having flown for 16 years while I went nearly broke farming through the 80's, I bought a CH 701 and trailered it back across the US border two days after 9/11. I came very close to having it seized. I had a lot of fun with that plane and built a hangar for it after convincing my wife that it should be in the front yard. A good decision at the time but I should have made it bigger. I learned that when I sold the 701 five years later and built a Tundra which allows some trip flying too. During that stretch I noticed I really matured as a pilot with flying changing from wanting to just look around to wanting to go somewhere else to look around.

Interesting results. It looks like you get in prior to having kids or wait a few years until they are older and the income rises a little.

Age 38, Cessna 150.
Age 40, cessna 170.
Age 51, Cessna 150/150TD.

At 31 I bought my first. A 64' 182 that I learned to fly in.

Grew up a dirt poor dairy farmers kid. Was 8 years old and was given a ride by a friend of my dad's in a Super Cub on floats. He landed in a slough on our farm and he piled me and my older brother in the back seat. When we landed I told myself, even at that young age, that one day I would fly. Fast forward a few years I still had the dream but was too busy with fast cars such as Mustangs, Lotus, Jaguar, and Corvette's to even think about flying.
I was 25 and got in a very bad auto accident in August of 1985 that really 'woke me up' to life and how quickly it can end. I was laid up nearly two years and had lots of time to think about life while staring at the ceiling and being bed-ridden. Had realized that I had better do something about my dream to fly before it is too late. Within a couple of months of getting back on my feet I sauntered into the local grass strip and proclaimed I wanted to fly. In late summer of 1987 I bought a Cessna150 after about 4-5 hours of time in my log book. Figured I was going to buy a plane sooner or later and there was no sense in giving my money to someone else. Quickly traded the 150 for a 172 since I was wanting more room for the wife and kids that were soon to be in the future. Since then I have acquired a "Super Champ" on floats to get my SES and TW endorsement. Also, bought a RANS S7 and amphibious Floats for it. Hoping to sell the Champ and be able to fly the RANS on floats from my home strip to all the surrounding lakes.
Have a Murphy Rebel kit I started many years ago that has been sitting untouched lately due to other more pressing things that need to be done. So, it is quite a tally of flying machines....hard to stop once the flying/airplane ownership bug bites you. So, started at 28 and haven't stopped. Oh, I still have that 172 I bought in '87. Never been able to bring myself to sell it. Does all I need for a very reasonable cost expenditure.

So, regarding my post back on page one, to clarify, since I did everything except answer the original question posed, I was 38 when I bought my 172. I also ended up checked out in that very same T34 and put about 100 hours on it. Life is hard to bitch about when you throw some airplane time into it. Also, I really enjoy reading all these posts. Just saying.

Interesting learning of others first airplane stories! Here's mine:

Was on a fire contract in Soldotna, AK in 2009, I was 32 years old. I was at the local Fred Meyer walking out of the restroom when I notice a picture of an airplane on a bulletin board. It was a picture ad of a Cessna 140 based in Sterling, just up the highway with a price tag of $20K. After seeing that ad, I thought to myself, "I can afford that"!!! Fast forward, I didn't end up buying that plane, instead found one based on the Lake Hood strip and bought it! (Pictured on right .

The seller delivered it to Soldotna for me and I was a proud owner of my first airplane!! Having not flown a taildragger since i got my tailwheel endorsement some 3 years prior, I was apprehensive about flying her but did it anyways...thankfully everything worked out ok

My contract ended in late September and flew her home to CA. Wx cooperated and made it home in 3 1/2 days with an average ground speed of 85 knots

It would be interesting to see how many guys on here are "marginal" owners - just scraping in and making sacrifices to afford their own plane, compared to how many are able to enjoy flying without (serious) financial stress and possibly owning more than one aircraft.

Bought the 170 two years ago at the age of 25. It's down for its second annual right now, I've put 330 hours on it so far and looking forward to more!

Battson wrote:It would be interesting to see how many guys on here are "marginal" owners - just scraping in and making sacrifices to afford their own plane, compared to how many are able to enjoy flying without (serious) financial stress and possibly owning more than one aircraft.

Many of those issues were addressed in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=8778

It was very interesting, as you'd expect.

soyAnarchisto wrote:

hicountry wrote:Bought my first plane in '96, my second in '06, and I just bought my third plane on Nov 1. The first, a '52 C-170 was traded in on a new '05 Citabria. The Cub I just bought was bought outright. Have never went into the RED (borrowed money) to have a plane and never will. This is an agreement between my wife and I. Been a pilot for 18 years and have no plans to change that at the present time.

Ernie, you just bought a cub? Congrats1 Which one? Now you have a stable. Are you keeping both?

Yes,Yes

hicountry wrote:

soyAnarchisto wrote:

hicountry wrote:Bought my first plane in '96, my second in '06, and I just bought my third plane on Nov 1. The first, a '52 C-170 was traded in on a new '05 Citabria. The Cub I just bought was bought outright. Have never went into the RED (borrowed money) to have a plane and never will. This is an agreement between my wife and I. Been a pilot for 18 years and have no plans to change that at the present time.

Ernie, you just bought a cub? Congrats1 Which one? Now you have a stable. Are you keeping both?

Yes,Yes

oops, hit the wrong button.

38 when I bought a 1977 c-185, looked all over ak, found 76h in bethel. Great plane, love it!
By the way great thread. Should we try to get more photos? Heck, I'm not sure how to upload a photo of 76h......

Battson wrote:(serious) financial stress .

define (serious) financial stress. ..

Herion addicts will get money to supply their habit..... Us pilots are no different.

Stol wrote:define (serious) financial stress. ..

Herion addicts will get money to supply their habit..... Us pilots are no different.

Like when ex-1, who was more than a bit wet hornet mad when I sold my first C180 to buy the second one that had a float kit, said, "With all that money you just spent on your stupid airplanes we could have bought a bigger house!"

Me, in my best asshole voice, "Well, you can always sleep in the airplane, but ya can't fly a house!"

And a few months later, that came true and I spent the summer living out of that C180 in Barrow, AK.

Gump