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Rolling
Your Own
July
19, 2023
It
must be difficult for people who cut their teeth on the aviation
world of the sixties and seventies to comprehend that the cost
of a new Cessna 172 is more than a half-million dollars. Perhaps
that's a reasonable price to a generation who matured in a world
of five-dollar coffee and eighty-thousand-dollar SUV's, but I
can tell you, there's a whole bunch of potential aircraft buyers
with sticker shock.
It's a fact that the basic design
of the big three aircraft companies has changed little in the
past forty years or so. Most of the Cessna, Piper and Beech
aircraft that are being produced now share the airframes with a
much older generation of airplanes, and the modernization has
been more a series of tweaks and improvements made by the
factories over the years.
Happily, there is a ready
supply of these older aircraft that can be bought today for a
fraction of what they would cost to build now, and for many a
solution to the unaffordable airplane has appeared in the
rebirth of yesterday airplanes.
AOPA
has inspired many aircraft owners and potential owners with
their yearly blow-by- blow recount of the refurbishment of the
AOPA give-away aircraft, always an older aircraft brought to new
standards and capability. From their pulpit they have
doubtlessly inspired many to 'remanufacture' an old airframe,
and refurbs have become very common.
For those
contemplating such a project, one of the most important
decisions that you'll make is the selection of the project
aircraft. Remember, while you'll be investing multi thousands of
dollars in the changes to this aircraft, the one thing that
cannot be changed is its history.
A friend and fellow
aircraft salesman made an observation many years ago, that when
you purchase a used airplane you don't buy just the airplane,
you also buy its history. That seemed a good thought at the time
and it's even more true now, many years later when we're still
selling many of the same airplanes.
The logbooks tell a
story, albeit a coded one. Sometimes the message is in the
advertisement itself, enough to eliminate or pique interest, but
sometimes only a detailed prebuy inspection by a trusted
mechanic can reveal a history that makes the aircraft unsuitable
for major investment. Damage that occurred in the past,
corrosion issues that appear in the airframe or in the logs,
hail markings, missing logs and extremely high airframe time are
all things that will remain with the airplane permanently. Long
after your refurb becomes a head turner, these things will
affect the value of your finished project.
The task
then, of selecting a used airplane to transform into your dream
machine, becomes the chore of choosing the airplane that was
treated kindest by happenstance. Since all airplanes left the
factory new, what happened after that is of utmost interest. Did
it have a series of good owners who tucked it away from the
corrosive elements and wind and hail storms? Was if fortunate
enough to miss being flown by the careless or inexperienced
pilot who would allow damage to occur to its airframe? Was it
lucky enough to have owners who gave it the maintenance it
needed, without cutting corners?
I see airplanes
frequently that remind me of a story that my friend Bill told me
about his favorite truck, a dependable but badly battered 1 ton
International. One Saturday, as Bill, his daughter and her
six-year-old friend were bumping their way to the feed store,
the friend asked, "Mr. Mason, was this truck ever new?"
In the heady aircraft market of yesterday, when almost
anything that looked good would sell, we dealers had a name for
the aircraft that were given a quick paint and upholstery job in
order to make them saleable. We called them pigs with lipstick.
In many ways, selecting an aircraft for such a project
is easier that finding one for ready use. Engine time, condition
of the paint, glass and upholstery is unimportant, and in fact
the worse the better, since the more challenged the airplane in
these areas, the cheaper it will be to buy. VFR avionics are
great, since you will be putting in your dream panel and you
don't want to pay for something that won't be used. In fact,
airplanes that are ugly, with old avionics and a runout engine
are a perfect base for your project if they possess the right
pedigree.
A few years ago a dealer friend from Arizona
asked me to help him find a 206 for a customer who wanted to do
such a refurbishment. After a long search, I found the ideal
airplane, tied down in the weeds of a high desert airport in
California.
The buyer of this aircraft proceeded to
create one of the most remarkable 206's that I've ever seen
either new or old, and this is what he started with. The engine
and prop were run out, the paint peeling, the belly streaked
with oil and the glass was crazed. The interior looked as if the
owner's dogs were using it for a boudoir and it's few avionics
were antique.
But the inside of the airframe gleamed
like a new nickel, the logs were complete, the total time was
reasonably low, and it had never been damaged.
 If
you are contemplating building your own new airplane I wish you
luck, and especially I wish you patience in finding your perfect
airframe.
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