Hi All-
I am 250hr vrf pilot that wants to get back into flying at age 50. I just got medical and weather permitting, I will get my BRF. I have never owned a plane and have been mortally terrified of ownership for years. I have a huge phobia of "Yeah, that is gonna be $10,000 to fix that." It may sound crazy, but it has always been the case. I have always been extremely annoyed at the fact of having to pay someone (an A&P Mechanic) to fix something I know with a service manual I could easily do myself.- Perhaps I need to check my attitude on that one, and for sure there is place for the professionals.
Anyway, I find myself at an age and time where I better do it now if I am going to do it. I would like to have a STOL A/C and even more, one on floats. I think that would be fantastic.
The reason for this post is to find what considerations I should take when choosing a plane. My Daughter and I visited Cub Crafters. They had to drag me out of there and surely had to mop my Saliva off the floor.
However, unlike you all, I just can't bust out $350k for a 2-place airplane. Alright.....I can't bust out $350k for any plane.
The simple answer would be to find a low-time Certified Cub would it not? Preferably one already on floats? I have been looking into the homebuilt kits as well such as the Rans 21, Kitfox 7, and another ugly-ass Aluminum Aardvark. However, 1 is fast, but not very STOL, 1 is more STOL centric but small, and the other uses paper thin Aluminum that shimmers in the prop wash. All of those kits are 35k, and I would need to wait over a year just for it to show up. - I am not sure that is going to work for me.
In regards to Cubs, I have about 15min TT in a J3 (someone took me around the pattern.) but I don't know what I should hunt down or if I should buy Certified, E-AB, or build one myself?
In the mean time, I will test the waters by going to Idaho for Tail-wheel training and then hopefully go to alaska for my float rating.
I am 250hr vrf pilot that wants to get back into flying at age 50. I just got medical and weather permitting, I will get my BRF. I have never owned a plane and have been mortally terrified of ownership for years. I have a huge phobia of "Yeah, that is gonna be $10,000 to fix that." It may sound crazy, but it has always been the case. I have always been extremely annoyed at the fact of having to pay someone (an A&P Mechanic) to fix something I know with a service manual I could easily do myself.- Perhaps I need to check my attitude on that one, and for sure there is place for the professionals.
Anyway, I find myself at an age and time where I better do it now if I am going to do it. I would like to have a STOL A/C and even more, one on floats. I think that would be fantastic.
The reason for this post is to find what considerations I should take when choosing a plane. My Daughter and I visited Cub Crafters. They had to drag me out of there and surely had to mop my Saliva off the floor.
However, unlike you all, I just can't bust out $350k for a 2-place airplane. Alright.....I can't bust out $350k for any plane.
The simple answer would be to find a low-time Certified Cub would it not? Preferably one already on floats? I have been looking into the homebuilt kits as well such as the Rans 21, Kitfox 7, and another ugly-ass Aluminum Aardvark. However, 1 is fast, but not very STOL, 1 is more STOL centric but small, and the other uses paper thin Aluminum that shimmers in the prop wash. All of those kits are 35k, and I would need to wait over a year just for it to show up. - I am not sure that is going to work for me.
In regards to Cubs, I have about 15min TT in a J3 (someone took me around the pattern.) but I don't know what I should hunt down or if I should buy Certified, E-AB, or build one myself?
In the mean time, I will test the waters by going to Idaho for Tail-wheel training and then hopefully go to alaska for my float rating.