Moving forward with Airplane

Well, I looked at the airplane that is for sale here in the Tampa area that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. It is a good looking airplane inside and out and appears to be exactly what I am looking for.

Additionally, it has a semi-major problem that could work out to my favor. There is a tiny crack in a place that is very hard to get to, and requires many hours of labor to make the repair. The owner is aware of it and realizes that he will have to reduce the price of the plane substantially to sell it as is. Fortunately for me, I have made arrangements with the flight school/maintenance shop that I used to work at to be able to do most of the work myself being supervised in the shop. I will be able to save quite a bit of money while getting very familiar with the airplane.

The asking price of the airplane is $24,900, but it seems the owner will be open to an offer of about $18,000. I expect to spend about $1000 in hard costs for inspections and repairs to make the airplane 100%. So, it looks very promising that this might be the airplane that I was looking for. One of the best things about it, is that it is local and can be looked at in person by people I trust to help me.

I spent the better part of the day talking to mechanics and aircraft brokers that I know getting some very good advice about it. They all agree that it is the ideal airplane to do what I intend to do with it. And the flight school has agreed to lease it back, so it can be earning income for itself while we are in the U.S.

The next step would be to do a pre-purchase inspection. I would be involved with that doing most of the grunt work taking it apart enough to get a good look at everything. My old boss will do the inspection itself and he is very thorough. Then it would just be a matter of doing a title search and making the financing arrangements. Once the purchase is complete, I would be able to get to work on the repairs. My boss said it would be about a week's worth of work.

Of course, my finances are still very limited, so I am trusting in God to provide for that part of it. I know that if this is the right airplane at the right time, then he will provide. We have committed our plans to him, so we know he will bless.

In the mean time, I did get a commitment for some part time work back at CAMS flight where I used to work. I will be able to work both in the hangar doing maintenance and some fill-in instruction, so that will work out well. I will have plenty of time to work on getting ready for moving to Ecuador and have a little bit of income to sustain us while we are here. Plus I will be able to keep active flying and in maintenance to keep my skills sharp. Praise God for his perfect provision!