A/C share

[thing]

Just conjecture really as no a/c shares ever come up in this neck of the woods but if you had 5 to 10K to put in a share, criteria being IFR capable, 30-35 litre per hour, 4 hour endurance plus reserves, normally two, sometimes three people on board, what would you be looking at? Not bothered about glass panels etc, steam powered cockpit is good enough. Not bothered about age really as long as it has been looked after by someone with OCD. It does have to be reasonably comfortable so no Cubs with a spare seat on the wing.

Edit: To put it another way as I know there must be inumerable answers, which are the 'Yeah they are OK' and which are the 'Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole' types? In fact just stick to the 'Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole' types. I have some spare loot that I'm either going to buy an MX5 with or a share in an a/c. I must admit the MX5 is winning by several lengths at the moment.

[Rod1]

Buy the MX5! Unless you get a small share you will be buying an MX5 every year in running costs.

Rod1

[Dan the weegie]

I agree, 5-10k wont go far in an IFR plane.

Buy the MX-5.

[Winhern]

I'm presuming the £5K to £10K is your share, not the value of the plane :hmm:

I'm nearing the end of my IMCr course, using a PA28 Cherokee 180C.
She seems to be well suited to the role, and I think would tick all your boxes.

Not sure I'd want to try IFR in an MX5 though ;) Look what happened on the M5 last year.

W

[Genghis the Engineer]

A Grumman AA5b Tiger will do that readily; a complete aircraft will be around £25k, so £5k should buy you around a 20% share.

The slightly less capable Grumman AA5a Cheetah will be a bit cheaper, but you'll struggle slightly to meet your payload requirements.

I have a Cheetah (share), airways fit (2xVOR, DME, ILS, ADF, single axis autopilot, 2 radios, 2 altimeters, mode-S generally supplemented by my personal GPS), 6 hours endurance with 2PoB, 3 hours endurance with 3PoB [200 litres capacity, burns about 30 litres/hr, but not brilliant payload]. We run it (across the syndicate) at a nominal £20k purchase value, £90/hr, and £800/month divided between us all - and that's operating from a very expensive airport and keeping it on public transport with some training use. You should be able to bring that £800 down a long way on private category, from a small airfield, with named and reasonaby experienced pilots - I'm guessing you can probably halve it: so maybe £80/month each for 5 sensible owners, putting £5k in each to purchase.)

Comparing the two, the AA5b will have about another 150lb payload, but burn around another 5 litres/hr than the AA5a, maybe increasing cruise from ~105kn to ~110 kn.

The one thing an AA1 or AA5 won't give you is anti-icing capability, but nor will pretty much anything else under £100k. (The AA1 is basically a 2 seat AA5 and generally quite a lot cheaper, they're going for around £14k second hand at the moment.)

For what it's worth, with 140hrs at the time on PA28s (okay yes, and about 1000 hours on other things as well), I had a go in the AA5 and took about 90 minutes to be an utter convert. Nicer cockpit, I like the slide-back canopy, lighter control forces, better avionics fit than you normally get in a PA28. If the Autopilot ever worked, it had a yaw trimmer, and it was anti-iced, it'd be perfect. For the money, I think it's the best light tourer I've yet seen.

G

[Dan the weegie]

It's a good plane, you can get a nice enough 172 N/M for that kind of money. :)

As for "don't touch with a bargepole" there's plenty of planes out there but rare ones are harder and more expensive to service and keep flying.

I still think the MX-5 is a better bet for you, you'll get more hours in it ;)

[jxc]

forget the Mx-5 and get a classic mercedes SL from the 80's

[stickandrudderman]

forget the Mx-5 and get a classic mercedes SL from the 80's

Great advice and contact me to supply it!

[A and C]

You must be able to find a Robin DR400/160 or 180 share for that sort of money.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Where are you Thing?

(Incidentally, the "Big Yellow Teapot" in your profile has a glorious aviation heritage. It was invented by a fellow called Torquil Norman, an ex RN pilot, because he needed the money, and amongst other things financed his rather gorgeous dH Dragon.)

G

[A and C]

Oh I should have said that we are in the final stages of recovering a DR400/180 that would meet the spec if you formed a group around it.

[thing]

I'm at Waddington, didn't know that about the BYT! My daughter used to have one and it's one of the first phrases she could put together. The next was 'Dad can you lend me some money?'

Which altered for accuracy should of course have been 'Dad can you give me some money?'

[Genghis the Engineer]

Sorry to say I don't know much about syndicates up your neck of the woods, but very welcome to come and have a poke around our Grumman at Cranfield sometime.

G

[Grob Queen]

Hiya Thing,
Theres a syndicate at our place which have G-LIZI and shes a Piper Cherokee. They were looking for more syndicate members. If you're interested, let me know, i'll ask them and PM you. Apparently at the moment shes got something wrong with her compass and undergoing works at Sturgate! The chaps were spitting nails at the Club this morning as they wanted to get her back as its a lovely day for a trip......:)

GQ (head above the parapet once more :p

[thing]

Was indeed a lovely day for a trip. Took my daughter up and the amount of traffic around was amazing! Like bears coming out of hibernation. Is your 180 the oldest 28 in the country with the trim on the roof?

Thanks for the offer Gheng.

[Grob Queen]

Indeed she is Thing. There was an article on her in a mag (I forget which) last year.

Same at our place, decent wx...brought everyone out. Our Clubhouse was packed and there was plenty of AEF flying so when I joined on Initals, there were already four in the cct, two of whom I couldn't see...aircraft booked up all day so I couldn't fly solo, despite having a good trip :{

[mary meagher]

Regarding shares, there is a rather unusual syndicate being set up by [email protected] located near Wellesbourne that would give members the right to fly any of a number of aircraft, so if one goes u/s you are not stuck waiting for repairs....I am not involved, because I have alas had to step down from solo flying, so no ax to grind. The cost involved might well be within your limits....

Is this a new idea?

[Genghis the Engineer]

Not a new idea at-all; there's a three aircraft syndicate at Popham called "Popham Flying Group", which has been running on that basis for years. I've never been a member, but was a club member at Popham for a long time where it was well known and seemed to work pretty well.

G