Cessna 152 v Ikarus c42

[Rod1]

You also save about £20k in fuel over 2000 hours.

Rod1

[VictorGolf]

Genghis, not sure about your maths. A half way decent C150 with hours left on the engine can be had for £12-15K and the cheapest C42 I've seen has been around £30K. And hasn't the UK distributor gone out of business thus cutting off the source of spares. Or doesn't that matter with microlights? Only asking.

[Rod1]

The UK distributor is the same as the Pioneer, who were certainly still in business a few weeks ago.

Rod

[VictorGolf]

Happy New Year Rod (we met at Tibenham earlier this year, I was in the Airtourer). Your comment on the dealer is correct. Aerosport at Halfpenny Green were the ones that went under.
Chris

[Genghis the Engineer]

Originally Posted by VictorGolf

Genghis, not sure about your maths. A half way decent C150 with hours left on the engine can be had for £12-15K and the cheapest C42 I've seen has been around £30K. And hasn't the UK distributor gone out of business thus cutting off the source of spares. Or doesn't that matter with microlights? Only asking.

Firstly a C150 is an older and cruder aeroplane than a C152.


However, looking on AFORS there's a very elderly C150 going for £11k, and a reasonably shiny C152, albeit with nearly 10,000hrs on it going for £33k.

On the other hand I could have a very basic and elderly Thruster TST or T300 for £3,000, or a rather nicer 350hr 4-stroke engined Thruster T600N for £18,000.


And at the new end, the new Cessna Skycatcher is quoting US$120k (around £75,000), whilst a new C42 is quoting E48,000 (around £48,000).


So, okay - only in the order of half the price, not a third unless comparing to a really basic old microlight which isn't really a fair comparison since that ancient C150 still has doors, a 4-stroke engine and a cabin heater.


So basically, expect to save about half the purchase price by going the microlight route, and as Rod1 says, around £10/hr in fuel. (Plus probably a reasonable saving on insurance and annual maintenance.)

On net, probably you'll be paying about half all-round.

Incidentally, I just found a C42 flight test online here.

G

[gordon field]

The C150 and C152 can both be flown at night and in IMC and most have spent their life outdoors in all weather. Is the C42 so certified and surely it should be kept in a hangar?

The C42 is pleasant to fly but I would prefer a C152 in rough weather.

[steveking]

I know its not all about fuel but how about this.

I used to fly my C42 from Damyns hall to L2K a fair bit and if I flew at 85kts which is about 16 ltrs an hour L2K was about an hour. Thats there and back for £32.00.

Drawback on mogas is about 50p a ltr and with a 70ltr tank thats £35 back. If you went to L2k twice on that tank that works out about £9 per leg happy days



I know have an RV6, a fast great plane but a tad more expensive to run. I'm very lucky my brother bought my C42 from me and I can still fly it when I want. For good fun affordable hours in the air it's hard to beat.

[znww5]

Eurostar spar caps

Re: Eurostar spar caps, links are as shown below:

www.bmaa.org/upload/misc/20091218182200.Eurostar wing spar caps update 18-12-2009.pdf

www.bmaa.org/upload/misc/200912231947440.Eurostar EMPD.pdf

Cut and paste the links or visit the BMAA news section and look at the topmost few news entries.

Hope this helps and is of interest

[A and C]

Rod 1

Acording to the LAA's light aviation mag Aerosport UK (the UK agent for the C42) has gone out of business.

I would be pleased to find that this is incorrect but fear that in these hard times it is true.

Perhaps someone in the halfpenny green area could enlighten us.

[IO540]

I used to fly my C42 from Damyns hall to L2K a fair bit and if I flew at 85kts which is about 16 ltrs an hour L2K was about an hour. Thats there and back for £32.00.
Drawback on mogas is about 50p a ltr and with a 70ltr tank thats £35 back.

You can do something similar in many bigger planes. In my TB20 (say 150kt TAS), flying from somewhere on the s. coast to Le Touquet and departing with full tanks, the drawback claim (about 330 litres) will also more than cover the entire trip.

The catch is that you can do this only once - until the tank content on which the drawback claim was made is exhausted on other flights.

[Rod1]

A & C,

“according to the LAA's light aviation mag Aerosport UK (the UK agent for the C42) has gone out of business.”

According to page 7 of the latest LAA mag the Ikarus is now being imported by Pioneer UK. That is what I posted above…

Rod1

[A and C]

Rod 1

I did not understand the "code" about the "pioneer" distributor, however can anyone confirm that Aerosport UK is no longer trading?

[jonkil]

Affirm
Aerosport UK are no longer trading.

Red-Air, a new company established by former Aerosport Employee Lisa Leah is supplying all Ikarus parts, Lisa is Knowledgable and very helpful and will have parts to you right away, I know, I receive parts for the fleet of C42's here in Ireland from her company.

Sales for new Ikarus C42 aircraft is being handled by the UK dealer for Alpi Pioneer.

[A and C]

Jonkil

Thank you for that, you have cleared the doubts that I had about the status of Aerosport UK.

[seymour beaver]

Another advantage with the c42 is that it can fly out of or be based at a farm strip saving hefty landing fees.My local airfield has a landing fee of £17.50 and t and g's of £9.00.The charges help maintain the airfield which is fine by me but im watching my expenditure so a farm strip or other location with a £4.00 landing fee and peanuts for t and g's helps.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Originally Posted by seymour beaver

Another advantage with the c42 is that it can fly out of or be based at a farm strip saving hefty landing fees.My local airfield has a landing fee of £17.50 and t and g's of £9.00.The charges help maintain the airfield which is fine by me but im watching my expenditure so a farm strip or other location with a £4.00 landing fee and peanuts for t and g's helps.

To be fair, there's no particular reason you couldn't do that with a C152 also (or something more interesting like a Luscombe).

G

[A and C]

And on another thread we wonder why airfields are closing when the likes of Seymour Beaver ( is that handle a fact or a statment of hope?) won't pay less for a T & G than it costs to park a car in a station car park for the day.

It is time that some of the people on this forum had a think about the cost of running an airfield, because it is now use them or loose them time.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Originally Posted by A and C

And on another thread we wonder why airfields are closing when the likes of Seymour Beaver ( is that handle a fact or a statment of hope?) won't pay less for a T & G than it costs to park a car in a station car park for the day.

It is time that some of the people on this forum had a think about the cost of running an airfield, because it is now use them or loose them time.

A big airfield is an expensive thing to run, but to be honest do we really need that amount of space?

What we (GA) really need is a runway, some hangars, a windsock, and ideally some kind of clubhouse. Historically, because land was relatively cheap that tended to be padded with enormous amounts of land. We don't really need that however, and modern light and microlight aeroplanes need less runway and are happier in crosswinds than 50 years ago.

So, an airfield such as, say, Fishburn, Popham or Chilbolton costs a lot less to operate from than somewhere like Booker, Coventry or Turweston. Okay, a tarmac runway offers certain benefits (or problems for some aeroplanes), but that doesn't need lots of land either. (Albeit that we'd all prefer not to be surrounded by buildings - but worked farmland is fine.)

This years AFE and Pooleys guides contain more airfields than ever before, so if we're swopping one large expensive airfield for a couple of smaller cheaper ones here and there - is that really a bad thing? It seems to me that it's costing us less and giving us more places to go.

G

[Mickey Kaye]

Which raises another problem. You can train on a C42 at an unlicensed airfield. To train in a C152 you need a licensed airfield. This adds a huge cost fire cover, CAA fees etc.

I believe thats the real killer for GA airfields.

[IO540]

What we (GA) really need is a runway, some hangars, a windsock, and ideally some kind of clubhouse. Historically, because land was relatively cheap that tended to be padded with enormous amounts of land. We don't really need that however, and modern light and microlight aeroplanes need less runway and are happier in crosswinds than 50 years ago.

I think the problem is that if you sell off the surrounding land, you get houses built too close in and it is only a matter of time before the airfield gets bought by some property shark and built on.

There is actually a very good case for creating GA airfields in the middle of nowhere (say 10 miles out of town but obviously close to a road for access) but I don't think that Planning regs favour that approach - same way as building a house in such a location is virtually impossible (unless one can redevelop some old ruins of a house from 100 years ago).

On the plus side, many farmers would be open to proposals, because "diversified farming" is all the rage now. Unfortunately one cannot give a farmer £9 and suddenly he jumps and gives you a 750x20m strip to use free of charge, while he mole drains it and cuts the grass every week in the summer Such a project needs some serious money (5 digits) to set up if it is to be done properly, with Planning as would be required for any meaningful number of movements.

The people who think £9 is too much will end up nowhere, no matter how one looks at it.