Purchase a new aircraft

[Anuj428]

I have passed the practical and now am awaiting my licence from the CAA (I was told 2/3 weeks but not holding my breath!)

I am seriously looking at purchasing my own aircraft for flights rather than hire from the aero club.

Can anyone offer some light as to what I should be looking out for?

Any help would be great. I am sure you guys have all been there before!

Thanks

[olasek]

You should make a good estimate how much it is going to cost you, purchase price, insurance, maintenance, repairs, mandatory inspections, etc and whether your are OK with it. There is a good data available for most common airplanes so it makes sense to know upfront what you are getting into and be prepared. I know you are in UK but some principles of accounting remain the same - there are numerous threads on PilotsOfAmerica forums discussing exactly this topic and looking at various aircraft. As you can expect this question had been asked hundreds of times before.

[Blink182]

What aircraft have you been training on ?

I would suggest buying something similar, so that the first 50 hrs or so post PPL issue you can stretch your horizons without too much added complexity.

[Maoraigh1]

Hire until you've about 100 hours solo - so you know what kind of flying you're going to do. Meanwhile try to get access to aircraft logs, to get familiar with reading them. Find out about hangarage and insurance. I'll help if you're accustomed to buying cars privately, and been done a few times.

[The Ancient Geek]

First get a little more experience, especially of different aircraft and what they can achieve.

Then sit down and figure out what you really want to do.
If you just want to pootle around the sky solo an SSDR such as the E-GO might be a good place to start looking.
If you want to carry people and/or their luggage how many and how heavy, bearing in mind that aircraft are weight limited so you will not be able to carry the rated load with full tanks. The Cessna 182 is a damn good aircraft and a good load carrier but it only has 4 seats so you might have to look at a 206 or even a GA8.
Where do you want to go, for short rough farm strips you may want a taildragger.

Compromises, compromises, every aircraft has its own niche to fill in the market and there are too many to choose from so bear in mind that if you choose an oddball you could have problems getting it serviced and finding spare parts - rather stick to popular types with a good support network.

Everyone you ask will come up with different answers so you need to define you needs and be prepared to compromise a bit.

[olasek]

I agree with others, why buy aircraft for training?

It is better to get your license using rental aircraft, something cheap and simple and later switch/buy to something more sophisticated. If your purchase an airplane which is good for training you may later regret your purchase once you get your license and want something more substantial. Someone suggested a Cessna 182 which is a very good airplane but this is not type of airplane a student pilot should train in.

[360BakTrak]

He's not buying for training Olasek.......he has just obtained his licence......

[Keef]

Think about the sort of flying you are going to want to do, and what fits best with that. You may not know yet, so waiting a while and trying different types may be the way.

Buying your own is nice if you can afford the type you want, but faced with the choice of something very cheap and basic or a nice tourer that I couldn't afford at the time, I chose to join a group on a very nice tourer (a Piper Arrow III). Fixed costs were shared six ways, which made the inevitable avionics upgrades, engine replacement, etc a lot less painful.

I flew all round Europe in that Arrow and put a lot of hours on it.

[BackPacker]

First get a little more experience, especially of different aircraft and what they can achieve.

Agree with this. Wait a year or two, to see what kind of flying you *really* do. Then you know what kind of aircraft you need.

In addition to that, don't try to find an aircraft that fulfills 100% of your requirements. You'll probably end up flying with empty seats 90% of the time. Find an aircraft that fulfills maybe 80% of your requirements, and rent (or fly commercially) for those flights that can't be done in your own aircraft.

[cockney steve]

Are you a "Cheque-book" flyer, or do you have the time and inclination to do some/all of your own maintenance.If the former applies, you need deep pockets for an aircraft on a C of A AIUI, you can defray costs by leasing it to a club or training organisation, to use the idle hours.

If you go the Permit route, there are restrictions, some of which have been lifted recently and there is a possibility that night flight and instrument flight may be approved. you cannot rent out these aircraft (but you can share in a syndicate) You can do your own maintenance and the parts/repair situation is vastly cheaper. Permit stuff is predominantly homebuilds and "orphans" where the factory went kaput.

Carry on renting, nose around the hangars, chat to ownersjoin a club.....learn! (there are also a lot of 3-axis microlights, which seem to have all the advantages of permit operation and some of the Cof A advantages as well....they give cheap fixed-wing flying and the sector seems to be thriving ,whereas the cof A sector seems to be struggling.
When you can recognise say, a Robin, a Cub, a C150, a Tomahawk etc. you'll probably have the knowledge and confidence to make an informed and appropriate choice.

Nose around all the forums, It's amazing what you can learn..even Jet Blast has it's place (there's always "the other side"(Flyer) )
remember the old maxim..."buy in haste,repent at leisure" also, "if it flies, floats or f**ks, rent it"

there is a good reason!

[darkroomsource]

most, not all, of the responses above have made one assumption or another about the OP.

The only way to answer the question from the OP is to respond with questions:

Why do you want to buy an aeroplane?
What do you want to do with the aeroplane?
Do you have a lot of money?

Those three questions are just the starting point for a very long investigation into what aeroplane to buy (or even if it's the right thing to do).

The best advice given so far, and which also gives the OP time to figure out the answers to these questions is this:
Hire an aeroplane for the first X amount of time to determine what you want to do with the aeroplane once you own it. But X would depend on the answers to the other questions, like how much money you have and why do you think you want to buy instead of rent.

[Small Rodent Driver]

In the interim, suggest you join a syndicate instead of renting. It will give you better availability and it is likely that you will share flights with your co-owners thereby bolstering your experience and confidence. There is also the cost sharing benefit.

During this time you can analyse your aspirations and purchase accordingly. Then sell the share, or.............................. do as I did and end up with shares in all sorts of aircraft, always intending to sell but never quite bringing yourself to do so!