Best Twin Engine Under $60k

You gotta want to carry stuff in there. And if you really have to carry stuff, there are better airplanes. Its a museum piece. If you spend a lot of money on it, its an expensive museum piece. Take it to Osh, Think it could get in and out of the antique flyin in Iowa? Put a bed in the back...
 
150ks and a bed in the back?! Sign me up lol
 
OBrien Aviation said:
twin comanches are cheap right now due to the inability to insure them unless you have lots of twin time and even then, they have a 10K deductible for gear ins or collapses.
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My Twin Comanche was quite reasonable to insure and I didn't have all that much twin time nor did I have a $10k deductible for gear issues.

And I sold mine less than a year ago for full asking price ($59,900). The engines only had 1300 hours on them and it was a good overall airplane so a TC certainly is an airplane the OP should consider and can buy for what he's looking to pay.
 
I'd pay 1000 bucks to fly it once. That is if I make back safely...
 
SmashTime said:
LOL yea but doesn't it also get you about 3,000lbs of useful?
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For a stripped out freighter, yeah, you should be able to get 3000lbs useful.

The pax config ones vary between 2400 and 2900lbs useful.

But.....OEI performance is absolutely abysmal at gross. Around 150fpm at sea level.

Keep it under gross and you'll be fine.
 
KLRDMD said:
My Twin Comanche was quite reasonable to insure and I didn't have all that much twin time nor did I have a $10k deductible for gear issues.



And I sold mine less than a year ago for full asking price ($59,900). The engines only had 1300 hours on them and it was a good overall airplane so a TC certainly is an airplane the OP should consider and can buy for what he's looking to pay.
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Have Twinkies come down that much?

Last I was looking (about 3 years ago), they were running at least $80k to get a good one.
 
Which twins run MoGas?


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Not the question, but something to think about. If you want/need 100 hrs of multi time, the cheapest route would be to rent a $200 per hour twin for 100 hours. Net cost $20,000.

If you want to buy, you maybe better of financing a better plane and then factor in the net cost when/if you sell it. A beater twin may not bring anything in if use can sell it. A better twin may be able to bring a higher percentage of the purchase price.
 
jonnyjetprop said:
Not the question, but something to think about. If you want/need 100 hrs of multi time, the cheapest route would be to rent a $200 per hour twin for 100 hours. Net cost $20,000.

If you want to buy, you maybe better of financing a better plane and then factor in the net cost when/if you sell it. A beater twin may not bring anything in if use can sell it. A better twin may be able to bring a higher percentage of the purchase price.
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Thing is, 100 ain't much. Pick up an MEII and sell ME ratings and time building letting other people pay you to get 1000hrs of ME.
 
Henning said:
Thing is, 100 ain't much. Pick up an MEII and sell ME ratings and time building letting other people pay you to get 1000hrs of ME.
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100 is plenty these days to get into a regional. If you want to go corporate, most of those jobs want some kind of turbine time (prop or jet).

1000 hrs piston ME isn't going to do a whole lot for most of the jobs on the boards right now.
 
jonnyjetprop said:
Not the question, but something to think about. If you want/need 100 hrs of multi time, the cheapest route would be to rent a $200 per hour twin for 100 hours. Net cost $20,000.
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This. If your goal is strictly time building, it is much less risky to just rent for those hours.
 
Fearless Tower said:
100 is plenty these days to get into a regional. If you want to go corporate, most of those jobs want some kind of turbine time (prop or jet).

1000 hrs piston ME isn't going to do a whole lot for most of the jobs on the boards right now.
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If you are at 500 and need to get to 1500, and you go to apply to the regionals, you'll have the leg up on the better jobs over the guys with 100.
 
Henning said:
If you are at 500 and need to get to 1500, and you go to apply to the regionals, you'll have the leg up on the better jobs over the guys with 100.
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The regionals are hungry these days. A friend just got in with a bunch of military Blackhawk time, his ATP, and 400 hours SEL.
 
kyleb said:
The regionals are hungry these days. A friend just got in with a bunch of military Blackhawk time, his ATP, and 400 hours SEL.
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That works well if you are applying today, that isn't always the case, hiring is very cyclical.
 
Henning said:
Thing is, 100 ain't much. Pick up an MEII and sell ME ratings and time building letting other people pay you to get 1000hrs of ME.
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All true, but the OP was speaking of buying a twin for personal use. FWIW, I purchased 1/2 interest in a 1956 C-310 years ago. I flew it 200 hrs in less than a year and sold my share before we had to do the next annual. While it worked for me, it was a very high risk proposition. We carried no insurance (cash purchase) and my partner was doing 134.5 charters without my knowledge.
 
Henning said:
The best value really is to buy a good plane priced as a run out with recently runout engines that have seen at least 100 hrs a year for the last 20. Any hrs you put on them will be "free".
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I've "heard" you "say" this before but, honestly, I don't know how that math works in your head.

My plane was worth $30k with an engine just shy of TBO when it started making metal and it had been flown over 100 hours every year except 2 since overhaul like you suggest (over 75 those two years).

I'm spending $40k on a complete OH.

It'll be worth $54k when I'm done.

The value of the OH only considers the engine OH itself, not all the ancillary systems and those can add up to a lot of money.

So explain that math to me.......

Planes with runout engines can sometimes be given to you and you'll still be upside down when you're done with the OH.
 
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timwinters said:
I've "heard" you "say" this before but, honestly, I don't know how that math works in your head.

My plane was worth $30k with an engine just shy of TBO when it started making metal and had been flown over 100 hours every year except 2 since overhaul (over 75 those two years).

I'm spending $40k on a complete OH.

It'll be worth $54k when I'm done.

Explain that math to me.......

Planes with runout engines can sometimes be given to you and you'll still be upside down when you're done with the OH.
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....and you're just now realizing that? :goofy::D :rofl:
 
I doubt there are many aircraft that are worth remanufacturing the engine in purely economic terms. Perhaps some very new airframes. But if you do the remanufacture you have an airplane who's history you know and a new engine to boot.
 
Only the Beech 18 runs mogas???


I can buy local MoGas for $2.33.

Would make 15-20 gph fairly cheap...
 
steingar said:
I doubt there are many aircraft that are worth remanufacturing the engine in purely economic terms. Perhaps some very new airframes. But if you do the remanufacture you have an airplane who's history you know and a new engine to boot.
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Actually...wouldn't it be true that you know nothing about the engine history if you install a factory reman? The crank could have 20,000 hours on it for all you know.
 
timwinters said:
Actually...wouldn't it be true that you know nothing about the engine history if you bi put a factory reman? The crank could have 20,000 hours on it for all you know.
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how is that bad?.....if we knew about reliability growth and testing....that would be a good thing.

The fatigue life is infinite.....so long as dimensionally it's fine, it's a keeper. IMHO.
 
timwinters said:
Actually...wouldn't it be true that you know nothing about the engine history if you install a factory reman? The crank could have 20,000 hours on it for all you know.
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All true. To some degree our avocation is a bit of a crapshoot. And I say that having just acquired a new to me airframe. I did my best due diligence, but I could easily find something at annual that renders the poor thing unairworthy.

You take the risk to swim in the pool or you don't. Simple as that. No guarantees.
 
RotorAndWing said:
Yea, never mind those small cracks as long as it's dimensional......:rolleyes2:
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From what?.....:nono: Tell me stories bout all those high time crank failures pal.....I really love hearing them.

Oh, and why aren't they life limited?
 
Nothing like those antique cranks. The new ones they make are made of plastic I hear :)
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
From what?.....:nono: Tell me stories bout all those high time crank failures pal.....I really love hearing them.

Oh, and why aren't they life limited?
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So you are saying cranks don't crack? :rolleyes2:

Guess Lycoming just made up MSB 553, MSB 566, MSB 569, MSB 569A, and the associated AD's that went along with them.

And no doubt TCM just fabricated MSB 99-3C and MSB 96-10B.
 
timwinters said:
I've "heard" you "say" this before but, honestly, I don't know how that math works in your head.



My plane was worth $30k with an engine just shy of TBO when it started making metal and it had been flown over 100 hours every year except 2 since overhaul like you suggest (over 75 those two years).



I'm spending $40k on a complete OH.



It'll be worth $54k when I'm done.



The value of the OH only considers the engine OH itself, not all the ancillary systems and those can add up to a lot of money.



So explain that math to me.......



Planes with runout engines can sometimes be given to you and you'll still be upside down when you're done with the OH.
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I don't think he can explain. Dude got himself banned.
 
There's a Piper Aztec that's been sitting on the ramp at Tucson for a while. I heard the owner's willing to sell it for only $10,000. I expect it would cost more than that to get it airworthy enough so it doesn't kill you.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Semantics. They don't crack....they just break!
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I've had a couple of IO-360 cranks get rejected when magnafluxed. Dimensional they were fine, but the cracks did them in.

But our resident expert claims if a crank is dimensional, it's good to go. Wonder why they even bother to magnaflux them? :dunno:
 
Not sure there is any twin I'd want to fly for 60k, well unless you steal one from a estate sale or something.
 
James331 said:
Not sure there is any twin I'd want to fly for 60k, well unless you steal one from a estate sale or something.
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Kind of depends on how much airplane you need.

You can find plenty of Travel Airs in good shape for that price point.
 
RotorAndWing said:
I've had a couple of IO-360 cranks get rejected when magnafluxed. Dimensional they were fine, but the cracks did them in.



But our resident expert claims if a crank is dimensional, it's good to go. Wonder why they even bother to magnaflux them? :dunno:
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Well, there's your problem: just don't magnaflux them!
 
RotorAndWing said:
I've had a couple of IO-360 cranks get rejected when magnafluxed. Dimensional they were fine, but the cracks did them in.

But our resident expert claims if a crank is dimensional, it's good to go. Wonder why they even bother to magnaflux them? :dunno:
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.....and if you dig a lil deeper you'll learn more about manufacturing defects (inclusions and occlusions) and infant mortality. ;)

Unless there is an AD....there are no life limits or mandatory inspections.

Again....I'll take a dimensionally correct 20,000 hour crank any day over a brand new spank'n one....right off the shelf.

btw....I made no claims to expert status Pap. ;)
 
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