OkieFlyer
En-Route
Well, back around the first of the year, my wife and I having settled into a nice little life with our two young boys, and making a pretty good living (by rural Oklahoma standards), decided to purchase a Cessna 182. The 182 was just the right amount of airplane for our needs, more specifically, the ability to haul the family with some utility to spare for future growth. It has handled the job beautifully so far, as would be expected with this iconic aircraft. As they say, the 182 does a lot of things well, or something like that, and we've been looking forward to owning 3323Y for years to come.
Two nights ago, my wife stuck her head into the room as I was perusing POA and held up a pregnancy test that showed two solid lines. Two lines means pregnant! After a few minutes discussing how my wife's birth control was a complete and utter failure, my thoughts fell on the 182. I turned to my wife and said, "I'm sorry to bring up airplanes at this moment, but do you realize that the plane we just bought will be useless to us in 9 months?" The 182 does indeed do a lot of things well, but it doesn't do 5 seats. So now we're going to be pretty limited on what kind of plane we can fly. The bummer is that we're also limited on what we can afford. To compound the airplane issue, we're gonna need a bigger house. The small two bedroom we have now is not going to cut it with a third kiddo.
I should mention that I'm very happy to have a third child. We were definately open to having a third, or we would have taken more permanent measures to avoid it, if you know what I mean, but we were thinking we'd wait a couple more years at least. Alas, the third amigo will be with us sooner than planned for and we're going to have to make some tough choices in the coming months regarding. One of which may be selling the 182. Don't know what we're going to do. Whatever we do regarding our home and airplane, the new little toot will be as welcome as the other 2.
A few options:
1. Sell the 182 and get a Cherokee 6 or C210. Either way, it would have to be an early model for us to afford it. Cherokee 6 seems way more comfortable, and hauls more but the 210 is quite a bit faster. Retract insurance might be a hindrance. too.
2. Forget about hauling the family and get something fun for me, and burns less gas like a citabria or a vans.
3. Keep flying the 182. It's more utility than necessary since I can't take the family along, and not exactly exhilarating to fly. Flying 1 or 2 up burning 12.5 gal/hr at 130 kt doesn't seem practical.
4. Sell the 182 and get out of ownership altogether. <----not likely.
I will say that not having my family involved would really take a lot of the luster out of flying. If I can't share it with my family, then it becomes extremely difficult for me to justify the expense along with taking some of the fun out of it. It'll probably have to be a six seater or bust.
Two nights ago, my wife stuck her head into the room as I was perusing POA and held up a pregnancy test that showed two solid lines. Two lines means pregnant! After a few minutes discussing how my wife's birth control was a complete and utter failure, my thoughts fell on the 182. I turned to my wife and said, "I'm sorry to bring up airplanes at this moment, but do you realize that the plane we just bought will be useless to us in 9 months?" The 182 does indeed do a lot of things well, but it doesn't do 5 seats. So now we're going to be pretty limited on what kind of plane we can fly. The bummer is that we're also limited on what we can afford. To compound the airplane issue, we're gonna need a bigger house. The small two bedroom we have now is not going to cut it with a third kiddo.
I should mention that I'm very happy to have a third child. We were definately open to having a third, or we would have taken more permanent measures to avoid it, if you know what I mean, but we were thinking we'd wait a couple more years at least. Alas, the third amigo will be with us sooner than planned for and we're going to have to make some tough choices in the coming months regarding. One of which may be selling the 182. Don't know what we're going to do. Whatever we do regarding our home and airplane, the new little toot will be as welcome as the other 2.
A few options:
1. Sell the 182 and get a Cherokee 6 or C210. Either way, it would have to be an early model for us to afford it. Cherokee 6 seems way more comfortable, and hauls more but the 210 is quite a bit faster. Retract insurance might be a hindrance. too.
2. Forget about hauling the family and get something fun for me, and burns less gas like a citabria or a vans.
3. Keep flying the 182. It's more utility than necessary since I can't take the family along, and not exactly exhilarating to fly. Flying 1 or 2 up burning 12.5 gal/hr at 130 kt doesn't seem practical.
4. Sell the 182 and get out of ownership altogether. <----not likely.
I will say that not having my family involved would really take a lot of the luster out of flying. If I can't share it with my family, then it becomes extremely difficult for me to justify the expense along with taking some of the fun out of it. It'll probably have to be a six seater or bust.
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