I bought a 56 172 to get my PPL then flew it for 9 years with at least one trip of 1500 miles one way each year. I was commuting between Houston and Dallas at least a couple of times a month and it worked well for that.
With no IFR rating, and the relatively slow speed, it was usable for long trips on vacation but I don’t know that I’d want to rely on it for time-sensitive 750 NM trips.
At my wife’s encouragement we moved up to a Cardinal RG and I got my IFR. In this plane, a trip from Denver to Ames would be 5 to 6 hours depending on wind and I’d need one fuel stop. I think that would be similar in a 182 and a 182 might be a better choice for hauling 4 people of you’re going to do that very often.
The Cardinal RG burns a lot less fuel but can’t carry as much weight. You can do your initial training in either plane but a 182 would be a more traditional choice for primary training.
With the IFR rating, the Cardinal would be likely to make the trip with reasonable confidence in the warm months. I don’t have to deal with ice much so I’m no expert, but would expect icing to be a dispatch factor throughout the cold months up there.
Starting with a $25,000 VFR only 172 was a good choice for me for my early flying. It made the first few years affordable, gave me the ability to fly on my schedule when taking lessons, and let me take any trip I wanted after I got my PPL without having to worry about someone else’s need for the plane. It also gave me time to really understand the ‘mission’ for my next phase of flying so I could make an informed choice of what to buy next.
I did finance that plane and with 20% down the payment was $300 a month. Insurance for my wife and I as zero time pilots was $900 the first year. My wife ended up deciding not to get her license due to medical issues and by the time I sold the 172 I was paying $600 a year for insurance.
I was fortunate to find an IA that let me do owner assisted annuals and averaged $600 a year for the annual for the 9 years I owned the plane. I had a hanger that I paid $180 a month for but could have tied down outside for $45 a month. I think being in the hanger reduced my upkeep and maintenance costs but don’t know what the delta for upkeep and maintenance would have been between keeping the plane in a hanger vs. tying down outside.
If your planning on using the plane to commute for work, and you don’t own the company, talk with your company about their rules on traveling in a private plane before buying anything. The company I worked for had no issues with me using my plane for the first 10 years I worked for them, but then a Florida jury awarded a $150 million dollar judgement against a pilot’s employer when his plans crashed and killed someone on the ground.
Once my employer’s attorneys found out about that judgment they forbade my using the plane for anything that could remotely be considered work related. As my leader put it when he gave me the news, the company wanted to do what they could to make me happy but my happiness was not worth $150 million to my employer.
The change in policy didn’t impact our decision to keep our plane but it sure ticked me off every time I had to drive to Dallas for the 8 years I worked between then and when I retired.
Gary
