Starter airplanes for under $30,000

easik

easik

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easik
What are some good low cost airplanes that you can buy for less than $30,000?
 
I think a long ez is a great starter airplane! You can easily get for around 25k and you can do your own maintenance .
 
Remember if the plane is not already so equipped to factor in the 2020 ADS-B compliance costs if you are based or routinely fly somewhere that will require it.
 
Piper Tri pacer ,Tomahawk. Cherokee 140.
 
How many seats do you need? What kind of panel? Fast or short field? Can you do your own work?

You can get a handyman's special Flybaby for less than 10 K.
Lots of rag and tube homebuilts in the 20-30 range. Dirt simple to maintain.
 
Most planes under 30,000 don't have a starter. Ohhhhh that's not what you meant. :)
 
How much are Volksplanes going for?
 
DFH65 said:
Most planes under 30,000 don't have a starter. Ohhhhh that's not what you meant. :)
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You’d be surprised at what’s selling for under $30k these days. It’s very rare that I get asked to do a ferry for an airplane over $30k and I’ve yet to have to hand prop one.
 
Lindberg said:
That's a great price if it's in good shape.
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That's a very unrealistic price! 170Bs are going for $45K minimum and a lot of them are getting close to $60K.

Cessna 140s in great condition are close to $30K and would make a great starter plane. Mine would probably leave my hangar if someone had $35K!
 
pilotrick said:
I think a long ez is a great starter airplane! You can easily get for around 25k and you can do your own maintenance .
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uh. wut?
 
Lowflynjack said:
That's a very unrealistic price! 170Bs are going for $45K minimum and a lot of them are getting close to $60K.

Cessna 140s in great condition are close to $30K and would make a great starter plane. Mine would probably leave my hangar if someone had $35K!
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Either the first person to be serious when he says, "priced to sell," or it's rotting from the inside out.
 
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Slam a deposit on them as fast as you can, and go look. it might just be real.

But you'll notice it has a gyro installed in a panel mod, and no venturies.

How do they do that? ( 0-300-D )
 
Tom-D said:
Slam a deposit on them as fast as you can, and go look. it might just be real.

But you'll notice it has a gyro installed in a panel mod, and no venturies.

How do they do that? ( 0-300-D )
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There's a venturi on the right side.
 
Lindberg said:
That's a great price if it's in good shape.
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Who cares if it is in good shape? you've got 20-30 grand to spend before you'd be under water in it.
wash and wax the paint, polish the bright, and it is a 40k aircraft.
It's a daily flyer, I'd expect it to stay that way for a long time with minimal maintenance.
 
GeorgeC said:
There's a venturi on the right side.
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By Gosh I didn't see it.
Oh well! no matter really.
0-300-A is a easier engine to convert to a light weight starter and they over haul the same.
 
I bought my Sonerai IIL for $16,000. You won't find a more honest stick & rudder airplane out there to get you started flying right.

If you've gotta have a certified airplane, or don't trust a "hand-propped, single magneto ignition, VW based engine", then you might look for a Luscombe 8 or a Cessna 120/140 that someone doesn't want any more. You can find some good deals out there.
 
Starter airplane?

<looks at Sabrina in the hangar with a gap in her right wing where the fuel tank used to be>

I'm sure he didn't mean that like it sounded, sweetheart. ;)
 
Very similar to my first plane. It had very bad left turning tendencies.....


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Tom-D said:
Who cares if it is in good shape? you've got 20-30 grand to spend before you'd be under water in it.
wash and wax the paint, polish the bright, and it is a 40k aircraft.
It's a daily flyer, I'd expect it to stay that way for a long time with minimal maintenance.
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I'm surprised it hasn't sold, unless there's something we don't know about it. It is a little rough, but like you said, you'd have some money left over to spend.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I'm surprised it hasn't sold, unless there's something we don't know about it. It is a little rough, but like you said, you'd have some money left over to spend.
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Kinda wondering that myself, I have a customer that is ringing his phone a lot :)
 
Almost all Sonex airplanes are being sold for under 30k now. 2 place, fully aerobatic (positive g's) and you can do maintenance work yourself (with just a yearly condition inspection). Look for one with a Jabiru or Corvair motor.

Keith
 
Lots of choices. There are all kinds of 2 seaters in that price range, plus some pretty decent older Cherokee 140s to be had, as well as most Tri-Pacers. Here's a fairly nice Grumman that's had some log issues.
 
I did a lot of research before buying my plane and found that Piper Cherokees are one of the most bang-for-the-buck airplanes out there if you go the certified route. There are usually plenty on the used market to choose from and they are fairly reasonable to maintain and insure. They burn around 8.5 gph and are also one of the easiest planes to fly as well. I'm actually a bit surprised that people will buy two seat Cessna 150's when they can buy a four seat Cherokee for about the same money. About the only two down sides that I see with a Cherokee is they only have one door on the passenger side and you have to slide across to get to the pilot seat. The other is that they are not fast like a retract Bo or Mooney. The majority of my flights are within 200 miles of home. For flights that short the speed difference was just not worth the extra cost difference to purchase, maintain and insure a retract for me.

Here is a real world example of how little the speed difference affects your flight time. Last Friday I flew down to St Simons. I had a great tail wind at 5500' going down and was seeing 150-155 knots (around 175 mph) ground speed on my GPS. That is really fast for my humble little Cherokee and something I very rarely see. With that speed I logged 1.1 for the flight on my Hobbs. On the return trip I stayed down around 2500' to be below the worst of the headwind but was still only able to run around 100 knots ground speed. When I checked the Hobbs for the return flight it was 1.3 hours. I was pretty surprised there was only 0.2 hrs difference between the two flights considering the ground speed difference. Another factor for me is that I enjoy the flying so I don't view the little extra time as a negative, it is just more time for me to enjoy the flying. If I was routinely making long multi-leg cross country flights, I imagine I would be looking for a faster plane.

The Piper Cherokee should certainly be on your list to consider if you plan to go the certified route. Best of luck with your airplane search.
 

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MickYoumans said:
I did a lot of research before buying my plane and found that Piper Cherokees are one of the most bang-for-the-buck airplanes out there if you go the certified route.
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.. not an owner (yet).. but I agree on the Cherokees

I browse the listings almost daily in controller, barnstormers, and trade-a-plane and the PA28 series overall seems to be the best bang. My logbook time is split about evenly between C172, PA28, and Cirrus.. and for what you get the Piper is a great bang for the buck. Fine, it has one door, but that is one solid and sure footed airplane, especially if you are looking for something simple in the <$50K range. I've flown near new Skyhawks that felt like garbage, but even the oldest, most beat up Cherokees still flew nice and true and make great 2-3 hr planes

Anyway... my $0.02.. but my recommendation to @easik would be to check the sites mentioned above for any PA28 series and sort price low to high. Then do the same for 172s and other planes and I think it will be evident that you get a great deal for a simple and solid airplane to get some ratings in and build time. Heck, given how old these planes are already I doubt you'd lose much money when selling it, if you take care of it, etc.
 
Grumman American AA-1A.
Cheap to buy, cheap to own, and a lot of fun to fly, but it really likes pavement.

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Flying with the canopy open is also pretty cool.
 
I bought my first plane (pa-28 180) for 27k. Basic VFR 6 Pack with working narco radios. Good interior and fair paint. That was a LOT of plane for under 30k and the operating / maintainence costs were not bad at all.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
How many seats do you need? What kind of panel? Fast or short field? Can you do your own work?

You can get a handyman's special Flybaby for less than 10 K.
Lots of rag and tube homebuilts in the 20-30 range. Dirt simple to maintain.
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Min 2 seats, no fancy panel required. basic ol steam gauge is fine
 
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