To part the plane out or not

AKBill

AKBill

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AKBill
I have a friend who has not flown his plane in over 6 years. It is a 1966 C-172, engine over 2000hrs. Paint and interior 7/7. Radios old school, 121.5 ELT.

My guess is it will take $30,000+ to get in annual/flyable. Not sure if you could get $30,000 for the plane if you put that much money in it. I think Norm would take $5,000 to $6,000 for the plane.

Would you part the plane out or replace engine and make needed repairs to make the plane airworthy?
 
Not if you are willing to fly the off the wings of it, as is
 
What is wrong with a 172 (short of needing an engine right now) that would take 30K to make it pass annual/flyable?
 
It's Alaska, so my guess is that it'll take $20,000 to melt the glacier ice encasing the plane.
 
By your description that plane is worth more than $6K as is. Sell it to somebody willing to give it some attention. It should be easy.
 
Down here in the continental US, you could sell that thing rather quickly. It may be an interesting investment, depending on how much owner labor is involved.
 
AKBill said:
Would you part the plane out
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In this case keep the aircraft whole, post it on eBay with a $12K minimum, and sell it as is, where is. The engine core and wings are worth more than 12K. If you've never parted out an aircraft or are not set up to do so, it's best not to part out as you'll have more un-sold parts left over than sold parts. Up the minimum if you want but if your friend will take 5 or 6k for it just as soon try to double it.

Also get a couple copies of a Form AC 8050-2 and fill them out so when the guy pulls up to pick up the aircraft you'll be ready to go.;)
 
DFH65 said:
What is wrong with a 172 (short of needing an engine right now) that would take 30K to make it pass annual/flyable?
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My best guess engine $24,000, annual $2,000, windshield $1,500, tires, tubes, brakes $2,000, replace seals in nose strut $500, plus whatever is found at annual
 
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Bell206 said:
In this case keep the aircraft whole, post it on eBay with a $12K minimum, and sell it as is, where is.
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Yah, the "where is", is part of the problem. Juneau has no roads to it, so if moved it needs to go on a barge to ship.
 
Tom-D said:
Not if you are willing to fly the off the wings of it, as is
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You might want to stop suggesting that people fly aircraft that are not airworthy.
 
AKBill said:
My best guess engine $24,000, annual $2,000, windshield $1,500, tires, tubes, brakes $2,000, replace seals in nose strut $500, plus whatever is found at annual
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I know we are talking Alaska dollar's and having visited there last year for several weeks I know everything costs more money.

Assuming these are the only issues your buddy needs to find an A&P who will supervise his work or sell it to someone who can do it that way. We just did nose strut seals and brakes on our new to us '57 172. The seals for the nose strut are like 50 bucks if you buy the McFarlane ones or 16 bucks if you buy the ones from aircraft spruce. The brakes if they don't need pads are just an O-ring assuming they are Clevelands and that is a few bucks plus the fresh hydrolic fluid. Admittedly the nose strut is a bigger job although not hard. The brakes are dead simple. We rebuilt the shimmy dampener while we were at it and had to replace a cracked torque arm as well. Tubes, tires and greasing wheel bearings is also not hard. Windshield, ours was just done a year or so before we bought it so no experience with that I know they are not super cheap. I would think a supervised annual would be less than 1000 bucks if the other stuff was done but then again that may not be the case in AK.

If the engine is running let it run maybe fix the other stuff to make it airworthy and sell it for 15K with a run out motor. If not maybe you could find someone to do a field overhaul for 15-16K and sell it for 35K. Then you would have a plane worth at least what you had in it plus a little.

But you are right if you have to pay to have it all done then parting it out may be the best option. I would think it would be a pain to do and shipping from AK probably isn't cheap. Perhaps there is someone up there who needs enough parts that make it worth buying the whole thing heck the engine core is probably worth more than half of what he wants for it.
 
Nothing about that says the aircraft isn't perfectly flyable as-is, aside from getting the annual inspection performed. Engine over 2K hours is fine if the engine is still making decent compression. I'd certainly price it as a run-out, along with any of the other bugs to work out. No reason to scrap it.
 
AKBill said:
Low compression is why he stopped flying it 6 years ago. I not sure but I think the TBO on the engine is 1500 hours
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If it is an o-300D I think the TBO is 2000 hours. The earlier o-300s were 1800. Either way it would sell as run out.
 
Salty said:
You might want to stop suggesting that people fly aircraft that are not airworthy.
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Who is doing that?
Many aircraft are not perfect, yet still airworthy.
 
DFH65 said:
I know we are talking Alaska dollar's and having visited there last year for several weeks I know everything costs more money.
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If I thought I could make a small amount of cash out of the deal I would buy it and do the repairs myself. But I just don't have the cash to tie up for the time needed to do the repairs and sell the plane.
 
DFH65 said:
If it is an o-300D I think the TBO is 2000 hours. The earlier o-300s were 1800. Either way it would sell as run out.
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It does not matter. TBO is not a concern in part 91.
This is simply a sale tactic.
 
How many times did the A&P check for “low compression”? Seems like many that check it a second time after running the motor have favorable results. Thing is worth more than $15k if it starts and idles smooth.
 
Tom-D said:
It does not matter. TBO is not a concern in part 91.
This is simply a sale tactic.
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I realize this was just commenting on his statement that TBO was 1500.
 
YooperMooney said:
How many times did the A&P check for “low compression”? Seems like many that check it a second time after running the motor have favorable results. Thing is worth more than $15k if it starts and idles smooth.
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Understood. I would like to help Norm. The problem is he drivers a tugboat for a living. Gone 3 months at time and only gets a few weeks home when he is in town. So very hard to schedule time for repairs.
 
DFH65 said:
I realize this was just commenting on his statement that TBO was 1500.
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Any time a buyer starts talking TBO, they are talking price.
 
AKBill said:
Yah, the "where is", is part of the problem. Juneau has no roads to it, so if moved it needs to go on a barge to ship.
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Is the ferry system shut down affecting the area very much? I read where some folks are unable to get to work because of the shut down.
 
Salty said:
You might want to stop suggesting that people fly aircraft that are not airworthy.
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Do you men CONUS airworthy, or Alaska airworthy? I've learned from these boards that they aren't the same.
 
The OP states that the aircraft is not airworthy.
 
Zeldman said:
Is the ferry system shut down affecting the area very much? I read where some folks are unable to get to work because of the shut down.
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Ferry system down till late March. All the boats are broken...:(
 
AKBill said:
Yah, the "where is", is part of the problem. Juneau has no roads to it, so if moved it needs to go on a barge to ship.
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How is it a problem for you? A buyer maybe. It's the exact reason to put the "where is." Post it on ebay, you have zero to lose. You might be surprised who may buy it regardless it's location. I've wheeled and dealed a number of items between AK and the lower 48 where the added logistics was moot at the right price.
 
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Being in JNU will substantially affect the value of the parts considering the difficulty in getting the parts moved out of the area. I would think simpler to make it airworthy enough to get up the Lynn Canal to SGY and then follow the roads to the lower 48 where it will bring some money.
 
Parting a plane out is a major pita. Takes a lot of time to find a buyer for what you are selling and a lot of effort to take apart and store all the parts. You will eventually end up with a pile of parts nobody wants that you will have to dispose of. He seems reasonable on his price of 6k as that is probably all it’s worth since you can get airworthy early 172’s for mid to upper 20’s. He used it up and hung it out to dry so take what he can get and walk. Trying to fix it up again just to sell it is a losing proposition. There will be other things that need addressing and worst case you may find corrosion. Let it be someone else’s headache to move.
 
Considering it’s a 6 year old 172 I’m guessing it doesn’t have ADSB. You’d basically need to figure adding ADSB into your cost to get it airworthy again as well.
 
JustinD said:
Considering it’s a 6 year old 172 I’m guessing it doesn’t have ADSB. You’d basically need to figure adding ADSB into your cost to get it airworthy again as well.
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In the lower 48 a lot of the areas require ADSB and a lot of the areas do not require ADSB. Airworthiness of the aircraft is not dependent on ADSB, but I do get your point.

ADSB is not required in SE Alaska were I fly. I'm sticking with Mode C, in my Beech Sport. I will add ADSB in the future but not the near future.
 
Zeldman said:
Yeeks...
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My wife has a friend who came to Juneau in January. I think her car is still in Juneau. I suggested she put it on a barge to get it back to Skagway. Not sure if she went that route or not.
 
plus the route is operating on winter service from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan, (that is the BC ferry service)
 
JustinD said:
Considering it’s a 6 year old 172 I’m guessing it doesn’t have ADSB. You’d basically need to figure adding ADSB into your cost to get it airworthy again as well.
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Lack of ADSB does not make it unairworthy, just limits where it can be flown.
 
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