BUYING MY CESSAN 150.

I'm just outside Echuca (Vic) at 2,500 feet. watching the beginning of a sunset you'd think was a digital image, so beautiful are the rays of light spreading earthwards. The air is smooth, the engine a muffled hum thanks to my David Clarkes. We left Point Cook an hour ago, and according to the flight plan on my lap we have another two hours of flying before we get back there. Yet I'm not worried. For the first time in my 15 years of flying I'm not anxiously watching the time, worrying about how much this little self imposed navex is going to cost me. I identify Rochester away to the east, note the time and check the groundspeed..90 knots Not bad for a Cessna 150! MY Cessna 150!!!!!!!! I smile to myself and remember how I finally came to own my own aircraft. The envelope bore the seal of the "Civil Aviation Safety Authority"......Official correspondence from the dreaded department. My hands shook as I fumbled with the back flap.......Have I been 225d ( I wasn't flying that low over the water was I?) Is my aviation career at an end.......No! Folded carefully is a piece of Govt paper (form AW/007) informing me that I am now officially the owner of Cessna 150M, VH-HVU.....I should have known better, of course, but official letters from CASA always chill the heart of any aviator,much like a police car in your rear view mirror forces a hurried appraisal of how you've been driving !. The smile on my face threatened to overtake my ears. At last I owned my own aircraft. No more forking out $80.00per hour every time I had the urge to put air under my feet, no more questioning if the aircraft I'm about to fly is being well maintained. Only bliss, long sunsets watched from 2,000 feet, cross countries where it is better to travel than arrive.......... HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Reality check time.......All aeroplanes cost money..the bigger the aeroplane the bigger the money..Just ask Qantas!!!!!! Mine is only a little aeroplane so it SHOULD only cost a little amount of money..Visions rush through my head of my children begging on street corners "please sir, spare a dollar to keep my dad's aeroplane flying" Argggggggggg what have I done?????? All these emotions have moved through my feeble brain since the day I handed over a cheque for $36,200.00 and became the proud owner of Hotel Victor Uniform. The decision to finally bite the bullet and buy an aircraft came after 4 years of detailed thought, irrational ideals and finally the right opportunity at the right time. It was at the Avalon airshow , in 1995 , that I met the people behind Skyfox aviation, enthusiastically expounding the benefits of buying a Gazelle, putting it online with a flying school and reaping bountiful rewards. Whilst I couldn't come to spending seventy thousand dollars on one of their aircraft, the seed had been sown. Put an aircraft online, hope it flies enough to pay its fixed costs , and then you fly for the cost of fuel. Unfortunately health problems in the intervening years saw the dream get put on the backburner, temporarily being resurrected every so often as a copy of Aviation Trader crossed my path, being put back when I couldn't quite get the figures to add up. Then I found HVU at Point Cook Flying Club. She was a gem: Lovely red and white paint, heaps of time left on the engine, low airframe hours, and an owner who wasn't enjoying having his baby on-line at an ab initio flying school and wanted to arrange an adoption. The club itself was expanding with student numbers increasing on the back of affordable flying rates in close proximity to the city. The return to the owner being offered was $53.00 per hour tacho, meaning that based on 200 hours per year my insurance and 100 hourly costs would be covered. Provided nothing major went wrong the dream of affordable flying was at hand. Then the real work began!! How do I convince the dear lady wife that there IS an aeroplane in our future ? Lie? Cheat?...Arguments for buying this aluminium addition to our family raced through my mind . "It'll make money!!!!!"....Hmmmmmmmmmm No, she won't fall for that.Errrrr.".It'll pay for itself, give me some tax relief and its something I've really always wanted..Please please please???"..When in doubt try grovelling. Her response to my plaintive plea was simple.".Make sure you do your sums WELL, talk to Robert (our accountant) and if the numbers gell do it.......You won't leave me alone till you do!!!!!!" First step...Buy a copy of Aviation Trader and start looking to see if the price being asked for this aircraft is realistic. You realise straight away that there are a lot of aircraft for sale , 99% of which you can never afford to own this side of a lottery win. There were several 150s from both private buyers and brokers, most of which had double the airframe hours of HVU, though the prices being asked were around the same, give or take a couple of thousand. One caught my eye, which I felt would provide me with a good comparison to the aircraft I was rapidly setting my heart on...Another 150M, 3400 TT, Engine 900 to run: $28,000. A call to the owner furnished more information and left no doubt in my mind he was a "motivated seller". The aircraft was a few hours north of home so I arranged to view it on my way to a family weekend away. With the wife and Kids in tow we were led to a paddock where a faded, spatless and generally scruffy 150 sat forlornly tied to the ground among the gum trees , a splatter of bird poop decorating cracked paint on the top of the wing. I politely looked over this offering, half listening to the owners patter about puting me on to a "friendly" engineer who'll treat me right. The avionics fit was minimal, the panel lacking a transponder and ADF. Not a good prospect as an on-line club trainer . One down.......Several other ads were answered , aircraft inspected, and each time the same conclusion. HVU was a good aircraft at the right price, with the added bonus that it was going to be on-line 15 minutes from home. The decision had been made. Pending an engineers inspection this was the one...Now, do I know any engineers?????..... Echuca is on the nose, and an inbound call to no-one in particular yields no response. The farmland is a universal brown, tinged with the beginnings of an orange dusk . Over the top at 1500 feet, the windsock lies idle, announcing that my landing can be in any direction I choose. Well I'm on down wind for 17 so that'll do..speed back to 80 knots in the circuit (well 85..I feel like being a speed demon) , Power back on base , speed 70 knots, carb heat gently brought out, a stage of flaps, then the turn onto final ..Final stage of flap, speeds 60, runway nailed in the windshield, this feels soooooo good. Over the numbers, the flare, whoops over flare, damn narrow runways, a bit high try and ease on the power to cushion the touchdown. THUMP!!!!!!! A hard landing. WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MY BABY!!!!!! Thankfully nothing. Shes tracking well and it wasn't that hard. Its just that when its your own, you feel such things .......I smile meekly at my passenger, a student pilot from the aero club who up till this point has been oh so impressed with my aviation skills, and resolve to serve my penance in the form of an hour of circuits next time I go flying. "An almost indestructible leaf spring main gear, nice solid little engine, and not to many ADs", said Jess Smith an engineer of long experience who now spends his time teaching young apprentice LAME's the mysteries of aircraft maintenance. In his spare time he still does light aircraft maintenance "just to keep my hand in" and basically because he enjoys it. I was referred to him by a mutual friend in the industry. "150s are good little ships," he told me during one of our many phone calls that led me to buying HVU. " As long as you buy the right one.......get a good pre purchase inspection and keep up with the maintenance you will generally be rewarded with an enjoyable asset, not a millstone. As far as aeroplanes go they dont come much simpler." The aircraft was due for a 100 hourly which gave me a great opportunity to really find out what was below that great paint job. Jess took me over the airframe, pointing out various peculiarities in the 150 , identifying areas that will require attention as time goes by. "This is probably one of the best 150s I've seen for a long time," the sandy-haired engineer said after pulling off the cowls and the access ports. "The logbooks are in order, and it appears theres no nasty surprises in the guise of outstanding ADs." As the inspection went on Jess encouraged me to peer in inspection holes with torches and mirrors, giving me a fair idea just how an American built light aircraft is put together. I saw what he meant when he called 150s a "simple" aircraft . Nice riveted aluminium, thoroughly corrosion proofed with everything accessible. The only nasty found during the inspection was a fault with the carburettor heat hot box. Over time the bearings had become loose on the butterfly allowing a small amount of movement on the spindle. "It wont ground it" said Jess as he twiddled with the loose spindle, "but that needs are conditioning kit ASAP. I think I have one from the States. It'll cost about $90.00 for the kit, and take me about two to three hours to fit. Given the overall condition of the aircraft its surprising that was left like that ". Oh boy now it starts ..Bills bills bills......and I haven't even actually paid for her yet.... The final bill for the 100 hourly , including the hot box was, wait for it , Seven hundred and forty two dollars!!!!!!!!...... I was happy. So the aeroplane was checked out, time to work out how to finance it. My accountant , Rob Raniti, whilst admitting not being an aviation speciallist, quickly looked up the applicable tax laws regarding depreciation allowances on light aircraft. I didnt want to commit myself to a lease with fixed payments every month just in case the aircraft didn't fly as much as hoped or was grounded for any length of time. I'm lucky enough to have almost no mortgage on my home so Robert felt redrawing against the house would be a good way to go. Whilst only the interest is deductable I can depreciate the total cost of the aircraft against my own tax, provided I keep the her for a number of years and, after writing down the aircraft, show a profit and pay tax on the profit the aircraft makes. Plus I'd be liable for capital gains tax when I sold her. "The tax office doesn't like any business to continually claim a loss " said Raniti, a senior partner with Morgans Accountants in Williamstown (Vic)." At some stage they say if its not making a profit why keep it?" Given that its taken me 10 years to get my own aircraft and , short of inheriting lots of money from a previously unknown well heeled relative ,I'm not going to be able to upgrade to a 172, much as I'd like to. I want to keep her as long as possible, therefore Capital gains tax doesn't worry me. If after paying the aircraft off she earns enough to actually pay tax well n good. My father always told me if you're paying tax you must be making money..... Mangalore Airfield slides into view 8 minutes ahead of schedule. The forecast headwind has disappeared leaving the windsock undecided between a light easterly and nothing. The sun kissing the horizon signals the countdown to last light has begun in earnest. A slight turn to the southwest reveals the Kilmore gap bathed in golden haze, beautiful to look at, but damned hard to navigate in. Feeling optimistic I call Melbourne radar to request a direct clearance from Seymour to Point Cook. The female controller sounds busy and politely refuses "due to traffic". Damn.....Oh well I'll fly more westerly than southerly just to make sure I miss the edge of the Melbourne Control Zone. Groundspeed still 90 knots.....At this speed we'll be in the circuit at Point Cook ten minutes before last light. Kilmore is identified off the left wing, Monegeeta with its winding test track makes a great fix on the right. Well clear of the Zone I relax and watch the sunset. The bank came through with the money in record time. A day was set, we met at Point Cook and with the aeroplane sitting patiently behind us we completed the transaction......She was mine.......the date will be etched in my mind forever, much like my kids birthdays......A few weeks have past and even my wife is telling her friends about the aeroplane Mark bought, though she still hasn't been up in it....Then again her logic is sound and reassuring.."it isnt going anywhere is it????" The lights of Werribee begin to stand out as we make our inbound call . The runway lights are on in the distance, though as we get closer the piano keys are still easily seen. An uneventful landing into a light southerly ends 3.1 hours of the most enjoyable flying I've ever done. A little voice in my head says "yeah its only a 150"........but to me its as good as a Citation..It gets me up there, and really thats all I need.