ImWatchingTV

For time building, would y’all suggest purchasing a 150/152 or renting for $100 a hour wet?

I’m in college full time and a part time CFI. I want to pursue airlines, and I understand that seniority is everything, so ideally I’d like to have 1500 hours upon graduation. There is little demand for instruction in my area, so this rental / Aircraft purchase would be an additional source to gain hours while in college.

Thanks.

QRH Bingo

There are always varying opinions on this one. It all depends on how much risk you're willing to take. If you're renting, you can control your cost (within reason). You get to choose how much you spend each month by how many hours you fly. If you need to back off, for whatever reason, you can stop and owe nothing more for the month. If you own an airplane, you have monthly expenses that must be paid regardless of how much you actually fly. Add to that, any unexpected maintenance issues or anything that pops up at the annual inspection.

This question always has those who say how much money they saved purchasing a plane (short term) to get training/time building done. And you will have those who say they lost money or ended up spending more than if they just rented. It's not uncommon to take your 40+ year old 152 in for an annual only find something that will cost more than the plane is worth to get fixed.

Start doing some research on cost to purchase, monthly costs, hourly costs and make a spread sheet based on your estimate of how much you'll fly each month. Compare that to how much you'll rent. I wouldn't be surprised if the two numbers are much closer to each other than you thought they would be. You're young and have a long time to be building that seniority.... My opinion, and $0.02, is that you will be better served to start your career with as minimal debt as possible, rather than as early as possible. But, you know what they say about opinions, right?

Brickfire

If you are lucky (ie engine doesn’t require overhaul) you will be way ahead owning.

This assumes tiedown/fuel are reasonable.

joepilot

Consider getting a partner. Consider very carefully, and make sure the partner and you have similar or complementary goals with the airplane ownership. There are a lot of downsides to a partnership, so be sure that you address these potential problems in any partnership documents. It is true that a handshake deal CAN work, but don't count on it. The two biggest sticking points seem to be an appropriate flight time cost for engine replacement or overhaul and the eventual dissolution of the partnership.

Get a very good inspection of the aircraft prior to purchase.

Fly as much night cross country as you can. Rent a basic instrument capable aircraft once a month and get a couple of hours of actual instrument time.

Good luck.

Joe

Excargodog

If you need to major a Continental O-200 or a Lycoming O-235 it’s just about as expensive as the O-320 in a 172. Oftentimes even worse because of parts issues.

https://www.hotwaircraft.com/no-surprise-pricing.html

https://airworxaviation.com/cost-of-services/

The 152 will save you about 3 gallons an hour over the 172.

JamesNoBrakes

Some of the C150/152s can use mogas as an STC...which would be substantial fuel cost savings.

TiredSoul

How many airports still sell Mogas apart from the occasional back country hillbilly airport?
We‘ve had many buy vs rent questions here and as far as my opinion is concerned when you rent the problem is not yours.
Thats worth something.
Additionally question the wisdom of buying something that is realistically day VFR only.
How valuable is doing the same 3hr crosscountry over and over again.
Yes, not all of your 1200-1500 hrs need to be high quality time, however if you’re not learning anything then this will eventually work against you.
You’re better off accumulating higher quality time over a longer period then rapidly useless.
Consider most varieties of flight time as a curve, you learn a lot initially then it tapers off.
Same with the usefulness of certain types.
For instance banner towing, I wouldn’t do that for longer then one season. Add 3-400 hrs quickly but it’s only two columns in your logbook, TT and PIC.
So in my opinion you’ll be better off renting a more expensive airplane and fly only night crosscountry on an IFR flightplan and bring a buddy so you can log sim instrument time.
Three hour flight, all night, all cross country, three airports, 6 approaches and 2 hrs sim instr.
You didn’t state how much longer you’d be in college for. Two more years? Seniority doesn’t mean anything if you can’t get hired because you don’t have the instrument skills to pass a training course.

Brickfire

There are enough airports with mogas that he might have one nearby.

Ifr 150’s certainly exist, and if you are thoughtful you can make yourself learn in a 150. For example, really get precise with your landings then see how 0/10/20/30/40 degrees of flaps affects you.

TiredSoul

Have at it:

Find Mogas

An “IFR” C150 really doesn’t mean much if it has one ADF receiver.
There is more to flying IFR then just meeting an archaic equipment requirement.
I like the C150 and always enjoyed it more then the C152 but an average equipped C150 is virtually useless for instrument flying except maybe the first 10-15 hrs of your basic training.
Pay the extra for a 172 where you can actually take full fuel and two adults.
Also consider how long it takes to do anything in a C150. For instance let’s say the nearest airport with an ILS is 30 miles away. Just getting there and back is 40 min in a C150 and 30 min in a C172. Climb at 60, cruise at 90 or climb at 90 and cruise at 120.
In the above example you can do 4 ILS approaches in a C172 in 1.5 vs only 2 in a C150. In a C172 you can do 120 kts to about a 3 mile final at a busier D/C/B airport.
You won’t be making friends with ATC showing up in a 150.
Here’s the airline version:

JetBlue JFK

Brickfire

small airclub grass fields often have an unadvertised mogas pump. They exist… yes they’re uncommon. Just depends where the guy is

Agree that you need 21st century avionics… again they exist