A little story on how I came to buy an airplane:

Our flying club wanted a plane with more useful load than the C-150 we are leasing. We had four members for a few months but dropped back to three. We had set  a limit of about $5000 each toward the purchase. We'd borrow the rest and looked for something under $45k - $50k as a stretch. That meant something like  Cherokee 140 or the like. C-172 prices had climbed into the flight levels, so they were out of the question.

I volunteered to guarantee a bank loan to the club's nonprofit corporation. I decided to seek a loan via AOPA Finance and spent a couple weeks working with them but they couldn't find any lenders under any circumstances that would lend to a flying club, regardless of who signed a personal guarantee. I asked if they had any lenders who would finance a purchase by my wife and I in which case we would lease our plane to the club. This was a week before Christmas. AOPA Finance said they'd look into it but never followed up. I was getting antsy so decided to try lightstream.com on December 29. Their rates for a 12 year term on $30,000 were between 9.34% and 13.74% (their rates for something other than an RV/Boat/Aircraft were typically even higher. AOPA was claiming rates between 7.1% and 9.99%) My wife was good with us covering the difference.

I plugged in claimed income and assets and submitted a loan request to Lightstream. Within hours I got an approval at 9.64%. I expected them to ask for supporting proof of income and assets but they didn't. And there would be no lien on the airplane (they make clear the borrower should NOT list them as a lienholder on any vehicle registration.)

As it happened I found two C-172s for sale below our limit: N7303A (on trade-a-plane; located Los Alamos, NM; asking $50k) and N7305A (on one of the Facebook aircraft sales groups; locate West Liberty, KY; asking $42.5k firm) Asking prices were close to vref.com estimates. I found it interesting coincidence both came off the assembly line one airplane apart.

Anyway, after doing some comparisons and dithering made an offer on N7303A. Closed on Feb 9, flew United to Santa Fe on the 11th. Flew the plane from Los Alamos to Rapid City on the 12th.

I'm leaving it up to the other two members on whether the club should lease or buy the plane from us. It feels odd to finally own a plane after all these years of renting since I considered an ownership stake being too expensive for just a hobby thing. Even if sold to the club I'll still have an equity claim on the plane.

lol.  What do I say I am?
If you are talking about me, my politics are a lot like yours.  I'm just not an asshole about it.

It is sort of weird isn’t it? I would have to say I agree with 95+% of Number7’s actual positions. It is as though he has some strange need to antagonize and attack every single poster here. Over the years this has included virtually everyone that I would characterize as being highly liberty oriented.

I don’t think we know enough about him to really say what the cause is. Obviously there are a few brain illnesses that tend to result in this sort of behavior but one can’t diagnose without more information. Perhaps we will be learning more in the future.

This is just about right....

Good idea, but good luck with that anyway.
Can a tiger change its stripes or a leopard change its spots?

Why not.  Men can be women now.

So you're in favor of slavery???

Only for Illegal Aliens who must serve ten years in servitude to stay here and then only a limited number of them.

The problem you have, petey, is you think your pathetic attempts to sound superior and better informed actually fool anyone except other egotistical assholes, trying to cover their leftism by inserting bullshit.

As far as your keyboard warriors complaint, you have played that card so many times it sounds like a broken record, but it's all you have, so you keep pretending that it's all you need.

If your infinitesimal points matched your enormous ego you would already know that pretentiousness doesn't equal substance.

The world is full of demanding, little, men, playing at pretending to be tough warriors of unquestionably useless opinions.

...and for the record, demanding a wager to 'prove' your intellectual bravery makes you sound like a sexually insecure seventh grader threatening smaller children for their lunch money.

If you can't decide if you're queer or straight, try therapy instead of false bravado.

I will neither support nor dispute your charges of Pete’s pretentiousness or egotism, nor do I know who is right in the matter of the proposed wager, but in the matter of bravery, I will assert that he backs up his intellectual position on at least one subject with action that in my opinion indeed requires courage.

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/doctor-charged-bringing-ar-15-phoenix-airport/

So E Jean Carroll claims Trump raped her over 30 years ago.

She can't recall when.

She has no evidence.

The plot line is exactly like her favorite TV show.

The dress she claimed to have worn wasn't even designed at that point.

She is sex obsessed and claims "rape is sexy".

Her case has been funded by a democrat operative.



   Lawfare.