Chapter 3 -- Why do I need a new aircraft?

The answer is simple. I don't need a new aircraft.

Before I bought the Arrow, I regularly flew Lances and Saratogas and I loved flying them. Since then I have often thought of buying a Saratoga because it has six seats, flys faster and has a bigger cabin than the Arrow III. Why didn't I buy a Saratoga earlier? When I bought the Arrow I couldn't afford to buy a Saratoga. Later on, I guess I just didn't want it badly enough; I love the turbo Arrow which does almost everything I want it to do; and over the last few years whenever I mentioned selling the Arrow and buying a Saratoga, my instructor, Tony Smith, would inevitably say "This is too good an aircraft. Don't sell it". One time he even went to my LAME and got him to phone me to tell me not to sell it.

He has a good point. As an example of what it can do, Tony and I flew HKZ from Moorabbin to Toowoomba at FL150 in about 4 hours 30 minutes without the need to refuel.

However, the US economy crashed. Businesses were (are) doing it tough. Many people can no longer afford to keep some of their assets and the second-hand aircraft prices have plunged. Added to that, the Australian $ has strengthened against the US $. It is now an excellent time to buy aircraft, homes etc in USA. Finally, I am getting older and why not do it?

Having checked the second hand aircraft market in the USA for a couple of months, I just made the decision that now was a good time. The $ could go up or the $ could go down and I could keep waiting for a better deal and wait forever.

In early December I booked a ticket and flew to LA with six prospective aircraft, selected in order of preference.

I love the benefits of a turbo charged aircraft so the Saratoga had to be turbo. I wanted low hours with at least 1000 hours before the next major overhaul was due. I also had settled on a price range which put me into the 1999 - 2001 models. I found that there were many available which met the criteria, and in fact many of the available aircraft exceeded my expectations. There were several with less than 700 hours since new (average of 70 hours flying/year). I also found that there were many which had done more hours but which had engines which had been completely overhauled before they were due, because of a manufacturing problem with some of the parts in the Lycoming engines.These had maybe 1000-1200 hours airframe time with about 600 hours since the engine was overhauled. For non-aviators, every aircraft engine has a number of hours at which time it must be stripped down to individual nuts, bolts and washers and parts measured and if necessary, replaced. In the case of the Saratoga, the major overhaul must be done every 2000 hours as a minimum.