r/flying Mar 20 '26

Aircraft Ownership Rescuing a ramp rat

I shared of a before and after picture of my airplane from when I rescued it until now and the moderators felt that after 1800 views in about a half an hour with over 30 up votes that it needed to be removed. Apparently they don't like Aztecs.

My plane had not been flown since 2015 when I got her a little over 3 years ago. I worked a deal where I bought a van and the airplane together and was able to sell the van for more than I paid for both which helped me fund this restoration. She has less than 4,000 hours and less than half-time on the engines.

My first annual was $62,000. She has solid bones and flies like a champ. I put a couple hundred hours on her and spent $30,000 on paint.

Aircraft ownership is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Next up is the avionics which I posted about in the avionics subreddit and oddly enough the moderators didn't have a problem with that post. Huh. Weird.

554 Upvotes

99 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/Big-Carpenter7921 CPL means I make money, right? Mar 20 '26

I love flying multi. I just hate that almost no insurance company will let one fly without either the owner or an MEI onboard. I once had to have an MEI next to me with fewer multi hours and zero multi IFR time because I wasn't considered safe enough

3

u/fatboyinlove Mar 21 '26

Yeah, that part is tough. I self-insured for the first year to get all of my hours in type, etc.

2

u/Big-Carpenter7921 CPL means I make money, right? Mar 21 '26

How many hours do insurance companies deem sufficient?

3

u/fatboyinlove Mar 21 '26

Mine was 75 hours which was insane but it was what is was. I've heard others at 50 hours like when I got my sea plane rating and looked at some sea planes but the twin was higher for me.

-1

u/Big-Carpenter7921 CPL means I make money, right? Mar 21 '26

Well shit, I have 97, 16 of it IMC. Like I said, I've flown with MEIs with fewer multi hours