Ha-HAAA!!! Guilt works again!

I’ve mentioned before that I’m building a homebuilt Challenger II airplane.  See example below:




But, at only 10 gallons fuel and 65-70 MPH cruise speed, it’s not a plane you can really travel in.  Certainly not what my wife would travel in.  My son says he is moving from Oregon to Nashville in a couple of years, and I have the wife sold on the idea of a plane we could hop in and fly over to visit the son and the grandkids.  I fly under Sport Pilot rules, and have been looking at the current line of Light Sport category planes.  None of them really excite me and make me see myself flying them.  For travelling, I’m a Cessna guy.  I prefer high wing aircraft, and have flown C150/152’s, C170/172’s, and C182’s.  I think 182’s are trucks and no fun to fly.  I’d like to have a 152, but they’re a little cramped on me nowadays.  A 172 is about the right plane.  But 172 prices are incredibly ridiculous right now, and all the ones I could afford have at least 5-6,000 hours on the airframe and are a 1/2 to 2/3’s of the way to TBO.  So they are out.  Which made me feel like I’d never have a travelling plane, let alone a new plane.  A new C172 is around $650,000 last time I looked.

I have recently been looking very hard at a plane called a Vashon Ranger.  




It checks all the boxes and would fill the bill nicely.  It’s all metal vs. composite like all the current popular LSA models.  It has a Continental O-200 engine vs. a Rotax 912 like the other popular LSA aircraft.  I know the 912 is a good engine, but I never really felt comfortable behind the 912 in my Murphy Renegade.  The O-200 platform has been around since 1947.  Can’t beat that for reliability.  Besides, if the 912 ever needs work or an annual, you have to go to a Rotax certified mechanic.  The O-200 can be serviced by any A&P in any tiny town airport.  And, since I figure that I probably only have around 15 more years of flying in me, I’ll probably sell the plane before it reaches TBO and needs a rebuild.

The base model is amazing to me.  Even though I prefer analog gauges, it comes with a nice glass panel.  All the bells and whistles you’d ever need, and more than covers the basic required functions.  Even comes with an auto-pilot, though I don’t see using it unless I take the wife on a long trip.  I like to fly the plane, not be flown by the plane.  As an added bonus, it’s a joystick instead of a control yoke.  There are many other features that I like about it, but I won’t bore Y’all with the details.  Just say that this looks like the plane I’ve been wanting for a long time.

We inherited some property all the way across the country about eight years ago, and finally got around to selling it last month.  When we were talking about selling it, my wife asked if I wanted to use some of the money to buy a plane.  I declined, as I didn’t see any plane that I’d want to spend the money on.  See above.  But now, I see a plane that I want.  And we can buy it brand new, not used and abused.  Yes, it’d be a huge chunk of change.  But airplanes actually hold their value very well, and when we eventually sell it I should be able to recover most of the purchase price, the way airplane prices are going.  In the long run, it’d be a net wash.  So I told the wife that when I lose X pounds of weight, we would put money down on a plane.  I was figuring about a year out.  That’d give me time to start selling off most of my hobby stuff, and maybe the fun car.  Don’t worry, I’ll still hold on to plenty of Cox engines.

So, where does the guilt come in?  My wife has had several surgeries lately.  A couple by choice, and a knee surgery for preventive reasons.  She’s telling me she wants another elective surgery this spring.  But, seeing as she’s been laid up at home a lot and not able to get out on her own, she’s not done any Christmas shopping.  Me being the good husband that I am, I’ve slowly been picking up things over the year and squirreling them away.  I’ve wrapped them up and put them under the tree one at a time over the last couple of weeks, and last night I did a present dump and filled the space under the tree with presents for her.  Whenever she’s asked me what I want for Christmas the last few weeks I’ve always told her, “I just want to wake up Christmas morning next to you.”  Which is actually true, corny as that sounds.

So this morning she comes out to the living room and sees all the presents for her.  I came out a few minutes later, and she tells me that she didn’t get me anything other than a couple of little things we bought together and she feels guilty.  I repeated that all I want is to wake up next to her tomorrow.  That still didn’t make her happy.  So, she says, “After the taxes get done, we can buy you your airplane.”

                   


I hadn’t even thought of guilting her into an airplane.  But who am I to say “No” to something that’ll make her happy.  Happy Wife, Happy Life, as the saying goes.

So we’ll see. I may have a new plane in about a year.  And at 60, this is the time to do it before I get too old.


The Aviator Mark