marine air wrote:
There are a bunch more out there, they are just registered as C-172's. I looked at buying one but they all had over 10,000 flight hours on them. A little more flight time than my comfort level.
9,000 to 12,000 is typical for most surplus L-19s. I restored three with those kind of times and they were fine as long as you go thru them and replace any worn components. You do need to check for small stress cracks in the upper wing skins near rivets. The best part of buying one is the full chromate corrosion proofing, the biggest problem on old air frames is not high time, it is corrosion.
The advantage of buying a high time aircraft from a Flying Club is that most have had very good maintenance.
The problem in obtaining either a T-41A or B is most are still owned by the Government and when released by the Club they cannot be sold and are sent to Davis Mothan. Aircraft that went to States and other agencies have made their way in to private hands and can be bought.
Another issue is that the majority of the Army T-41B aircraft had their 210 HP engines removed and replaced with 180 HP Lycomings when they went to the CAP. It is rare to find an original T-41B with the IO-360 210 HP engine.
A lot of pilots that saw service in Vietnam learned how to fly in A and B model T-41s.