Cessna T207A thoughts? (also other Cessna 2xx types)

Well if you are serious on this kind of airplane you should consider what Good Ol Bill (@WilliamF) is saying.

In order to help I have run a Vref (a US market aircraft value reference) on the aircraft putting zero value on the recent maintenance which is worth easily over EUR75k if done at one of the good EU shops, and the result is $217k or about eur190k.

The market tends not to value such maintenance but if your due diligence shows it is effectively as reported, then the alternative, which @spirit49 clearly laid out (buy cheaper pay the extra maintenance later) is going to cost you more cash plus a lot of effort (just read the stories on maintenance management on this forum), and that is if you do find the right aircraft. If you are the kind of guy who is into putting so much effort on fixing your airplane then fine, otherwise, you will rarely find such a thing as this airplane looks and if you do, you will have to pay a premium unless the seller is very much in need and there are no other buyers.

That premium will probably still be way less than what the previous owner spent on maintenance (and you wont pay the hassle, or enjoy the fun of, managing all that maintenance!).

As an additional value that you cannot see on Vref, the fresh engine OH was done only three years ago which may not be a premium in the US, but is very valuable in EU, especially if you put it to commercial use, which restricts calendar TBO. You find a lot of airplanes in EU with low TSO but decades old which cannot be put to commercial use, so this is another good value.

Another plus that is refelected in thet Vref value is that mnost airvcraft of the type have a much higher average utilization of around 8000FH (this one is reporting less than 3000, to be verified with logbook continuity)

Having said that, unless buyers are in competition for a particular aircraft, the market has tended to discount heavily in the past few years and dealers usually price aircraft accordingly. I should thus think that if you are ready to pay a sizeable deposit then you should be able to agree a slightly lower price than listed.

The engine is very similar to the one on the P210 so all of the previous comments on the P210 engine as well as the T207 engine would apply, both the good and bad ones…However, as the previous quote from RichardCollins sais, the issue in the P210 is that you are more likely to put it under the stress of high altitude flying in the P-aircraft than on the T207, even if both are capable of such high altitude. Doing it without O2 is so much effort-less.
I may add that the engine can still be damaged if mishandled, this is no 172 or even a NA 206, but the aircraft seems to have the instruments to allow good care, it just needs a willing owner/pilot.
I particularly like also the fact that all of the engine steam gauges have been kept after installing the JPI engine monitor. This provides useful redundancy (I mistrust electrons )

On the minus side I would say:

-If you are looking at high-alt & long-range missions then the P210 will be a better airplane with little extra cost (*i’ll try to post more on that when I have a chance)
-This is still an almost 40YO aircraft with all attendant issues, even if hugely mitigated by the previous owner maintenance. If you don’t want that then get yourself a newer 206 and be ready to lose 150-200lbs useful load and pay a big premium in the process.
-The O2 indicates empty which is bad for an onboard system, as this does not ensure the system is not contaminated. The only way to ensure it is to perform a fresh bottle OH and refill , or to keep it always pressurized, even if only 3 bar/50psi.
-The 8th seat should be of high-value: you need to find if the owner still keeps it or perhaps this option was never approved or installed on this particular serial number?
-I would ensure the engine monitor comes with the FF option, essential for accurate/quick leaning and knowledge of your FOB.
-You need to have some engine management mindset
-The ARC is just expired, you would want a fresh one with the airplane
-FR24 shows no flights in the past 12 mos: has the engine been preserved in the meanwhile?
-It needs rubber boots on the tail feathers: those pristine leading edges will get damaged soon.
-It has no deice: this limits IFR use. As a minimum I would want propeller anti-ice.
-Bring your GOLZE along if you are serious about flying IFR in this bird: it seems to carry no onboard wx

@MrSeller: you owe me a coffee the next time we get together
@Snoopy: you don’t owe me one even if you end up buying, but please pay me a visit in Mallorca and I’ll buy you one and we’ll go for a flight

Snoopy wrote:

In terms of costs of ownership what are the „bullet points“ that make such a 207 more expensive than a 182 or 206? I get the turbocharged engine rarely makes TBO but that’s not type specific. The longer fuselage and exta seats wouldn’t weigh in on costs would they?

-Rarity and the attendant scarcity of type-specific parts.On the plus a big part of the items should be common with the ubiquitous 206
-If used commercially, you are more likely to load it on the heavy side than a 206 and of course a 182, with attendant higher maintenance and fuel consumption
-It is definitely more expensive than a 182 because of the engine (OH and fuel costs) (I am only comparing Continental engines, Lycomings are different)

Why would someone invest this kind of effort and money into a plane and then sell?
Easy, because he wants to make a profit.

Why not have a look at the airplane itself, have a testflight and talk to the owner?

Also I would check where all the maintenance, refurbishment and fresh paintjob has been done.
Especially the latter is interesting. Did they dismantle the entire aircraft and did it properly or did someone just throw a bucket of paint at the airplane?

It is easy to find out if someone just did a cheap job or if everything has been done diligently.

It is easy to find out if someone just did a cheap job or if everything has been done diligently.

Maintenance actions done just before a sale need a lot of additional due diligence This is because most people sell planes for the same reasons they sell cars, houses, etc.

With paint, this is easy, if you know what to look for. With avionics it is much harder; nearly all people one might get to do a prebuy know nothing about avionics. With engine work it is impossible; you have only the engine shop’s reputation to go on, and there are almost no shops in Europe whose reputation is other than “variable”.

One of the first things I checked was if any historic flights show up on fr24 – as pointed out above → nada!

You need to have a paid up FR24 sub to see more than past 7 days. But FR24 shows only Mode S and… you know the rest

But a google on the reg normally reveals a great deal about whether (and where) it flies and, equally importantly, if it doesn’t fly.

Or, in rare cases, if it does fly then it does so only on quick locals, out of the hangar and straight back in. There was an amazing low hour TB20GT discussed here recently which spent most of its 15 year life doing that.

Snoopy wrote:

What do you mean by rubber boots?

First item on this page on a 206 restoration project

Snoopy wrote:

One of the first things I checked was if any historic flights show up on fr24 – as pointed out above → nada!

Well, it certainly does fly. Several short(ish) cross-countries in the past few months. Check flightaware.com

I’ve not bought off him but send him a whatsapp. I’ve normally been able to get him pretty quickly on whatsapp when I wanted to get a hold of him.