what do you think of this 337 for sale?
 

https://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/...225705822.html

the ad is pretty scant, but what I do know is: fresh annual last month, Total aircraft time is 3016. Front engine 1186.5 and rear 1139.3 (boo). It appears to be a reims aircraft, the faa thinks it's something like a 1985 but it's a 72. Maybe 85 is the import date? Here it was, 10 years ago http://www.steveweaver.com/n337n.htm

Looks like the props were done with the engines. I gather it's been kept out on the ramp since moving to hawaii, which is what I'll have to do.

Nothing has been changed avionics wise, it's been flying so it must have some sort of adsb solution.

I wish I had more to chose from, but it's here and it's for sale, that's about the best one can ask for out here. There are what appear to be superior airplanes with lower time engines on the mainland, by the logistics of getting one here are rough, and expensive

I can't imagine you'd even keep looking! I bet Hawaii 337s come up for sale only once every 2-3 years. There are only 4 registered to Hawaii addresses.

yeah, that's the downside of wanting a plane here. A nice baron just went for like 70k. The real downside is two engines within 400hrs of TBO and the cost of a field OH here.

edit: I guess the point is, do I pursue this one or wait for something else to come along, not necessarily another 337.

I bet $45k cash would buy it right now. In the mainland, that's a $35k airplane with those engine times.

that's kind of my thought as well. he had it on the market over the summer, took it off, and put it back on. I need to talk with the A&P (yeah, THE) and find out if it's decent. Someone told me the a&p told him that one of the 337's on island should be sold for scrap. Unsure if it's this one or another. I had a junker single here I just sold. I want two engines for around here for sure.

This could be a great buy if you plan to operate under part 91. No requirement to do engines at TBO under 91. I've seen these engines go over 2000 hrs, but I wouldn't count on it. Send some oil off for analysis, remove the oil filters and cut them open to check for metal. Both of these things will cost you under $100, and that includes buying new filters. Have a compression test done on warm engines, preferably with you present. :cool: Note the trends in logbooks over the last few annuals. Have cylinders been replaced, or are these the originals? What major repairs have been done in the last 10 years? How many hours per year has the plane flown over the past few years?

The only continental 360 I've had was a turbo and there's no way it'd go 2k hours. I'm not sure about the na other than jewel wants a lot more to overhaul the 6 than a lyco 360. Thems the breaks I guess.

Unsure, I haven't seen the logs yet. It's been flying coast guard auxiliary and I think has flown regularly, just based on sale history it appears 1k hours over 13 years, which isn't great. The logs should be illuminating.

Ah...if you're not stuck on a 337, I might pass. What's your mission?

Island hopping with 2 of us and a dog or two. There's a pretty nice aztec up for sale but he wants 85k and I think insurance will be even worse on an aztec. I had a grumman cheetah shared with a guy but I'm pretty certain an over water engine failure would prove fatal in that... And my partner wanted to dump 50k into a 20k airplane.

The 337 fits your mission profile to a "T". The question is, does this 337 fit your wallet, and your expectations?

The easy entry of the clamshell door runs circles around loading women, children, and animals up over the wing! My elderly mother was badly injured when she mis-stepped coming onto the wing to board on my Bonanza! This would NEVER happen on a 337! The cabin of the 337 is the roomiest, with the best visibility, of any light twin.

Cessna actually got quite a bit right with the 337.

The new electric airplane company (I forget the name) is putting 337's into airline service between the islands - if that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is!

Performance and payload are fine. I can't go more than 200nm anywhere anyway unless I want to island hop to nz, which a 337 doesn't have the legs for

Maintenance is a whole other thing here. Getting parts here and the cost to get them here is unreal. Need a windscreen? Sure, $700 for the part and 1k to ship it

Oh and I haven't regularly flown a multi since about 2000. I flew a 310 once this summer. Lol

The Skymaster is like flying a single with two engines. If you can get over the awe factor of having six levers in your hands, you'll soon realize it responds like a big single engine. The pitch is heavy, and the aircraft is very stable. Lose an engine, lose some airspeed. Feather the inop engine, and continue your flight. In a Skymaster, an engine-out is not an "emergency", its an inconvenience.

The panel is state of the art - for 1985. It does have a modern Garmin transponder, but that's about it for anything on the plane made after 1990. :p

Yep. And those collins radios are junk, imo.
The bright side is I just don't fly ifr, so thank God it's got deice boots. In hawaii.

Hey at least the owner paid good money for all those aircraft canopy and prop covers! That's over a $1000 worth of merch right there!

The pics from 2007 show a Magellan 5000 GPS at the top of the stack. Its obviously been removed (no great loss), but that means you should have plenty of room to add a panel mount GPS down the road, if needed. Or lose the Collins nav coms and drop in a GTN750.

EDIT: I just noticed no autopilot installed. That will help your useful load, but hurts resale value. I'd be leary of putting too much $$$ in the panel, when the engines are high-time, and there's not an autopilot. The pool of potential buyers starts to become limited. If you plan to stay VFR, I'd probably fly it exactly as-is, and use a good portable ADS-B In solution along with a quality tablet EFB like Foreflight, Wing-X, Pilot, or Avare (for the cheapos amongst us - its 100% free).

I flew a Cessna 150J all over the continental US with a flybuddy GPS (bearing, distance & groundspeed only) and an KX170B. I shot ILS and VOR approaches with ease. I filed IFR most of the time just for the experience, and this was with no moving map (except the paper one in my lap thats trying to blow out the window - LOL). So you should be golden with a good tablet based GPS.

I wondered about the magellan, in the closeup pics, below the stack, there is a gps/nav toggle switch. Guess that's a remnant for that.

For the flying I do here I can get by with an ipad just fine. And at the 4k a year they want for insurance I can't afford a gtn ��

I noticed the covers were nice too. Good thing because hangars are $800 a month here. It'll have to live outside.

One last item, I would leave the boots on it, filed under "You never know". Do maintain them, or they will rot like an old tire. There are some very expensive products out there ($100/bottle:eek:) for maintaining boots, but once a multimillionaire whose has owned over 80 planes showed me how he treats his boots with a $5 bottle of floor polish (after cleaning them first of course).

it's entirely conceivable you can find ice here. 14-16k or so.
still not sure how I feel about the airplane, it strikes me as a potential money pit, even worse than most planes.

You just need to fly the airplane. Fly it to a destination you're used to, so you can focus on the airplane, and not the surroundings. Make the flight at least an hour, more if possible. Offer to pay for the gas. Pay close attention to the sellers response - does he immediately offer to set a time to go flying, or does he seem unwilling to commit to a flight with you, for reasons. This is the first filter a potential aircraft purchase should be put through. If the owner agrees to fly with you, there's a much better chance that the airplane is NOT going to be a money pit, and you can experience the flight characteristics yourself. Use every system on the airplane, make note of any squawks, do some airwork, make a few landings. At the end of the day, you'll have a much better idea if this is the plane for you or not!

PS - Thoroughly check for oil leaks after the flight. Most sellers will have the plane cleaned of any oil before a buyer comes to look at it.