Is it possible to do backcountry flying on a budget?
Watch this video and find out, coming right up
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Okay let's have a look
Okay so here we've got an Avid Flyer. Okay 250,000 so that's at the very top
limit of our price range. Looks like, yeah, it's got a Rotax 582 in
same engine that our Bushbaby's got in. It's quite a nice looking plane actually
I think it will make quite a nice bush plane
Oh wow that's a nice photo. Yeah so there you got it there's the
first option for a bush plane at the very top of that price range that we set
Okay let's see what else we can find
Okay let's uh look at the next page. It looks like there's a Sky Jeep, it's
probably going to be out of our price range
Oh wow no it's actually 220,000. Oh it's got a
912 in it that's actually um i wonder how many hours it's got on it
you don't usually get a plane with a 912 in it for
for quite this price
Okay according to that the engine's got 345 hours on it which is still
a while away from the I think thousand five hundred or thousand eight hundred
TBO. So obviously the big draw here is that
nine twelve that's included and it's obviously it's not a tail
dragger but it doesn't have to be, and don't let anybody tell you that
you need to have a tail dragger to do backcountry flying it's not the case
And have a look at the STOL NZ youtube channel and see what they do with these
Sky Jeeps. It's obviously highly modified the the planes they've got in there but
it's it's the same design so definitely it will
make a very nice bush plane. Okay let's see what
else we can find. So here we've got a ?Cubby tail
dragger. It's probably got a VW engine in it. Yeah
it's got a VW engine. A lot of people don't like these
VW engines, as far as i know there's not anything wrong with them only thing
that, and this is only my perception, is that
you need to be a little bit more hands-on with these engines it's
probably good if you basically maintain it yourself and can
keep an eye on it like that. But i don't think there's anything wrong
with it, and it goes for 220,000 which is not bad. But it's a very nice
looking aircraft and I'm pretty sure it's going to make a very
nice bush plane. Okay let's see what else we can find
Here we've got a Bantam B22. Yeah so this here we move into the
conventional controlled microlights class of planes. This one's R120,000
which is not bad. Obviously it's got the Jabiru engine in
it, also an engine that a lot of people don't like
I don't have any issue with them, I've i trained on Jabirus
so i'm quite comfortable with these engines
And well this is going to make a pretty good bush plane
Lets see what else we can find
Here you've got another Bantam B22, this one's for R90,000. Wow this is
actually a very good deal um it's it looks like it's got a
bit more hours on it on the air frame than the previous one we looked at but
man this price is really good. I mean the the amount of backcountry
flying you can do this thing for for such a low price
This will be make one very nice plane. So I can't vouch for any of these aircraft
as i don't know their condition or history
any more than you do. I'm purely going on the information provided in the ad
Aside from that what can you expect when you buy an affordable bush plane
like some of the ones mentioned in this video? Well for one
it's not going to be a Freedom Fox or Draco and you probably
won't be able to land on a 50 meter clearing on a mountaintop
But that doesn't mean mountain top landings are off the table
not at all. But since it will probably be a lower powered aircraft like our
rotax 582 65 horsepower Bushbaby you won't be able to rely on a monster
engine to get you out of trouble. You also need to make sure that you
don't get yourself in a situation where the downdraft on the downwind side
of a mountain exceeds your max climb rate
Also high density altitude will rob you of what little power the engine has. But
it's not all doom and gloom. If you're careful about the conditions
you choose to fly in one of these aircraft will get you
solidly into bush flying. If you would like to know more about the
total cost of ownership of one of these affordable bush planes
leave a comment below and if there's interest i'll make a video covering
what it will cost you to own and maintain one of these aircraft
So what is the verdict on affordable backcountry flying?
Yes it's totally possible! We all want a monster bush plane
and if you can afford one, that's great! But if you can't
don't miss out on adventures because you think you need a Carbon Cub to do
bush flying. That is it from me. I hope you are considering getting into bush
flying if you're not already in it. Thanks for watching, please
hit like if you did and subscribe to help me grow this
channel and get more people into general aviation. See you in the next one.