Bargain Buys on AircraftForSale: 1968 Piper PA-28 Cherokee

Among aircraft classified ads, it’s easy to see the features that stand out the most and are most strongly touted by sellers. New paint, cutting-edge panels, and custom interiors garner much attention, for example. But lurking quietly deeper into the listings, other attributes are less flashy but perhaps more important. 

Today’s Cherokee is a perfect example. While the paint, interior, and panel are slightly dated and don’t stand out as particularly notable, it has no known damage history, includes digitized logs, and has had a number of significant maintenance items addressed in the past year. All new circuit breakers and electrical busses, rebuilt brakes with new pads, new fuel components, and new throttle/mixture cables are all the sorts of things that add up to create expensive annual inspections, but all have been completed in this airplane.

Perhaps best of all, this Cherokee flies twice a week—just the thing to keep the engine in good operating condition. The airframe has 5,904 hours since new, and the engine has flown 1,350 hours since its last major overhaul. 

While the panel retains many of the traditional analog instruments from years past, they are arranged in a clean, orderly fashion. A tablet mount on the yoke makes it easy to monitor charts, and ADS-B in and out makes it similarly easy to monitor other traffic while keeping Class Bravo and Charlie airports accessible. 

Like all older Cherokees, the flaps are actuated with a large, floor-mounted lever. This is preferred by many pilots, as it enables careful, gradual flap operation without having to worry about replacing burned-out electric flap motors. The interior is similarly utilitarian, in neutral colors that complement the exterior paint. One benefit of such a popular airframe is the ease with which owners can source inexpensive replacement parts and trim to freshen up some of the more worn pieces.

Overall, this Cherokee looks to have been kept in good, working condition with most - or perhaps all - of the bugs worked out for the next owner, setting them up for a great basic airplane for many years to come.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance and quickly calculate your monthly payment using the airplane finance calculator. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.