National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

As much as I enjoy my L-3C, I've come to the realization that its not the best training aircraft for the type of students seeking sport pilot ratings (older w/ slower reflexes) so it will be going on the market soon. Since purchasing mine, I've done the research (with help from members here) and now have a history of my L-3 all the way back to Middletown. I also have logbooks back to 1947. Remarkably, the total time on airframe is pretty low at less than 2000 hrs. Does the history substantially increase the value or not at all?

Now for paint. I got in contact with the man that restored my L-3 in 1980. He wanted it to be easier to see so had the wings and tail painted yellow. In your opinions, will this hurt the value or have no effect? I'm considering refinishing the wings and tail to put it back to the proper scheme. Worth it for resale?

Thanks

Shannon,

A lot to digest here.

Personally I would think that if its an authentic warbird that bringing it back into period colors and so on would benefit the sale.

Second question is, will you do the work or farm it out? If you can do it, or assist then that helps. Simply taking it to someone and say "paint it" is not going to be cheap and changes what you would have to sell the plane for in the end.

Joe A

Thanks for the input, Joe. Fortuantely, I have an A&P that wants a tailwheel endorsement so that helps keep the costs down.

Shannon, that helps a lot and if you pitch in that makes things very affordable.

Good luck with it and hope you find a better Aeronca in your future. I found myself wishing that I had gotten a Sedan years ago.

Very difficult to say if paint would make a difference. If it were a P-51 warbird, or say a corsair, I would think paint would be big. In this case, if its clean and painted standard colors I would think painting it would be a needless expense. I would be much more interested in the history, compression, spars, and if it had always been hangared since rebuild.

I'm leaning towards doing a little painting to at least get it close to accurate. The yellow wings and tail defintely do the job of standing out, but to my knowledge, L-3s never had the military yellow wings or tail. I don't plan on going all out, but matching the wings and tail to the green that's on the fuselage and adding its military ID numbers on the tail.

Ah, if banks were actually lending money, I'd snap it up, whatever the paint. I am hoping to find another to match my current project L3 in the future.