Man buys wrecked airplane from salvage yard in Arizona but faces challenges getting it home on 9-hour road trip
- This YouTuber traveled to Arizona to buy an old aircraft
- The plane had been damaged in an accident
- Transporting it back home turned out to be the most difficult part
Published on Mar 15, 2025 at 3:58 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Mar 10, 2025 at 8:35 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
This guy traveled to Arizona to buy a Rans S7, a single-engine plane, to restore and possibly flip it.
The plane has only 77 hours of flight time but requires repairs.
And there’s something else as well.
But, ironically, it has to do with an external factor, not the plane itself.
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The story behind this plane
Jonas Marcinko, a YouTuber who specializes in aircraft, bought a Rans S7, a single-engine plane, from a salvage yard.
It was first introduced in 1985 and production continued through the 1990s, 2000s and even 2010s.
The model you see here, for example, was built in 2011.
The name might not ring a bell but this is a solid aircraft.
Although, maybe not this one in particular.
This S7 was damaged in a ground loop incident, and it needs fixing badly.
The landing gear is in particularly poor shape, but that’s not the worst part.
The worst part is that the aircraft was disassembled at some point, which meant loading it on to a truck and transporting back home was going to be a nightmare.
Especially when we remember this YouTuber is going to face a 9-hour road trip to get back home from Arizona.
The first video about this plane was uploaded to YouTube just a few days ago, and Marcinko said he’ll document the whole restoration process, so we’ll probably find out a bit more in the near future.
When buying old planes goes wrong
Buying old aircraft can easily and quickly turn into a nightmare.
There are a lot of YouTubers who do this for fun, and also for a living, and they all share similar horror stories.
Jimmy Webb from the Jimmys World channel is probably the most famous example.
He’s the guy that famously bought Elvis Presley’s jet at auction for less than $250,000.
Right after buying it, he managed to fire it up, but he quickly realized fixing it would’ve cost about $5 million, and that was the good news.
The bad news is the plane was never going to be able to fly again for legal reasons.
This is why he decided to turn it into an RV.
That’s one way of making sure the plane stays safe. Who’s up for a trip?
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