American says he didn’t realize just how much he was spending getting his vintage airplane flying again and it caught him off guard

This man from Tennessee repairing a vintage airplane, a Cessna 140 to be precise, said he ended up spending a whole lot more than he thought he would.

Aircraft parts don’t come cheap, and this guy realized that the hard way.

But he ended up fixing his plane and restored it to flying condition from a ‘dead’ state.

He also learned a lot along the way and said he would likely save some money if he ever had to do it again.

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Man wished he hadn’t done the math while restoring vintage airplane

Collin McDonald from The Flying Mechanic YouTube channel bought himself a 1947 Cessna 140 vintage airplane back in 2014.

Since the aircraft was quite old, it was riddled with issues.

In a video he posted last year, the YouTuber added up exactly how much he had invested in the project to get the Cessna flying again.

While another YouTuber recently claimed that owning a private aircraft was surprisingly cheap, he also agreed that getting parts was one of the biggest expenses.

Now, Collin is a pilot, a certified aircraft mechanic, an aviation professor, and, most importantly, a hardcore enthusiast.

So, he obviously knew what he was getting himself into — but his purchases were spread across a few years so he didn’t realize how much he had spent until it was finished.

The 1947 Cessna 140 in question had problems with its ignition and fuel systems, so it needed more than a few repairs too.

‘Restoring’ the Cessna 140

Even though it’s one of the best lowest-cost private jets you can buy, it still costs a pretty penny.

Fortunately for the YouTuber, the exterior — including the wings and the airframe — didn’t need much work.

He spent around $5,000 over the course of many years on parts like the magnetos, carburetor, fuel selector, and other hardware fittings.

Unlike modern plane parts, this vintage airplane had readily available parts at relatively cheap prices.

He also didn’t run into any major troubles like these guys did while restoring a 1956 Cessna 310.

However, Collin was aware of the fact that he didn’t particularly ‘restore’ the plane.

“I didn’t restore the aircraft – I just got it back flying again; I made it airworthy,” he said.

Whatever it was, the aircraft hadn’t flown in 10 years, and now it was flying again.

Most aviation enthusiasts would consider that a remarkable feat.