The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has released a new guide designed to assist potential aircraft buyers with choosing the right model to purchase. The online Aircraft Guide provides information such as a model overview, specifications, performance, limiting and recommended airspeeds and price point. AOPA says it plans to publish regular updates to include new aircraft.
“This aircraft guide is the fruition of a lot of work here at AOPA and is more extensive than anything like it in the industry,” said Kollin Stagnito, AOPA vice president of publications. “We will continue to add information, making it the biggest directory of used and new aircraft on the internet. This will be a tremendous resource for anyone at any point in the buying spectrum.”
The guide currently lists nearly 90 models, covering single- and twin-engine pistons, turbines and rotorcraft. Entries are searchable and link to AOPA’s loan calculator, aircraft valuation tool and relevant articles. AOPA’s free aircraft guide can be found at https://aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/aircraft-guide.
So, each entry has highly incomplete information about performance and other things, and you can only filter by manufacturer and by “category” (not number of seats, not useful load, not cruise speed, not takeoff performance, nothing else).
Frankly, this is a pretty useless tool.
This “currently-manufactured aircraft only” website features photos of 1974 Piper Archers and Arrows. Timely.
If you need AOPA for their loan calculator and vendor lists, perhaps flying is not your best choice of hobbies to pursue.