Thanks for the info Elwood.
I get excited thinking about ownership, but like buying a car, it's best not
to get emotional.
Your post helped me get a decent perspective on the ups and downs of
ownership.

thanks!

Adam

"Elwood Dowd" wrote in message
...
There is a big difference between owning and renting. Let me explain.

When you own a plane, you know exactly where it has been, who has been
flying it and working on it, when the oil was changed last, what that
funny smell is. You know no one other than you (or your partners if you
have them) has landed the plane hard and tried to hide it, or buzzed an
irate neighbor, etc. Peace of mind. If you rent long enough you will
see some crazy crap that people pull.

To pay for this peace of mind, you have to come up cash for all of the
regular bills: fuel and oil, maintenance, hangar, insurance. This list
can be as fancy or tame as you want, but for a trainer it breaks down
pretty easily. I'll mock one up so you can see:

insurance: $800/yr
tie-down: $480/yr (40/mo)
loan pmts: $3600/yr (300/mo)
annual: $1000/yr
flying: $2000/yr (2.50/gal, 8gph, 100hrs)
misc: $1000/yr (oil, light bulbs, unplanned)
--------
$8880/yr = $740/mo

Sure you can make it cheaper. Do a lot of your own maintenance, get a
plane with an auto gas STC, all kinds of things. Get a homebuilt, you
might cut that value in half, many owners have.

Now, to answer your question about a break-even point, if you are paying
$75/hr to rent that trainer then that 100 hrs costs you $7500, no
variation. You might find a cheaper rental, but other than that you
have no options in making it cheaper.

Now, here we get to the real difference. "Breaking even" happens
somewhere around 125 hours in this model, but doing this kind of math is
entirely misleading. There are many, many variables in ownership that
simply don't exist when renting. More to the point, there are
responsibilities that don't exist for renters. When it breaks YOU pay
for it. Sometimes it breaks in a very big way.

Our plane broke in a very big way just after we bought it. Nosegear
collapsed on the 8th landing we made. Got the engine apart---yep, it
needs a complete overhaul, because prepurchase inspections do not have
x-ray vision. Even after the insurance settlement we paid over 1/3
again for the plane, not counting the $2500 to get my family home from
the middle of nowhere on a commercial airline.

This is not to scare you. We rebuilt our plane and it ROCKS. I could
never go back to renting even if I had one next door. However, you have
to know what responsibilities you are taking on, and how you are going
to answer them if they call. We are lucky, we have some home equity we
could spend on the plane. If I hadn't had that, what kind of repairs
would I have been able to afford? Would I have put my family back into
it with cheaper repairs?

In this way it is no different from an RV or a nice boat---the costs are
similar. But your family is not necessarily in danger if you go cheap
on fixing your RV.

Anyway, I hope this gives you some things to think about. Use your
imagination and try to think of bad things that could happen, and how
much they could cost, and how you will afford them if they do. Think of
this as a graduation in responsibility and you will be better prepared
to accept the benefits.

hope this helps

Elwood


The Weiss Family wrote:
I would love to know your real-world costs of ownership for your fixed
gear