Louis L. Perley III wrote:

This is exactly why I bought a C152 early in my training. I was doing
some calculations and wondered where all the cost of renting came from. Once
I calculated that I found that I could buy a decent bird for around ~25,000
and after that, as you say about the only hourly cost is fuel and oil.
Insurance and Annuals are once a year events that you just suck up and pay.
Simple airplane = simple maintenance and low-cost insurance so that too
keeps costs low. Since a C152 isn't really overpowered for the altitudes I
fly (BJC is 5500 ft) it would also force me to learn how to manage my power
and such much more carefully than if I flew a plane that I could just power
my way out of a problem (although I must admit when I fly the new 172SP I
love the way they seem to leap off the runway compared to what I fly, yes,
it's true what they say, you always want something bigger, faster, etc.) The
plan was to take my checkride in this particular airplane, but I also
quickly learned the hard part of being an owner when my engine started
making metal large enough to punch holes in the paper oil filter. I was
grounded two weeks before my checkride, which was taken in a rental. It took
me awhile due to outside activities to come up with money for a new engine,
but now that I've put her back together, it's like you said. I look outside,
weather is acceptable (and I've done everything on the honeydo list), I'll
go fly. Even with gas prices pretty high, it only cost me $20/hr. to fly,
excluding fixed costs. Those fixed costs I don't ever really figure into my
equation, because they come due regardless of how much I fly and compared to
club dues if I were renting, that pretty much covers insurance, and much the
same those dues would be paid monthly regardless of the amount I rented.
Annuals are a non-event costing $500 or so if I take the time to open up the
plane myself.
Jay Honeck is correct, we need to be better at spreading the word at how
low-cost flying can be. Sure I won't ever do significant business travel
with a C152, then again you can't spin a King Air. Aviation has it's trade
offs. If you can afford a new car (and really even if you can't), you can
get an airplane and really go somewhere. Since I now have two children, I
will eventually need a larger plane, but I don't think I could ever sell
N46000, it's just too much fun! I've now put in some additional avionics and
such, just here and there when money was available, so now I have an
airplane that is IFR capable, once I have the instrument checkride
completed, I'll have a low-cost way to maintain my currency.

--
Louis L. Perley III
N46000