On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 12:56:23 GMT, Mike Spera
wrote:



The worst thing you can do as a owner is to let the maintenance cost
eat up all your gas money, and you ended up keeping a hangar queen for
the next owner, one with a rusty engine no less. There's nothing
sadder than that.

A far worse injustice is leveled on many airplanes. Namely, the owner
cannot really afford the plane so they choose to buy gas to fly around
and then skimp on the maintenance. He/she then demands a ridiculous
selling price for their run out dog when the HAVE to sell.

In either case, if you have to ask, you likely cannot afford it. Those
using spreadsheets and trying to calculate this down to the dime may
want to consider that airplanes don't require cash according to a
schedule. If you don't have $5k - $10k laying around at all times (and
not in the form of a loan), you are going to have a tough time making
ownership work out.


Most airplanes will develop an average or ball park figure for a
particular make and model for the cost per hour against the number of
hours flown per year. OTOH there is no guarantee that any single
airplane of the same make and model flown the same hours per year will
come any where near that figure. I could easily go out and even with
a good pre buy inspection end up with one that cost double the average
figure, or I *MIGHT* get one that is considerably cheaper and I have
to emphasize the odds against that.

Airplane ownership is NOT like a car or boat. You are not an owner, but
a temporary steward of an increasingly rare object. I consider it my

I think the same way about my cars, cameras, radios, and other objects
I own.

responsibility to keep an airplane in good shape (repairs, upgrades,
etc.). Many people (especially in my home America) have a hard time with

Upgrades are something else. If you own an old airplane it may be
worth more in the original condition than upgraded.

Even though the Deb has been heavily modified I've had two museums
want the thing. They are willing to give me one whale of a deduction,
but I don't need deductions, I need cash. Besides it's the only
airplane I've owned outright and I've kinda developed an attachment to
it and really don't want to part with it. For me to sell it some one
would have to want it a lot worse than I do and I seriously doubt
that's going to happen, so yes, I did purchase my lottery ticket for
tomorrow night.


this concept. They are accustomed to buying things and then throwing
them away when they become old or inconvenient.

Good luck,
Mike
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com