"Lou" wrote in message news:
I've allways loved to hear that line. It makes me think of all the
people who buy a house and end up
in bankruptcy. I suppose these are the same people who didn't ask
either. Unless you have milions comming
out your ass, what kind of person wouldn't find out ahead of time what
the entire cost of somthing is ahead of
time? After all, who is dumb enough believe that they are just going
to make the payments without getting the maitenance cost? Oh thats
right, the person who didn't ask. It seems to me, if you have to ask,
your smart enough
to own it, not dumb enough to buy it and not be able to take care of
it. Plane or otherwise.

Lou's right. Owners may not be able to predict every dime they will spend
but they need to do at least a general assessment of the financial
requirements. Every book on ownership [rightly] says to do this. I remember
seriously thinking about getting a Lake Amphibian as my first airplane
because of visions of landing on the lake at my folks' house. I didn't have
to crunch too many numbers to get that idea outa my head.

Now I use my spreadsheet to plan for a possible upgrade in airframes. With
requirement of six seats, I know the approximate costs in buying and
maintaining a Saratoga or an 36-series Bonanza. I don't know when I'll be
able to jump into it, but at least I can be sure I won't jump into it too
early.

Marco