"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
The cost of money, or of having it tied up, and the cost of storage seem
to
be the two biggest problems for the owners personally known to me.
OTOH,
fuel seems to be more of a verbalized annoyance--which converts readily
to a
hamberger (or omelet, depending on the time of day) flight to an airport
with less expensive fuel.

You will notice one thing about successful aircraft owners. (By
"successful" I mean that they actually FLY their planes often.)

They do not consider the cost of ownership in their equations at all.
They have factored the expense of purchasing, storing, and maintaining
their aircraft into their budgets, after which they regard it as a
zero-cost affair, only considering fuel as the cost of flying.

It's a form of mental illness, really, but it works.

:-)

The LEAST successful owners I know are the ones who run spreadsheets
on the "cost of money" and fixed expenses, because they are the ones
who constantly fret over the fact that they could have bought a nice
vacation home at the lake, rather than an airplane.

Which is the reason you'll hear so many of us bitching about the
increased cost of fuel so loudly. It's the only expense we really
"see" anymore.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Taking the items in reverse order:

I don't personnally know any of the owners who fret over the other toys they
could have bought instead of an aircraft, so I won't attempt to address that
issue. However, the spreadsheet issue is an interesting one--especially
with regard to new aircraft and, to a slightly lesser extent, late model
used aircraft. It is outside my areas of expertise, but was a large part of
the reason for my vociferous critisism of Mr. Bass at Piper. However, an
initial spreadsheet analysis is a traditional way to make a decision to own
or rent--despite the obvious problems.

Getting back to the questions of fixed vs variable costs, there a lot of
people who use their airplanes for business, or to facilitate business, and
who choose to do so from after tax income--usually because itis less than
half of their flying. That obviously does not pass a management class
analysis; but it often works better than concepts that do. The important
point is that, for them, the fixed costs were fully justified and amortized
by the business use--and only the variable costs remain. It is also a much
easier way to deal with the need for proficiency and currency.

Yes, I know that means most of the owners do not meet your definition of
successfull; but, despite their ****ing and moaning, their presence does
continue to further the cause of GA.

Peter