C-152 Leaseback: what's the scoop?

The owner of FBO was a family member's partner on the police force, is a
retired Marine, former mayor, retired sheriff, city commissioner, owns a
successful FBO and the fuel operation. Did my IFR, Commercial and will
have finished my CFI with him very soon. His integrity and honesty are
unimpeachable.

Right now he only has one C-152 in the fleet because the previous owner
with a leaseback arrangement sold out for a larger aircraft. So there
are four IFR 172s, and Arrow, a 182 and a 310, but only one primary
trainer. There are a number of CFIs who are keeping busy enough that in
the summer you have to book the airplane out a week in advance, so
there's no shortage of work, and I will be working out of there as an
independent instructor as soon as possible.

Prospective students are heading over to the more expensive "academy"
because they have 152s available, but the training and rental fees are
ridiculous. Seems like a leaseback on a 152 would be a win-win situation
given that my family has known and respected him since shortly after
World War II. He did most of my ground school gratis--does that for
most--and except for a flat $100/mo. fee, the instructors keep 100% of
the hourly instruction rate.

I hear all kinds of horror stories about leasebacks, but this seems like
a much better than average prospect but I want to make sure I know what
I'm doing before I get into something like that.

Comments/experience?

Thanks in advance!

-c

gatt wrote:

Comments/experience?

Thanks in advance!

-c


Treat it as you would any other business deal. Run the numbers. Since
you trust the guy running you can probably trust the estimated number of
hours he gives you for hour/month. Keep in mind though that the price of
fuel will have a direct effect on the number of hours the plane will be
rented.

Gig 601Xl Builder wrote:
gatt wrote:

Comments/experience?

Thanks in advance!

-c


Treat it as you would any other business deal. Run the numbers. Since
you trust the guy running you can probably trust the estimated number of
hours he gives you for hour/month.

Thanks. The good news there is that I can look through the schedule and
see for myself how many hours a month the present 152 flies. It's
averaging about 6 hours a day through the 21st at $68/hr.

Keep in mind though that the price of fuel will have a direct effect
on the number of hours the plane will be rented.

Yeah. Hasn't yet, but, it's a matter of time. On the flipside, a lot of
people are doing their primary training in the 172s based on
availability alone. Even one of those is averaging about 6 hours a day
at $98/hr wet. Higher fuel prices and increased availability might
shift some of that scheduling down to a less-expensive aircraft.

-c

gatt wrote:
Gig 601Xl Builder wrote:
gatt wrote:

Comments/experience?

Thanks in advance!

-c


Treat it as you would any other business deal. Run the numbers. Since
you trust the guy running you can probably trust the estimated number
of hours he gives you for hour/month.

Thanks. The good news there is that I can look through the schedule and
see for myself how many hours a month the present 152 flies. It's
averaging about 6 hours a day through the 21st at $68/hr.

Keep in mind though that the price of fuel will have a direct effect
on the number of hours the plane will be rented.

Yeah. Hasn't yet, but, it's a matter of time. On the flipside, a lot of
people are doing their primary training in the 172s based on
availability alone. Even one of those is averaging about 6 hours a day
at $98/hr wet. Higher fuel prices and increased availability might
shift some of that scheduling down to a less-expensive aircraft.

-c



Sounds like there are enough hours for the plane. (More than enough)
just put a pencil to it and see that it works financially. I think the
AOPA website has some info on lease-back that you might want to read. At
least they did a couple of years ago when I was thinking about doing it.

"gatt" wrote in message
...
Gig 601Xl Builder wrote:
gatt wrote:

Comments/experience?

Thanks in advance!

-c


Treat it as you would any other business deal. Run the numbers. Since you
trust the guy running you can probably trust the estimated number of
hours he gives you for hour/month.

Thanks. The good news there is that I can look through the schedule and
see for myself how many hours a month the present 152 flies. It's
averaging about 6 hours a day through the 21st at $68/hr.

Keep in mind though that the price of fuel will have a direct effect on
the number of hours the plane will be rented.

Yeah. Hasn't yet, but, it's a matter of time. On the flipside, a lot of
people are doing their primary training in the 172s based on availability
alone. Even one of those is averaging about 6 hours a day at $98/hr wet.
Higher fuel prices and increased availability might shift some of that
scheduling down to a less-expensive aircraft.

-c


Just as food for thought, a fully loaded C152 (which is rarely more than
student, instructor, and fuel) performs a lot like a fully loaded
C172--other than the fact that the CG will usually remain more nearly
centered in the C152. The result is that the C152 could make the transition
to actually operating as a licensed PIC a little easier. At least that is
what it was designed t do--and there are plenty of contributors here with a
lot more experience to comment on the success of that concept.

Peter

On Jul 8, 2:45 pm, Gig 601Xl Builder
wrote:

Treat it as you would any other business deal. Run the numbers. Since
you trust the guy running you can probably trust the estimated number of
hours he gives you for hour/month. Keep in mind though that the price of
fuel will have a direct effect on the number of hours the plane will be
rented.

I can't speak to the 152 directly, but we used to run 150s and
their poor performance plus the fact that the O-200 often needed upper
cylinder work halfway to TBO (and sometimes more often) meant that
they cost us as much to operate as the 172s. The student spent most of
his time climbing, either in the circuit or during upper air work, and
didn't get through the syllabus as quickly. More hours means more
money he has to spend, not good value for the student, so we let them
go and I don't miss them.
We did look into replacing them with 152s, but my research
indicated (Aviation Consumer and so forth) that they had plenty of
issues with their 24-volt system, not least of which was poor battery
life due to heat and vibration, and those batteries cost three or four
times as much as a 25AH 12-volt battery. The only advantage I could
find was the 2400-hour TBO on the O-235, but we have a Citabria 7ECA
with one of those and it suffers corrosion problems in the cylinders
because it runs too cold, and I've heard the same thing about that
engine in other airplanes. The corrosion causes pitting in the
cylinders, and the rings wear the cylinders faster as they run over
those pits, so that a sharp ridge is formed at the bottom of the ring
travel that starts shaving the aluminum piston pin plugs. More
teardowns and repairs and downtime halfway to TBO. Add to that the
solid lifters (the O-235 is the only Lyc with them) that need checking
every 100 hours, meaning that baffling has to be pulled off and the
rocker covers removed, more time and money, and any savings over a 172
disappears.
Lots of stuff to consider. It's worth noting that Cessna
didn't bother building them anymore. Not many people interested, I
think.

Dan

"Martin Hotze" wrote in message
...
gatt schrieb:
I hear all kinds of horror stories about leasebacks, but this seems like
a much better than average prospect but I want to make sure I know what
I'm doing before I get into something like that.

Comments/experience?

if there is so much expected business than he won't need you for a
leaseback. What's the cost of a usable C150/152?
http://www.aso.com/ lists them from USD 16,500 to USD 65,500. I'd say for
30 AMU you'll get a usable plane. Why does he want a leaseback?

Most flight schools operate with leasebacks to some degree. It allows them
to have a larger fleet with less credit extended, and the risk for them is
zero.

Leasebacks can be a good deal for the owner given the right situation. The
biggest risk is if the plane goes down for damage or something big like an
engine overhaul. The insurance is astronomically high, especially if the
plane is used as a primary trainer, and most insurance companies won't let
you reduce coverage unless the plane is down for more than 60 days. As such
there is a certain degree of risk in them so they shouldn't be entered into
lightly unless you can well afford it. The thing to ask yourself is, if the
engine blows up on day one do I have the cash or credit available to pay for
the overhaul, pay all the expenses, and do without the income for a couple
of months? If the answer is no, you shouldn't enter into the agreement
regardless of how favorable the terms are.

Martin Hotze wrote:

if there is so much expected business than he won't need you for a
leaseback. What's the cost of a usable C150/152?
http://www.aso.com/ lists them from USD 16,500 to USD 65,500. I'd say
for 30 AMU you'll get a usable plane. Why does he want a leaseback?

He just purchased the entire fuel operation for the airport, plus two or
three C-172s and a $250K flight simulator. There was a C-152 on
leaseback but the owner sold it for a larger airplane, so there's an
empty tiedown marked "RESERVED FOR FLIGHT SCHOOL" where the second C-152
used to be.

-c

The hot setup is where you provide an aluminum tube and the lessee provides
fuel, scheduled maintenance, and insurance. That way if the aircraft isn't
used much, all you are out is the cost of the airplane which you should be
able to recover if you bought it right.

Jim

--
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it."
--Aristotle


"gatt" wrote in message
...
Martin Hotze wrote:

if there is so much expected business than he won't need you for a
leaseback. What's the cost of a usable C150/152?
http://www.aso.com/ lists them from USD 16,500 to USD 65,500. I'd say for
30 AMU you'll get a usable plane. Why does he want a leaseback?

He just purchased the entire fuel operation for the airport, plus two or
three C-172s and a $250K flight simulator. There was a C-152 on leaseback
but the owner sold it for a larger airplane, so there's an empty tiedown
marked "RESERVED FOR FLIGHT SCHOOL" where the second C-152 used to be.

-c

As a badly burned leaseback owner, let me drop a couple of 'hindsight
lessons' on you. Take them for what they're worth, only you know all
the pros and cons of the situation in question:

1- Insurance. Be ready for 5-8 Times conventional single-user costs
for lesser coverage. When I was on leaseback, insurance ran me 4500/
annually. As a single use scenario, I pay 725/annually for the same
plane with better coverage.
2- Maintenance. Forget the obvious (Annuals every 100 hours rather
than every year), Students, especially primary students, are very hard
on airplanes, and no amount of wishful thinking will fix that.
Engines start with electrics on, landing gear takes a special kind of
beating, brakes get dragged for long taxis. As a sole owner, you
quickly learn your bird, you have pride in her and you take care of
her. In my experience, students, even the most respectful ones,
didn't, or didn't know how (I do hold a certain culpability with the
Instructors, but understand as they are in and out of multiple planes
a day, they're understandably detached from the specific aircraft that
they're flying at the moment- and, frankly, a certain amount of
'excessive structural wear' is just a part of letting a student take
the controls for his first landing. Bringing me to
3- Headache - If you want your bird to fly, you need to be on top of
her. That means being ready to run down the the airport on a bi-
weekly (or better yet, daily) basis to notice and handle any
perspective MX (and/or cosmetic) issues. This means making good
friends with the local repair shop so he can get your inevitable MX
nightmares turned around ASAP. If there is one thing that will drive
a Black Business model into the red in a _REAL_ hurry, its letting
your bird get any type of rap as a hangar queen. Even a week of
downtime will have serious reprecussions over her utilization over the
next month or two. Beyond that, be prepared to play second fiddle for
flying time rights even in your own plane. Much like MX, there's no
quicker way to **** off students then to make your aircraft
unavailable on 'peak flying days' just so you, the owner, can go out
and enjoy a nice saturday 100$ burger.

I don't mean to be such a negative nancy on this... FWIW, I was
leasing back a PA-28-140, so my costs were somewhat higher than a
C150. In any case, I took all of the advice on here- I did the math,
I had a plan. I thought I knew what I was doing, and I still got
burned.

All I can say is you need to prepare not only for the financial
outlay, but the emotional/physical/attention outlay as well. For me,
it was far more effort than it was ever worth.

Consider yourself warned by a bitter fool

-Scott

On Jul 8, 1:41*pm, gatt wrote:
The owner of FBO was a family member's partner on the police force, is a
retired Marine, former mayor, retired sheriff, city commissioner, owns a
successful FBO and the fuel operation. *Did my IFR, Commercial and will
have finished my CFI with him very soon. *His integrity and honesty are
unimpeachable.

Right now he only has one C-152 in the fleet because the previous owner
with a leaseback arrangement sold out for a larger aircraft. *So there
are four IFR 172s, and Arrow, a 182 and a 310, but only one primary
trainer. *There are a number of CFIs who are keeping busy enough that in
the summer you have to book the airplane out a week in advance, so
there's no shortage of work, and I will be working out of there as an
independent instructor as soon as possible.

Prospective students are heading over to the more expensive "academy"
because they have 152s available, but the training and rental fees are
ridiculous. Seems like a leaseback on a 152 would be a win-win situation
given that my family has known and respected him since shortly after
World War II. *He did most of my ground school gratis--does that for
most--and except for a flat $100/mo. fee, the instructors keep 100% of
the hourly instruction rate.

I hear all kinds of horror stories about leasebacks, but this seems like
a much better than average prospect but I want to make sure I know what
I'm doing before I get into something like that.

Comments/experience?

Thanks in advance!

-c