"Dude" wrote in message
...
Okay, I can see this, but it sounds like you are saying that years 1 and 2
are bound to be higher than 3, 4, and 5.
Years 1 and 2 and not "bound to be" higher than years 3, 4, and 5, but more
often than not this is the case. A lot of airplanes get deferred
maintenance when an owner is nearing time to sell his airplane.
What kills renting is fleet insurance at 8% of hull.
If the hull insurance is split between multiple renters, then the cost of
insurance for a rental is much lower per pilot tha nowning an airplane.
My experience has been fine. The plane has not had many problems that
were
not covered under warranty, or that the factory did not pick up outside of
warranty. I did switch FBO's, but I didn't have any real gripes about the
Wow.... no there is why you have a different experience. You are talking
about a new airplane if you have a warranty! Sure maintenance costs will be
low.. but there is a major depreciation expense in the first couple years of
buying a new airplane, whereas used airplanes rarely depreciate and maybe
even appreciate slowly.
If your airplane is rented and thus quickly accumulates hours, then it will
REALLY depreciate in cost.
cost of repairs at the old school. Perhaps your AP's are more aggressive
in
your area. Down here, they are cheaper than car mechanics.
Aviation mechanics are cheaper than car mechanics everywhere. It generally
takes much more time to access aviation parts, however. Much more
importantly, airplane parts cost VERY SUBSTANTIALLY more than auto parts,
often 2-3 times what the identical auto part would cost.
I would only sell my plane in a trade. The free loan from Uncle Sam that
comes in the form of depreciation and expense write off is much greater
than
the actual depreciation so I would be ahead so long as I can aviod
recapture
which is pretty easy to do.
You get a depreciation/expense writeoff on a used airplane as well, albeit
somewhat slower -- but in the end you get the same tax advantage from a new
vs. an old plane. However, the actual depreciation in value of a new plane
is quite real and in fact would reduce the amount of money available when
you step up to your next airplane.
out? Maybe it will end up costing you an extra $4,000 or $5,000, If
you
really did buy the wrong plane. In the meantime, you had a lot of
value
It could cost you $10,000 or $15,000 easily if you buy the wrong plane.
You are assuming the most incredible losses. Also, if you put a new
engine
in the plane you can get back much of that because it increases the value,
You cannot get back the full value of a new engine.
Much more importantly, if your engine is halfway to TBO when it needs an
overhaul, the very most you might recover in cost is half of the value of
the engine -- you cannot recover the value of the "unused" TBO time if the
engien did not make it.
so your only loss is the hours short of TBO. Corrosion repair should not
occur within a few years of an adequate prebuy. If someone is going to
buy
Corrosion can be hidden, i.e. painted over and not visible on a prebuy. Or
in the case of an older Mooney, it is time-consuming to inspect the steel
tubing for corrosion and thus this item is often missed on a prebuy.
I am not sure that you are subtracting increases in the plane's value from
the costs. If you can recoup the repairs in the resale, you never really
lost the money. 20k can almost rebuild planes in the under 100k range
unless you have to replace a low time engine without any relief from the
manufacturer.
A new exhaust system, an overhaul on a low-time engine, corrosion repairs,
and many other "gotcha" repairs do not come close to increasing the cost of
an airplane in proportion to the cost of the repairs.
rather than rent. Really, I would plan on having many more hours than
that
before trying use a stormscope or strikefinder to avoid weather. I advise
using the phone to avoid the weather before you decide to fly to pilots
that
green.
I would encourage spherics use by any pilot planning a cross-country trip in
the summer. Spherics are much easier to interpret than radar. If a pilot
is going go buy an airplane but have a mission profile that would not
benefit from a Stormscope/Strikefinder, then why not just rent a local
airplane?
--------------------
Richard Kaplan, CFII
www.flyimc.com