Well, Jay seemed to miss my subtle sarcasm, but it was subtle for a reason.

There are almost always cheaper solutions than plane ownership, unless you
really make a lot of money (high hourly time value can warp economics
quickly). There are also business flyers with missions that can be cheaper
by owning, but they are even rarer than the high income guys.

There is flexibility that comes with renting, and different flexibility that
comes with ownership, and each end up costing the pilot or traveler time.
Time to figure out how to get somewhere, or time spent on ownership
decisions and tasks. If you were to give me a hypothetical situation on
needing to get somewhere, yet not having a rental available, I could show
you how to use other means for more costs (or less to big cities) in that
one instance, yet still come out ahead overall.

The bottom line for me is that the joy of ownership outweighs the costs, and
I think Jay agrees with me. What he is pointing out though, is that we do
pay some amount for the joy.

When the percieved joy of ownership and its benefits outweighs the well
examined probable costs one should buy an airplane.

For me, renting got boring and disappointing before I even earned my private
certificate. The planes available for rent were not what I wanted to spend
my time in. A more tempered soul would have gone a more traditional route,
but I bought a brand new plane that brought me the enjoyment of flying I
yearned for. I felt guilty, and even foolish at times, but overall I did
the right thing.

Why should I spend money and time working for ratings and not enjoying it
when I am really doing the whole thing for enjoyment anyway? I was spending
5k a year, flying less than 50 hours, and not having a lot of fun. I bought
a plane, put it on leaseback, and spend a real 10k a year (that is counting
EVERYTHING, except depreciation, which I may have to send back. If I sold
the plane today, it would cost me another 10k loss due to real depreciation
against my principle). I now fly over 100 hours per year, so my hourly rate
is about the same, but I get more fun, and enjoy it more often.

You could say I am losing money in my leaseback, but I see it as a good
value. Not a good investment, a good value.

The pain of renting for me was not the scheduling hassles, and it still is
not a big pain, or I would take my plane off leaseback. I do have the added
benefit that if the plane is really busy, it makes a profit enough that I
could rent any other plane in the fleet and still come out ahead.