I have rented / owned / owned and rented / leased / borrowed (never
stole though / airplanes my entire adult life... I could teach an
entire PhD course in the uneconomics of airplanes... Among the several
things I have learned along the way is that owning is more expensive
than renting - period! There will be the occasional bright guy, like
Roger, who can make the numbers work out in favor of owning - I have
never been able to make that happen...

But, renting affects me... Every time I have flown a rented airplane I
am concious of the Hobbs meter running... It affects my decision
making... If I am on the way somewhere and the thought comes up, "Gee
if I deviate a half hour to the West we can fly over the St. Louis arch
(or some such)... In a rented plane it doesn't happen because both
conciously and subconciously I can see that &*^$@# meter running... In
my own airplane, it's a slam dunk - we ARE going to fly over the arch
(or whatever)... I will drive 20 miles out to the airport just to make
two circuits around the field with crosswind landings, 20 minutes of
flying just for fun... I won't do that in a rented airplane... I will
go to the airport on a really bad weather morning just to vacuum the
carpet and polish the spinner... I won't do that in a rented
airplane... I will go to the airport at 2AM just to go fly lazy
circles for 40 minutes to look at the moon and the stars (stress
relief)... I won't do that in a rented airplane... I wll arrange a 3
day weekend to fly down to Florida and sit on the beach for a day... I
won't do that in a rented airplane...

Bottom line "for me" is that I have to own... For you it may be
different... I would urge those who rent to consider a club ownership,
or a partnership deal... Owning makes a huge difference in how you see
the airplane and in how you use it... How many of you would consider
renting your car? Not many... But for those who have cars on lease,
how many of you are always concious of the miles accumulating on trips?
Every one of you, I bet, because going over mileage on the lease
contract carries a big $$ penalty..

Cheers ... Denny