"Denny" wrote in message
ups.com...
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...


Let's have a show of hands from all those who drive a Hertz (okay...Budget)
rental car instead of your owned/leased vehicle?

Anyone? Anyone at all?

The economics and justifications are the same -- UTILIZATION and frequency.

If we drove once every six months using Hertz might make sense.

Way too many people use aircraft for pleasure or marginally "profitable"
business. If you make $25-50 an hour, you can't justify too much for flying
expenses, or if you make $200 an hour, but only for a day or so.

When I started my business back in 1996, I tried using rentals while getting
the business started. It worked, but was very constricting. In the first
year I got a T182, then a T210, then four years ago a B36TC. I started with
a radius of business of 150 miles, then 300 and now I go from Great Falls
down to North Texas, from SLC east to Omaha. I build houses and usually
never more than ten in any one town, usually smaller towns. I couldn't do
that with rentals or airlines/commuters. The aircraft I owned never cost me
more than about $85,000 a year (everything included), but enabled us to
build the company into a $4.5M business. As I mentioned in another post,
what I use/"am looking for next", don't come on the rental market.

Now I'm looking for all weather capability, thinking of a turbo-prop. We're
putting together two projects to build a total 55 houses in two
towns....more than we now build in a year. Budget looks like $9.75M. There's
usually three or four of us that have to travel together, 550nm and 600nm .
Any suggestions?

Too many people let their ego get in the way of making a sound justification
for an aircraft purchase. The economics don't pan out unless you can have
the tax man help you,


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO