Hmmm,
Jay as an ex very avid golfer I would say you have not played alot of golf.
I played twice a week for years,...and greens fees vary greatly according to
what part of the country you are in. Amazingly it costs alot more to play
golf in the south than it does out west! Go figure, since they spend tons of
money watering a course in Palm Springs! Playing Indian Wells was very
cheap, on the other hand Ameilia Island , FL you would almost have to
mortgage the house! HAHA Ok not really but it was over 100 bucks.
Smart golfers have custom clubs built for them, my last set which still
sits in my basement collecting dust now, was built for me in Myrtle Beach ,
SC . Built just for me, to my swing , height and with the proper weights for
me. It was about closing time at the golf shop and the fellow really wanted
to make a sale, and I got my new clubs for $189.00. Ok and I really splurged
and spent another 30 on a new putter!
And like everything else in this world you can spend alot or you can
spend alittle. You can play a 20-30 buck green fee course or a 60-80 one.
Most duffers don't play the big buck ones ALL the time.
And thankfully my clubs did not require annual inspections, oil changes,
wiring harness, tires and brakes, and insurance. No finance charges, no
hangar fees, no tie downs. No new GPS to find my way on the course No old
avionics to replace. Sure you could spend 3,000 on a set of clubs, but you
don't have to! And the best set of clubs are ones made for you.
And golf my friend is the most frustrating fun you can have! But it's
just like anything else, it's only as cheap as you are smart. I would bet
alot of you guys spend more in maintinance in a year than I did playing golf
twice a week.
Aviation can be alot cheaper as well. But unless you build a 3000 buck
plane yourself , have your own private airfield on a farm, do your own
maint. You will spend more money. And hey if you get good at golf you never
have to buy the beer!!!!!

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:vQUKe.19096$084.3545@attbi_s22...
Not sure what "in-water boater" means but assuming it means the average
boat owner you have got to be kidding. Owning a boat costs a small
fraction of what operating a 182 does.

An "in-water boater" is a Great Lakes or open ocean boater. These are
the "big guys" -- the kind that are too big to be transported on a
trailer. Fly around the Great Lakes, and you will see thousands of them.

Each of these guys spends an unbelievable amount of money so that they can
spend 14 weeks each year (on the Great Lakes; more on the ocean, if down
South) getting drunk on what amounts to a small, floating hotel room.

We've got friends who own a 40+ foot yacht on Lake Michigan. It cost over
$300K to acquire, and an amazing amount of money to maintain. (Each year
they have to pay to have it removed with a crane, and then shrink
wrapped -- I'm not kidding -- for winter storage.) Worse, it is a
depreciating asset, meaning that it is worth less and less every year. It
has two 350-cubic inch Chevy engines, gets 6 gallons to the mile, and they
never, ever leave the dock.

Yet, they look at Mary and me flying all over the country as an
unaffordable extravagance, even though they know that what we spend is a
tiny fraction of what they spend on boating. And the guy took flight
lessons at one time.

The same goes for golf, only more so.

Clearly you have not rubbed elbows with really serious golfers. I know
guys who spend hundreds per WEEK playing golf, all over the country.
Hell, a single Big Bertha driver can cost $400 bucks -- and tee times at
the best courses run into many hundreds of dollars for a single round of
golf.

And these guys never play a single round.

It ALMOST makes a Garmin GNS 530 look like a justifiable expense!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"