On Tue, 20 May 2008 19:54:03 -0500, Mike Spera
wrote:



As you can see from the responses, opinions vary quite a bit.

snip
Choose newer and/or well maintained (pricier) equipment and the risk
tends to go down along with the unexpected "surprises".

You have got to be a little nuts to tackle flying in the first place.
The arcane FAA rules, the weather, the instructors, scheduling, the
cost. All formidable hurdles.

Colleagues, friends and family all think my flying partner and I are
bonkers to even be discussing the purchase of an airplane. It's an
insane, irrational, idiotic, and plain dumb idea to them. What ARE we
thinking???!!!

But our rationale has been exactly what you mentioned above; that a
newer plane will not require all the up front cash for repairs and
upgrades and what we will initially need is the cash outlay for the
down payment.Then during the course of the next couple of years we can
put aside some $$$ for every hour flown to cover maintenance issues
that will come up later. Or is this just a totally insane, irrational,
idiotic and just plain dumb rationization?

We could only do this if we purchase an almost new LSA. We checked out
many of them at SNF and saw a couple of possibilities like the
Sportcruiser, the Toxo and the one from Flightdesign. We think we
could find something around the 125k range. We could each afford half
of the monthly payments on a 125K with a 10 year note, but we don't
believe we can get the loan unless we each have the ability to make
the total monthly payment independently.

So there's the rub with the LSA purchase and the main reason why I
asked about the 50K budget. If a loan institution will indeed only
loan as much as what each of us separately could cover then that means
we'd have to purchase an older aircraft and come up with cash to
"fix-er-up" and likely spend a good portion of our time on a project
giving us less flying opportunities.

snip
Renting is too limiting for some and the great leap of
faith to owning seems insurmountable.

So the biggest obstacle to surmount would be the loan requirements if
we go the LSA route. We are not sure yet if there is any way around
it. I may have an idea about that but have not fleshed it out yet.

Too bad you cannot locate a club. It seems like a good fit for what you
are trying to accomplish. Keep looking. Maybe a 3 way partnership if you
all want to get 80 or so hours a year out of it.

Clubs are pretty much extinct in this part of the country. But if we
decide to purchase and continue this wacky endeavor called flying, it
wiill take us at least a year to get all of our ducks in line
financially. In that time it could be wise for us to look for a third
partner, if we can find one interested in the LSA idea. It may take a
while.


The other posters had some great points to consider also. Some even made
their points without being too big of jerks in the process. Ah, progress...

Many good recommendations... and much food for thought. Thanks to all.

Kirk