Sorry Craig but it is you who is lacking in schooling (the reading
part that is). Jeff's question was "how much do you pay in taxes on
your tiedown spot?" Nothing in your original post or reply gave
any hint on that.

BTW Jeff, the answer is about $52.00/year. (I'm also based at PAO).
And yes it is different than the property taxes on land that you own.
It's called a "possessory interest" tax. The sad thing is that it
barely makes any money for the county. The amount collected is mostly
used up by the costs involved with collecting the money and answering
all the questions from the incredulous pilots who don't understand
why they should have to pay such a ridiculous tax.

Back to the original question however (best single pilot IFR plane),
it is a Cessna 185 (of course - because that's what I fly!)

I've got a turbonormalized IO550 in it, so I can fly over almost
all the weather. It is light enough and has enough excess HP that
it can haul its empty weight, and is tolerant of a little ice build-up
here an there as one quickly climbs thru the icing layers to the
wonderful wx on top. (25K is as high as I've gone so far, but I
see no problem with going higher). It's fast enough that I can take
my family of 4 across the country without any complaints yet
miserly enough on the fuel that it doesn't break the bank. Unlike
some other airplanes I've flown it is stable enough that when
you look down at your chart and tune a radio, the airplane is still
flying in the same direction when you look up, even if the auto
pilot is off. And best of all its got the third wheel at the back
where it belongs. I'll probably get arguments on that one, but I
like the flexibility to land just about anywhere I find a flat spot.
I don't have to worry about those flimsy nosewheel thingies that
can get ripped off just by dropping into a minor gopher hole.
Pretty much if you find a spot that any fixed wing airplane has
landed, I'm going to be able to make it in and out of there safely.

As you can see, I'm supporting the earlier poster who said that
the answer depends on your mission.

~Paul Mennen

"Craig Prouse" wrote
"Jeff" wrote:

I was not able to see the math you did on the 400k , you pay taxes on
your
tiedown spot, but you didnt say how much yearly.

Schools fail to emphasize that without the facility to solve "story
problems," there is not really any point in teaching arithmetic.

You don't need to know the size of my tax bill to figure the value of the
land. You just need to figure out how many of my tiedown spots would fit
in
2.5 acres, then multiply by the value of the tiedown spot. I hinted at
that
when I specified the number of sets of tiedowns.


Your tie down spot for your airplane is different then someone who is
purchasing a home or land.

That's not to say that the other two "R"s have not suffered as well.