Airplane Ownership

I bought mine halfway through training. I got tired or the scheduling
issues and thought it would be nice to have my own when I wanted to go on a
weekend trip and not have to pay the minimum times.

I bought a 4 place grumman. Ownership has its benefits and downsides.
Consider a partnership with one/2/3 other people. I would have, but I knew
I was going to move within a year so that didn't work well with a potential
partnership.

I am happy I bought it, but it has cost a lot of money...

Still, it is nice to be able to go to the airport whenever I feel like it
and go flying without having to schedule with anyone.

"Shirley" wrote in message
...
Anyone here buy their own airplane to do their training in before being
licensed? I am a glider pilot transitioning to power. Any
suggestions/recommendations, advice, cautions? Thanks in advance.

Still, it is nice to be able to go to the airport whenever I feel like it
and go flying without having to schedule with anyone

Perhaps I should tell the rest of the J-3 story. The gent who bought
the plane as a student, and who had such tourble passing his medical,
eventually decided to upgrade it with a bigger engine, new covering,
etc etc, which cost as much as the original purchase. So he asked our
mutual (former) flight instructor if he wanted to split the ownership,
and this happened.

When I did my biennial flight check in January, I asked how this was
working out. The instructor allowed that it was working just fine for
him, but that the partner never seems to fly the aircraft. He's
self-employed, too, so it's not a scheduling problem--he could go if
he wanted to.

So there's another caution: be awfully sure that you will still want
to fly on a regular basis after the initial euphoria of learning to
fly. Otherwise you might end up maintaining an aircraft for somebody
else to enjoy.


all the best -- Dan Ford
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