Cost of ownership

On Oct 27, 9:34*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Darryl Ramm wrote:
And new
motorglider depreciation can be scary - they will likely suffer
significant early depreciation based on engine hours (think thousands
of dollars per engine hour). So you really ought to make sure you want
it especially if you buy a new one.

I haven't followed the used market much, but "thousands" an hour sounds
excessive for motor-based depreciation. Would pilots really think a
$200,000, 3 year old glider with 10 hours on the engine is the same
value as an $150,000, 3 year old glider, identical except for the 35
hours on the engine?

This might be a good time to remind everyone a DG 400 or PIK 20 E will
be lot cheaper than a new (or newish) ASH 26 E or DG 800, and that there
are new self-launchers that cost about what a used DG 400 costs. Both
Apis and Silent have several models, including electrics.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" atwww.motorglider.org


Working out depreciation costs are difficult. Afterall most sales are
into a very small specialized market and values are whatever you can
close a deal for and hard to keep track of. An expensive new
motorglider toy might _appreciate_ if there is demand (anybody got an
ASH-31Mi handy?). However since many of these mototgliders are very
fussy to misshandling and engine maintenance issues I personally would
devalue used motorgliders a lot if they had relatively high hours or
something did not give me warm fuzzies about the previous owner(s) or
people who maintained them. And I'd have no problem knocking of $k's
per hour for the first few hours on a new high-end motorglider. I've
looked at for people where I recommend walking away on a $150k glider
because of dubious issues. Depreciated to next to not worth the
hassle, well maybe some other sucker pays what is being asked.

Oh and the $30k premium for an engine is not for a new ASH-26E/31Mi.
You need to compare current pricing for the the ASG-29/18m to the
ASH-31Mi/18m price and the difference is more significant. The old
price delta on a 26/26E was around EUR 30k, that is about $45k now,
but the base cost is also out of date and motorgliders often get
configured with options like long range tanks etc. that add some more
costs. Then buying an ASH-26 (non-motorglider) I assume you are paying
extra costs for a motorglider prepared fueslage that would not
encumber an ASG-29, besides people would buy the more competitive 29
over a 26 (non-motor) although maybe the 31 without motor might be fun
in open-class. But as you say there are other lower costs options.

Darryl