1. The make and model.

1974 Piper Cherokee Pathfinder

2. Whether you bought it new or used (if used, a bit of history on
it).

Used, in 2002.

3. The cost to buy it.

$75K. We then invested another $19K in overhauling the engine and
re-doing the interior.

4. The way you financed the purchase.

We sold our Warrior for $40K, put some personal savings along with it,
and financed the rest. (And remember, financing an airplane is not
like financing a car. In fact, it's more like financing a house,
because in general the aircraft appreciates over time. Our loan is for
20 years, and is thus quite affordable.)

5. Your approximate yearly costs for operation, maintenance, and
insurance.

$8K - $15K annually, depending on what goodies are installed, or what
problems are encountered. This includes ALL "aviation-related"
expenses, including such things as hangar, insurance, fuel, monthly
loan payment, if we buy new headphones, or have new in-wing landing
lights installed (which we did in '05.)

6. Your approximate yearly investment in training, licensing, medical
exams, etc. (to keep current as a pilot, as opposed to just the costs
related to a specific aircraft).

Training would be a biennial ($55) every other year, and a medical exam
($100) every other year, times two pilots.

I'm just curious about how much it actually costs to own and fly an
aircraft. I get the impression that it requires either being quite
wealthy or making severe sacrifices and never flying anything better
than a junky tin can.

Note: These expenses keep TWO pilots flying over 100 hour per year,
each. You could cut these expenses significantly (but not in half,
obviously) for just one pilot.

Another thing to note, is that renting an equivalent plane for 200
hours annually would cost ~$20K annually -- so owning a plane makes
financial sense for us.

How do we afford this? It's not always easy.

(a) We live in a modest home, nice, but not in "the" neighborhood where
our peers prefer to sink their savings.

(b) We don't buy new cars. Our newest car is 6 years old. My
motorcycle is 20 years old.

(c) We don't golf, go boating, or have any other expensive habits.
Mary is a spend-thrift (compared to most of the wives in our group of
friends), and personally I would be quite happy to own two pairs of
shoes. (Which, by the way, is all I do own.)

(d) We don't carry unnecessary debt. Credit cards are paid off
monthly, and we never borrow money to buy depreciating assets. For
example, if we can't pay cash for a car, we don't buy it.

(e) Our kids both work at the hotel, and earn everything they've got.
We don't just buy them every whiz-bang new electronic gizmo, they earn
them -- and birthdays and Christmas are quite modest affairs, by
comparison to some of their friends.

It's all about making choices. Mary and I make a very modest income,
eat most meals at home, don't go out much, and aren't into blowing
scads of money on ocean cruises or trips to Europe -- but we love to
fly. Flying is really our only extravagance -- we've truly built our
lives around it -- and we love it that way.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"