First Time Buyer. Help!

I bought my plane at about 25 hours. I was incredibly bored with the
planes
I was renting. The new plane was so much nicer to fly. I flew much
more
often, and enjoyed it much more.

How long have you owned this plane? If you have owned it 5+ years, then
yes, it was a good deal. If that time has not yet elapsed, then time will
tell if it meets your needs as your flying habits evolve.


You rely on the statement that I am challenging to defend itself. Its the 5
years that I am challenging, so using it as a comeback doesn't help me make
sense of what you are trying to teach me.

I can assure you that if I were to trade up ( which I may do), I would still
be ahead due to tax savings. My plane is on a leaseback, and its not really
costing much at all. So what if it doesn't meet my needs anymore, my point
was that it takes much less time before the penalty for trading up is too
much. Also, how many hours does one have to fly before they are ready to
move up in ANY case? Renting a plane at $80 an hour for 200 hours is
$16,000 plus two years rental insurance for a total of $16,800. If you buy
a 60k plane, put 200 hours on it in 2 years, what is the worst you will lose
out? Maybe it will end up costing you an extra $4,000 or $5,000, IF you
really did buy the wrong plane. In the meantime, you had a lot of value you
get by being the owner and not having to schedule, pay daily minimums, etc.

Also, if you buy a new plane, it can make sense to move up much sooner
than
5 years because of depreciation rules. If you buy used, you can usually
get

A student pilot buying a new plane?!? $200K invested in a very recently
aquired hobby?

Newly acquired hobby only if you don't count time spent from childhood
through adulthood building models, reading about aviation, looking up at
every plane flying by, and wishing I were able to fly. Are you full time in
the aviation business? You seem to have lost the passion, man! Certainly,
without knowing the income of the person you are working with, its hard to
tell what they consider a reasonable loss, but to anyone in the flying hobby
an extra couple thousand a year can't be a huge mistake.



most of what you paid for the plane if not more (assuming you don't get
taken on the buy). So I really don't get your 5 year rule.

If you sell a used plane within a few years of buying it, you will no
doubt
have spent more money in catch-up maintenance than you can realistically
recover when you sell it.


Aha! This could be a gem of info. I am completely inexperienced here.
Tell me more. What kind of bill are we looking at on a 50 to 100k basic
plane like 182, arrow, mooney etc. I know the common wisdom on avionics is
that adding them to an old frame gets a poor return, but what about other
repairs and fixes. Are there any rules of thumb like 20% or 50% or what
not?


On the other hand, if what you really want is an Archer, and it meets
your
needs, then why wait?

Because at 25 hours it is unlikely you will know what you really want.
Your needs will change, you will prefer X-ctry or aerobatics or you will
need to go into short strips or you will need extended range or who knows
what else will change.


Perhaps I mistated. I think you may not know what you WANT. What you NEED
will be much easier to identify though. Where you are going to travel
shouldn't change because you get more hours. You can talk about your mission
with other pilots, instructors, FBO owners, plane salesmen, etc.. I got a
LOT of info from these sources when I bought. Much of it contradictory, but
it was easy enough to weed through. I suppose if you really don't know what
you want or need, then you should wait. However, that seems to be a matter
of maturity and research over pilot experience.



--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com