These are not YOUR airplanes - Was: High Cost of Sportplanes

Michael,

I've interspersed my data (gleaned from today's online prices)
throughout your message. Add them up yourself.


I don't buy it. When I
was in the Keys, I saw a two-seat UL trainer on floats. It was open
cockpit (very open), and had a Rotax engine and Dacron-sailcloth
covered wing, but it was $25K new. Presumably the manufacturer
was making a profit.
We were talking about an enclosed aircraft with a fiberglass or aluminum
body, 4 stroke engine, and 2 seats with a cruse of ~100 knots.

I think all your prices are WAY too high. $15K for an engine? A Rotax
retails for half that. That's RETAIL - if you're a manufacturer you
should be able to get a better deal.
sigh I just went to a common retail website & found that a rotax 912
(the most commonly used for aircraft of the type we are talking about)
lists for between 16 & 22K. The difference being the options & accessories.

$20K for airframe components? You can buy a quickbuild kit for a
pretty advanced (high-speed all-metal RV) for less. Retail. Prebuilt
and predesigned for home assembly.
On the RV site, they do in fact sell the early model RV for 11.7K,
however, the finished cost is listed at 45K. That would be 10K more than
my fiberglass KIS.

$4K for instruments? For an IFR panel with certified components,
maybe. For day-VFR, you need a non-sensitive altimeter, an airpeed
indicator, a compass, and some engine gauges. The retail price on all
this (assuming non-certified stuff) is maybe $1K.
Er, I just bought mine & even my radio cost ~1k. If you would be kind
enough to tell me where you purchase your instruments, I'll start
purchasing mine from your supplier right away!

I think everyone pretty much expected that when the LSA rules came out,
the UL trainers (2 seat) would be sold as LSA's for about the same
money they cost as UL trainers - about $20K-$30K ready to fly. This
isn't happening. There really are only two possible reasons. Either
the LSA 'certification' process isn't really all that simple or cheap
(meaning that, as with the recreational pilot and VLA, the FAA has
botched the job again) or the manufacturers figure they can skim the
cream at a higher price.

Michael