Beach Runs?

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
news
The new aspect to this is that this would include not just airworthiness
items but "treatment" items (ie. spilled coffee, trash, etc.).

A lot more things to check on an aircraft than on a car... I had my aircraft
on leaseback at one time... The students (or instructors) seemed to have a
habit of stripping the gears on the radio controls... Eventually, I replace
the radios with ones that did not seem to be succeptible to this problem and
cut down my repair bills quite a bit... I also had a problem with them
grabbing the wrong part of the canopy to slide it forward and cracking the
plastic... Factoring in the fact that my plane seemed never available for me
to fly it on a weekend trip, I decided around 7 years ago that it wasn't
really worth it having it on leaseback... Unfortunately, I didn't learn this
until a lot of wear and tear had been done on my plane which had been
completely refurbished prior to the leaseback... If you're an A&P and can do
the 100 hour inspections yourself, a leaseback can be profitable... When
you're still having to pay nearly the shop rate for your inspections, it is
not all that profitable...

Grumman-581 wrote:
DaveB wrote in message ...
Karl, you sound like a real dickhead

Or someone who once had their aircraft on leaseback with a flight school...

Yes, and he has also seen what happened to others who leased aircraft
to flight schools, including my planes.

I think you're making an economic argument, the counter to which is
"the cost of the plane rental is higher".

I suppose it's economic; it's more a "pain in the ass to the FBO" argument. If somebody has to come out of the office and do a walkaround with every pilot both before and after they rent the aircraft, the time required can add up quickly. It is not inconceivable that an extra full time employee would be required at some outfits just to do these inspections. Yes, the price will be higher, and the availability will be lower, since the pilot will have to wait for an inspection before getting the aircraft, and on return, before going home. This would be unpopular.

[as an alterntive] If the pilot fails to report
a problem that is squawked by the next pilot's preflight, then this is
presumed to have occurred on the first pilot's flight.

As you point out, the problem may well have occured four flights ago and manifested itself two flights ago.

While this might seem unpleasant at first, if it improves the market for
leasebacks - and therefore increases the size of the fleet of rentals
available - isn't that a Good Thing?

Yes, all things being equal. But they seldom are. It will mean a diminishment in rental pilots going to that FBO, and the ones that leave may not be the ones you'd prefer to leave.

The FBO knows its pilots and its leaseback owners. They can restrict aircraft rental, and they can talk to the leaseback owners too, who can do the same. But that's money that goes to another FBO.

You may not get what you pay for, but you sure pay for what you get.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"cjcampbell" wrote in message
ups.com...
Yes, and he has also seen what happened to others who leased aircraft
to flight schools, including my planes.

As in most things in life, you tend to learn your best lessons from bad
experiences... You gain experience in life by making bad decisions and
managing to survive them... It's like you don't remember the restaurant 20
years ago where you had the great steak, but you definitely remember the
restaurant where you ended up with food poisoning... The bad experiences
burn themselves into our memory cells considerably better than the good
experiences... Quite often, leasing back and aircraft to a flight school is
like ****ing on an electric fence -- it's an "experience" that you
definitely will remember... Looking back at it, I wouldn't do it again... Oh
well, hindsight is 20/20, right?