Originally Posted by
airapparent
For the pilots out there, have you ever bought your own personal plane? Any recommendations for the type? I'm not looking to go over board on the spend, but would like to know what someone thinks is a good practical plane for flying in my time off.
Thanks,
Step 1. Define what you want to do with the plane.
Travel? Fun flying/$100 burger? Acro? ect.
Step2. How much can you spend AND afford to own?
These 2 questions will get you into the ballpark of aircraft.
My bug smasher (c-140) costs me about $700 per month to own and fly. I fly it for fun about 100 hours per year.
-Hangar 250/month or 3k year.
-Insurance 600 year
-MX 2000 year. Some years I'm under some I'm over, like 3 years ago when I replaced the mags and starter.
- gas, 5gph at $4.5/gal at 100 hours/year is $2250
Total 3000+600+2000+2250=$7850 or about 8k.
8000/12=$666 or $700/month.
I bought the plane for cash 7 years ago when I was a 190 FO on LOA93 wages. Back then I budgeted 3 hours per month to stay in my financial lane. As my pay and seniority has increased I don't really budget hours per month anymore. If it's nice I go fly. I'd rather have a simple bug smasher that gets me in the air then a more expensive plane. Although I have my eye on a O-1 Bird Dog. That will about double my flying budget. I still need to save about 50k so it's about 1.5 years off until I decide to cross that bridge. I have a rule of no financing toys, my plane, motorcycle, mountain bikes, skis ect. are all paid with cash.
Good luck. I've had a blast with my plane I the past 7 years. And now I can hold vacation over Oshkosh so I'm going to stuff my ass into that thing and head out there this year. Anyone got any tips on stuffing camping great into a 2 seat bug smasher?