lease back (cross posted)
 

Anyone have an opinion on Buying a new A/C and leasing it back? I am a PPL and will be getting the rest of my ratings. If you buy an A/C from Cessna they pay $4000 toward your instrument ticket. Plus the school I go to is looking for one maybe 2 more 172 G1000 planes. They get $150 an hour for the G1000 and it is rented probably 4 hours a day minimum. I am going to a briefing on lease back this weekend at a dealer and am just looking for some insight from people that have done this or know something about it. I would hope that a brand new plane would be under warranty and not have many things go wrong with it. The 1 G1000 they have right now belongs to the General Manager of the school. They had a second one but that persone moved out west. This just seems like a way to buy a plane and get my ratings while someone else pays for it. Sort of like a rental house. I have 2 of those and nothing but great things to say about rental property.

I know that people are going to say "imagine your worst flight and multiply it by 10 and imagine that person in your plane". I have been flying there for over a year now and the A/C are in great shape and never have any damage and all of the school's planes are lease backs. I know there is always a chance of something happening but isn't that what insurance is for?

The school I used to work for had all lease backs. The owners seemed pleased. Even the co-owner of the school had 5 leasebacks himself. If the school is busy enough you can make some money, at worst have a free airplane. If I had the money I would buy one. So I guess my opinion is go for it... but what do I know?

I need the tax break so I think that it would be a good idea if I could at least break even on the payment and maintenance. The owners of the ones at the school are actually making some money. I am not looking to make a bunch of money, just sort of get the plane for free so to speak. The tax write-off would be good enough for me. I'd just put any profit into a special account in case things came up with the plane.