You might have more in it than if you rent, but in the end you have an asset that is still worth something after you have the rating(just like a house really!). It's a trade-off, there's the obvious risks associated, but that's why we have insurance.

The standards, be it cessna or piper are always most cost effective because they have a long history, there's plenty of parts, and just about everyone has flown one.

I've always been from the school of "Less is More." The less power, less instrumentation/avionics, makes you work harder and think how to do everything with nothing, which in the end means less $money$ spent getting experience(and some would argue a better experience).

One thing I forgot to mention but HSLD nailed is insurance...my insurance would have skyrocketed had I elected to add coverage to instruct in it. Insurance varies with a ton of things. My first year of insurance (as a private pilot in a HP/comp airplane) was nearly $4200, dropped to $1800 when I added my instrument rating and $1400 with commercial. After adding CFI/CFII, quite a bit of flight time, and a flying job it's below $900. Not bad for a six seat single.

You don't have to carry insurance...but I highly, highly suggest it. You can get different kinds (liability, hull, etc.) that have a lot of similarities with car insurance really. Your best bet if you're serious is to talk to an aviation insurance adjuster with a hypothetical airplane and see what they would be looking at for you.

I already had my private when I bought a plane, but I would think a big deciding factor for pre-private insurance would actually be how experienced your CFI was since they're going to be the responsible party.

I bought a 150 last year...let me know if you have any additional questions that havent been answered here.

Don't buy a tailwheel unless you have tail time for insurance purposes. My insurance for my plane is half the price per year than my car, partially because of my ratings and time in type, as stated above.

They're are some great deals out there and I am so tempted to upgrade to a twin.

Good luck

Not entirely accurate; You can train in a non-IFR certified aircraft, you just can't legaly go actual IFR.
Naturally it will need some type of instruments.


Without full coverage it is unlikely an instructor will get in the plane with you.

A data point: As a private pilot I bought a IFR certified C-152 (2 VORs + GS and an ADF) with hull valued at 23K in 2003, cost me ~$600 for the first year to insure, ~$450 the second, I added a student pilot to the policy in 2006 and it went up to ~$650. Sold it in 2008 for 29k.

Check with insurance companies. My policy doesn't charge extra when I'm receiving dual in it. For me I think I pay $1200 a year and thats in a Piper Dakota with a Comm ASEL AMEL IFR rating and 500TT.

I did this exact thing. I bought a 172SP and leased it back to the FBO that I trained at. Actually still leasing it back and could not be happier. I average $1-2K a month income when all is said and done. My payment is $700 so that is $300-1300/month in my pocket. Some months it is 6K and some it is $300 so I say an average of 1-2K. I put all of the money in the account I set up just for the plane and have never had to make a payment out of my pocket. With that said, leaseback isn't for everyone. Some people like me love it and some people hate it. Do your homework before you do anything. For example the flight school next door to my FBO has probably 10 AC (I am guessing on leaseback) that hardly ever fly while my plane gets around 50 hours a month. I have been doing this for 4 years now and would easily do it again. Also if you are getting a loan, having a leaseback plan can help you get the loan sinse you will be making money off the plane. Then there is the big tax advantages!!!! Again do your homework!!

As for having the plane to train in, that is an easy choice. Add up the hours you will be logging to get your ratings. Now multiply that by the amount it costs to rent a plane. If you have the means, it is better in my opinion. Also when looking at a plane don't get tunnel vision about "what do I need just for me to get training". You need to think about things like maintenance cost, resale, is it IFR certified, can I fit my family in it and go somewhere or am I stuck in the pattern because 2 people and 10g of fuel max the GW, can you lease it back (if you go that route). Keep in mind that if you are doing check rides in your plane it has to be legit. There are a lot of planes/logs that are questionable or a little "grey" but still pass annual. Keep in mind that you may have a DPE digging through all of that before a check ride so that is something to think about. Lots of things to think about. Also look at partnerships.

Lastly don't trust anything that says 0 hours since rebuild, 0 hours since annual, fresh annual or anything like that. If it is 0 time since rebuild and the rebuild was 8 months ago then the inside of the engine is rusting away. Make sure you have a GREAT pre buy inspection. When I bought my plane I made a Pre-buy and Annual (even though it just had one) by my choice of mechanic part of the deal. An annual done by the mechanic that works for the person selling the plane isn't worth much to me.

As you progress in your certifications and hours, your insurance will go down if you have your own policy.

Last thing is if you buy a plane, fly the heck out of it. If you aren't going to put hours on it, then don't buy one because nothing is worse for an aircraft than sitting for long periods of time.

If you have any questions I would be happy to help.

(All of this rambling is just my opinion and my experience, it may not even make sence, your milage may vary)

thanks for the replies, lots of good advice so far. The option of leasing back to an FBO sounds like a good idea, any advice on how I would go about that?

Just walk in and ask to talk to someone in managment. I would say that 99.9% of FBOs have at least one if not all of their planes on leaseback. Short of being a big named school, the financial footprint is just to big for a school to own a few million in aircraft.

Go to every FBO in the area you plan to be in. Ask about how they work leasebacks and ask for the names of their aircraft owners and then go talk to those people. See what the average hours are for aircraft like you would be bringing in. See who they have deals with (my FBO has a deal with a local college to teach flying and is training multi-nationals). Ask if you will get a break on instruction if you lease back to them ( I get a 5% discount on everything instruction, fuel, maint... not huge but better than a kick in the junk).

Does flight instruction have to be in a certified aircraft, or would an experimental aircraft work? Any chance a flight school would leaseback an experimental for upset training / aerobatic use?

Flight instruction does not have to be in a certified aricraft. If you owned an experemental aircraft and found an instructor willing to instruct in it, that would be fine. The instructor can charge for his/her services.

You can also do the same if you borrowed the plane, but you would need to be VERY careful about any money changing hands (bartering included).

An experimental can not be rented/leased. (1 special exception applies: an owner of an experimental can (maybe) get a special letter of authorization to charge for the use of his/her experimental aircraft for the purposes of transition training)

So, no. An experimental can not be put on leasback at a flightschool.



(Everything I write is my opinon only. I take no reposnibility for errors.)