April 6th Price Increase and Comparative Shopping

[markschaible]

Hello SonexBuilders.net!

I posted a response to another thread in SonexBuilders.net yesterday, and feel it's worth copying to this general area of "factory posts" for all to read.

But first, if you didn't see the posting on our web site earlier this week, we will be having a price increase on April 6th. See more details on our site, including an insightful analysis of the history of Sonex kit pricing and the tremendous value offered in today's kits for the price: http://www.sonexaircraft.com/index.html ... ase_022415

Also, we're a week away from our March 7-8 Sonex Builders Workshop. If you've been considering attendance, there's still space available -- Sign-up Today at: http://www.sonexaircraft.com/eshop/cart ... ory_id=280

On to my post from yesterday regarding a discussion about comparative shopping for kit projects under Aircraft/Sonex/What am I missing?: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1784
Some important points to keep in-mind when shopping for your next kit project!
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Hello SonexBuilders.net!

I’ve been watching this thread for the past week, and would like to add/summarize some key points to the discussion, some of which have already been made by other posts.

When you are talking about a complete, fully developed and supported airframe and engine package, we know the Sonex line of aircraft has a cost advantage of tens of thousands of dollars vs. the competing kits discussed in this thread (and several others), hands down.

When it comes to making comparisons, it’s all-too difficult to estimate building costs when looking at the web sites and literature of various kit manufacturers. That’s why some people tend to add-up order form totals and think you can complete an RV-12 for $60K when the realistic completion cost trends closer to $80-100K for most builders. We found this to be the case across the entire industry years ago, and it’s still true today. That’s why we came-up with our Cost Worksheet long ago to make project estimation easier: http://www.sonexaircraft.com/kits/prici ... pletecosts

Our Cost Worksheet shows minimum costs to get the airplane flying, and the footnotes & links help you calculate areas in-which you may want to upgrade your build so that you can write your own estimate to some reasonable degree of accuracy. You can even substitute items we specify with products from other vendors that we don’t list, such as other avionics suppliers. When you are looking at competing kits, it’s important to consider all of the same general line item categories shown in our worksheet: Kit, Engine, Instruments, Prop, Upholstery, Misc. Hardware, FWF accessories, etc.

You also have to consider other costs that we don’t list in the worksheet because they vary so greatly between builders: shipping (everything from pick-up at the factory to shipping overseas), tools (depends upon how many tools you already own, but in-general Sonex tool requirements/costs are much lower), and finishing materials (everything from a jar of Nuvite polish to DIY paint job with a can of Krylon, to contracting professional paint work). Some of the other items that other posters have stated are often omitted such as hoses, fittings, etc. are actually included in our cost estimates, according the materials lists in our FWF installation guides.

Bottom line: the Cost Worksheet is a tool, and the quality (accuracy) of the results are going to depend upon how much care you have put-in to using the tool properly. Like any major project, building your own airplane is going to entail unforeseen costs, but those costs are just too variable between builders for us to accurately estimate them for you. Our contention is that you CAN get close to our estimates if you truly keep the project simple as we have with so many of our factory prototypes, and that our Cost Worksheet is far-more accurate than any other method of estimation offered by our competitors.

Can cost savings be realized with competing kits if making alternative engine installations or by scratch building? Of course, but you then have to compare those reduced costs with the reduced costs of scratch building the Sonex, in which case we still come out on-top. Also consider the large amount of extra work (“sweat equity”) required to scratch build, and the large amount of extra head scratching involved with alternative engine installations (a different kind of “scratch” build). By the way, when I say “alternative engine installations,” I mean installations alternative to the FWF packages developed, tested and supported for the airframe. I’m not speaking of the oft-debated definitions of “alternative” vs. “aircraft” engines which is a separate study in semantics altogether!

I was also very glad to see some folks in this thread talking about the performance advantages of the aircraft — as that’s what Sonex Aircraft were all designed to offer: aerobatic capability with a very-wide structural safety margin, outstanding and fun handling qualities, and above average performance per unit of horsepower. Combine those attributes with building costs, and you get our company slogan: “The Best Performance Per Dollar.” That’s the niche we serve.

As Jeremy Monnett always likes to say, however, it’s “horses for courses,” meaning in this context that you have to consider your ideal flight mission when choosing an aircraft, so that must factor-in for you as a completely separate consideration from cost. There are other aircraft in the kit market that have strengths in other areas, for different flying missions.

Happy shopping!

Regards,
-Mark
--
Mark Schaible
General Manager
Sonex Aircraft, LLC
phone: 920-231-8297
fax: 920-426-8333
http://www.SonexAircraft.com
http://www.AeroConversions.com

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