Bart frm Greeneville South Carolina

[fastj22]

I've flown both a Sonex and Waiex. There is no difference in handling. The Waiex gets more attention at the fuel dock.

BTW, you are doing your pilot training right. Take a week off and get er done! So many try to squeeze it into their work schedule and it extends it out months/years as you have to spend the first 20 minutes of each lesson getting your groove on. When I did mine, it was mid-life crisis time. I turned 45 and put enough money aside to just get er done. It took longer than I thought, about 3 months and 65 hours, but my school/club was very thorough and I'm happy with my training.

[BartMan02]

A wise homebuilder told me as I just got my license and headed to Airventure with him in his RV7, buy a cheap C150 and fly it for 100 hours. Then sell it for what you paid. It will make you a better pilot, and make damn sure you like to fly in relatively slow and primitive airplanes. I did just that. I then traded my C150 for my Waiex kit.

That sounds like great advise. I thought I would rent rent and fly a 150, 172 and Piper Arrow while I was building. I did the figures on owning certified aircraft and renting for 1 or 2 hundred hours would be less expensive then ownership. I originally thought about buying a 20 to 35 thousand certified aircraft. But to me buying something much older could potentially lead to something bad going wrong and I don't want to be stuck with junk that will cost me a bundle to fix and then have a hard time selling. I think it will be better for me to rent until I have what I want.

[Bryan Cotton]

It is hard to beat renting unless you fly a lot. Clubs are good too. If I was going to buy something it would have been a C140. The demand is soft so prices are cheap. Good when you are buying, bad when you are selling. There are valid arguments for any approach, renting, a club, or ownership. You have to pick what is right for you.

The complexity of one's life is measured by the amount of sparkplugs one owns.

[fastj22]

A wise homebuilder told me as I just got my license and headed to Airventure with him in his RV7, buy a cheap C150 and fly it for 100 hours. Then sell it for what you paid. It will make you a better pilot, and make damn sure you like to fly in relatively slow and primitive airplanes. I did just that. I then traded my C150 for my Waiex kit.

That sounds like great advise. I thought I would rent rent and fly a 150, 172 and Piper Arrow while I was building. I did the figures on owning certified aircraft and renting for 1 or 2 hundred hours would be less expensive then ownership. I originally thought about buying a 20 to 35 thousand certified aircraft. But to me buying something much older could potentially lead to something bad going wrong and I don't want to be stuck with junk that will cost me a bundle to fix and then have a hard time selling. I think it will be better for me to rent until I have what I want.

Airplanes are not like boats or cars. An old plane still has to be brought up to airworthiness standards every year. And a 30 year old plane is not going to depreciate any more in the year or two you own it. Especially if you only put 100 hours on it. Demand a fresh annual before you buy, fly it for a year, then pay for another annual when you sell it. Your costs will be the annual, taxes, fuel, insurance and storage. Now take those costs and figure out the hourly rate, compare that to rentals and see if it makes sense. In my area, rentals start in the low $100s/hour wet.
Also consider a leaseback with a club, where your plane can be rented by others and pay for some of the expenses. I did that with my C150 for two years and it paid for all my maintenance, insurance and storage.
My problem was I traded the plane for the kit and had to then rent to keep current. But I had already done the extra 100 hours and knew I wanted to finish as quickly as possible. I tried to fly a few hours every month, but that turned into every few months. Eventually I just quit flying to focus on finishing the kit.

[BartMan02]

It is hard to beat renting unless you fly a lot. Clubs are good too. If I was going to buy something it would have been a C140. The demand is soft so prices are cheap. Good when you are buying, bad when you are selling. There are valid arguments for any approach, renting, a club, or ownership. You have to pick what is right for you.

I agree Bryan, Renting for a short period of time is absolutely less expensive then ownership. I don't have time to get creative purchasing any aircraft for short term ownership. I am a numbers and bottom line type of guy and I have researched buying an aircraft to death this past year. Purchasing makes no sense for me. And no matter how careful you are at purchasing an older aircraft, anything can still go wrong and I'm just not interested in purchasing or leasing something I really just don't want.