Somebody check my thinking please
 

If you read my first post on this forum you'll find that I'm one of many who started their PPL then life got in the way, etc.etc.

Anyway, I'm about to start flying again at a cost of $135 per hour wet and $50 for the instructor. Slight conflict of interest or a huge bonus depending upon how you look at it, the instructor works for me at my day job.

I'm looking on Aero Trader and have found several Piper Cherokees for sale. I want a low wing. Here's my thinking:

I could buy a plane and (I assume...yeah I know what the alternate meaning for that is) the payments would be less than what I would pay a flight school for the 8-10 flights per month AND I'd be able to fly more often. I could make a deal with my instructor that he'd be able to use the plane every once in a while for his own purposes to pay him for his instruction outside the flight school for whom he works.

Variables I don't know the answers to and keep in mind, this is just preliminary thinking:

Financing an airplane - who to go through? Bought several cars and a couple of houses but never an airplane.
Hanger fees - in Tucson I've heard anywhere from $250 and up.
Insurance - total loss at who and how much it will cost for someone in my situation.
Annual and 100 hour inspections - no clue as to the cost and I know it depends upon the condition of whatever I buy.

In addition to the above, what else do I need to think about?

Lastly - and most surprisingly, the wife fully support this idea. Whodathunkit?

edit: afterthought - I will eventually build an RV-7A. I don't want to buy one straightaway as I want to be able to accomplish that goal on my own at a later date. I know that an older plane will drain the savings account I would have put aside for the RV...or not and I can eventually sell the plane to finish up the RV.

After some bad experiences at a flying club and life getting in the way, I bought a Cherokee 140 and hired a flight instructor. That decision made getting my license so much easier and affordable. I highly recommend getting your own plane to learn on.

That's basically what I did. I bought a Cherokee 180 and flew for a little over three years. I got my IFR and my son got his PPL. I sold it so that I could afford purchasing the IO-540 for my RV. I was able to sell it for the cost of the 180 and upgrades. All I was out was the variable costs, like fuel, insurance, hangar, etc. Made for some less expensive flying.

The gotchas is the annual for an older Cherokee. They can run from $700 to several thousand a year.

It's kind of like flipping houses. If you buy low, sell high, it's great. Vice versa, not so great. You also bear the risk of unexpected major maintenance (like engine overhaul) or some expensive AD.
Many people report a positive experience going this route. Those who lose their shirts tend to keep quiet. So it can work, just remember you do take on some financial risk.
If you do go this route it's best to fly more often, say, at least 3 times a week or more, or else those fixed costs will eat you up.
Finally, examine your relationship with your employee carefully. You need a cfi who can say, "No, you are not yet ready to solo" without fear of losing his day job.

Bob,

I wouldn't put him in that situation in the first place. One of the incentives to kick out the instructor is the cost to keep him in the right seat along with the hourly cost of the plane which I'm paying the school. Besides, I don't sign his paycheck, Uncle Sam does.

The advice so far is good, keep it coming guys so I can make a decision before the wife changes her mind. :D

In my 37 years of flying, I've seen what you propose work several times. As a gross rule of thumb, maintenance cost per hour for a simple certificated airplane like a Cherokee or C-172 is about the same as for fuel, assuming it's in reasonable condition to start with. Add your fixed costs like insurance and hangar to that. When shopping for an airplane, don't be lured in by deals that look too good to be true, because they probably are. Buy the best airplane you can afford and you'll be ahead in the long run.

i'll second this

after seeing how much confusion there is about proper leaning techniques and watching how renters try to save a buck or or two at the expense of engine health, no thanks, i'll stick to my own craft

i mean we're talking cutting the master while taxiing out to save a few hobbs, imagine what they're doing with the red knob in cruise, and you're the next guy to fly the plane

Buy This Plane
 

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=125373

Posted 35 min before yours and . . . get thousands of builders.flyers to help on this site.

RV6 Built by Ken Krueger $45k

Not yet mentioned, but in my case a big issue, is not being able to get the plane when you want to rent it! That and getting an instructor all at a time my busy military schedule would allow was just not working. When you wait too long between lessons, you forget all you learned in the last one, and on and on it goes. Retired and with my own plane, it was a fun, fast trip to a PP license.

Excellent idea.

A few phone calls will get the information you need about prices, but a general idea might be that if you fly that plane 80 to 120 hours a year, the total cost will be roughly what local flight schools get for an airplane of similar power and complexity.

Things like hangar get paid monthly. Things like the annual ($700 to $1,500 a year, 2 or 3 times that the first time), taxes and insurance get paid annually.

I'd recommend that you choose an airplane that cruises at least 120 mph so that you'll want to actually go places in it once you've got that PPL.

Dave