Expensive Thrill

[flynrider]

Never owned an airplane (is there really that many rich dudes on here that own an airplane?) but there ain’t nothin cheap about owning a boat. Been trying to sell mine for months.

That being said, anyone want to buy a boat?

i once very seriously considered gettinga pilots license for single engine crafts, and then i saw the price of the very cheapest used cesna i could find, and promptly forgot that airplanes exist. the cost of even the smallest, crappiest aircraft is absolutely astronomical.

Buying 'em isn't so bad. My current plane is worth about $30K. Lot's of my friends have fancy cars, SUVs or boats that cost quite a bit more than that.

The kicker is parts and maintenance. The manufacturer (Piper in my case) has a monopoly on parts that are legal to use and they can charge pretty much whatever they want. As you can imagine, parts prices can rise to absurd levels. If you need a common part like a starter or alternator, you can find out how much the auto parts store charges, then multiply by 10 for the airplane version.

On top of that there are very intensive annual inspections (about 18 hours of a licensed mechanic's time), and eventually the engine has to be overhauled, which in my case, is pretty close to the value of the plane.

Overall the expense does make motorcycling look pretty cheap. Having the plane (especially now that I'm retired) is one of those things that really puts a dent in the budget, but also makes for some pretty great adventures.