If only...

I'll never own one, but I think the DHC-2 in the OP is one sweet looking plane.
 
I'll settle it: You could use your Beaver to land at your house on the lake to cart you and your guests to and fro from your hangered pc-12 (or pc-24 for you rich folks...).

The AN-2 is good for one water landing only :)

There was an AN-2 at Montgomery Field (MYF) in San Diego with a For Sale sign for several years in the mid-1990s...
 
A quick look on Controller shows:

The cheapest turboprop on Controller is a 1974 Commander 690A with 9000+ hours and 4600 SMOH on each side and 2455 on each hot section for the low low price of $395,000
The cheapest jet on Controller is a 2000 Lear45 with almost 9000 and original engines with around 6500 cycles for the bargain price of $1,480,000
A quick look on Controller shows:

The cheapest turboprop on Controller is a 1974 Commander 690A with 9000+ hours and 4600 SMOH on each side and 2455 on each hot section for the low low price of $395,000
The cheapest jet on Controller is a 2000 Lear45 with almost 9000 and original engines with around 6500 cycles for the bargain price of $1,480,000

Here's a Westwind for $200 K : https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/25054527/1980-westwind-i

A Sabre for a quarter million: https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/1415873/1978-sabre-80

A Lear for $99 K, but needs a hush kit to fly in the US: https://www.controller.com/listings...3/jet-aircraft/manufacturer/learjet/model/24d

A Citation you can fly by yourself for $280K: https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/29314125/1981-cessna-citation-isp
 
A simple comment about the useful load would have been something. Up until then nobody had said anything except "It's a beaver", which isn't very helpful.

In the pics it doesn't seem big enough to utilize the useful load, maybe it's deceptive. I've never seen one in real life.

There was a Beaver at the drop zone I went to while in school. I never progressed far enough to jump from it, but it was impressively large for a single engine airplane. I'd say the same about a Caravan, which I did get to jump from last year.
 
I'll bet I could be burning kerosene in the stratosphere and maybe even have money left over for the maintenance for that money.

You can certainly buy a 1970's bizjet for a quarter million. Most of them will require two pilots, but you can probably find a single pilot early model Citation for that. I believe you need a type rating as well...

This is similar to an argument one could buy a Bonanza for less than the price of a Cessna 185, and fly higher and faster. Factually correct, but an utterly irrelevant comparison.

The Beaver, in both piston and turbine-conversion variation, remains an incredibly popular float plane load hauler out on the west coast. The first picture is of a few of Seair's planes at Coal Harbour, Vancouver, B.C. The second might give a better perspective on how much bigger the DHC-2 Beaver is compared to, say a 185. Next up in the range is the DHC-3 Otter and then the DHC-6 Twin Otter, also very popular float equipped load haulers.

1074396.jpg


sunshine-coast-air.jpg
 

You must have dug for those. I pulled up the main page, show all turboprops, sort cheapest to most expensive, do the same for jets and that's what I got for results. Their website needs an overhaul if they aren't sorting the way they are supposed to be.

https://www.controller.com/listings...ategory/3/jet-aircraft?sortorder=28&SCF=False

https://www.controller.com/listings...y/8/turboprop-aircraft?sortorder=28&SCF=False
 
You must have dug for those. I pulled up the main page, show all turboprops, sort cheapest to most expensive, do the same for jets and that's what I got for results. Their website needs an overhaul if they aren't sorting the way they are supposed to be.

https://www.controller.com/listings...ategory/3/jet-aircraft?sortorder=28&SCF=False

https://www.controller.com/listings...y/8/turboprop-aircraft?sortorder=28&SCF=False

Not too much. Having grown up in the era when bizjets were just coming into being, I remembered the old names and figured they'd be cheap: Sabreliner, Lockheed JetStar, Jet Commander nee Westwind, and the early turbojet Lears, and looked to see if any were for sale. Then I wanted to add in a single pilot Citation so that @steingar could go fly by himself if he wanted. It does sound like Controller's search function leaves a little to be desired.

To @GRG55 's point, yes it is a silly comparison, the opex of one of these old jets is vastly more than what a Beaver costs to fly, and they have completely different missions.
 
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