1) Buy an engine with a low time engine straight out. Accept old IFR instruments.
2) Buy the avionics I want, plan to replace an engine within 500 hours
3) Finance the plane, get low time engine, install new avioncs
4) forget the engine fund, buy the best I can.
Your thoughts?
You’re asking what I would do in your shoes so here it is. You get to choose though, since you’re an adult.
1. Is a sure fire money burner. New avionics depreciate by half the moment they’re installed. Buy the aircraft with the panel you want. BUT... right now with only a couple of years to the mandate deadline aircraft that have those toys are owned, loved, and being flown. Aircraft that don’t have those toys, some owners are going to dump them before they have to sink $10,000+ into the panel. Shop around. Of course.
2. Avionics are unrelated to the engine. See below. Keep them separate in the analysis.
3. Never finance a depreciating asset if you can avoid it. Ever. That’s just multiplying pain and increasing total cost. If you do, always keep total value of all depreciating assets owned well below half of your household annual income. Depreciating assets are a sneaky way to take your money out back and light piles of cash on fire in the back yard. Car enthusiasts do this and become “car poor” by buying things they can’t sell next year for what they paid for them. Machines generally go down in value. Airplanes go down in value in stages as the engine time is run off and pop back up with new engines.
*** The thing about financing is it adds risk. Adding risk to life for a toy can make the toy a burden rather than a blessing. If you buy toys outright they can sit parked if you lose a job or any other normal life fiscal risks come along, and you won’t feel nearly as bad about it as writing that monthly loan check. ***
4. The engine fund IS maintenance. Just deferred maintenance. Every time you start the engine you’re removing life from the aircraft. Not optional. You either have the money saved up when it needs it, or the airplane gets parked. Doesn’t matter if you keep it in an account marked “engine fund” or some other account, but you need the ability to replace or repair the engine tomorrow if it eats a valve. Or if you don’t, your options become severely limited. You either have a nice 3000 lb paperweight or you fix it.
Going back to number one, it has a benefit if you’re willing to eat the instant depreciation of avionics and want the stuff, but can defer pleasure for a little while. You can save money for a couple of years above and beyond the maintenance costs and future engine replacement and buy it exactly how you want it, while still flying something within your budget.
See note about mandate above also, you have a deadline for ADS-B if you’re flying in that airspace. So you’d need to decide if you’re saving up that much money on top of flying expenses for roughly two years. Wouldn’t give yourself longer, avionics shops will be full if you wait to the last month. Most are currently booked out six months already. The numbers say there aren’t enough shop hours left to handle all the aircraft that will need ADS-B. Some people are already looking at being grounded for a while and don’t know it.
My gut feel if you want to go 150 is that an older Mooney in good shape will do the job cheaper than the Bo. Simpler systems and maintenance, smaller engine, less fuel. Your options are going to be very limited at that price point.
If load carrying isn’t a common need in your mission profile or lots of operations out of hot and high elevation airports, you might also look at Debonaires if you must do the Bo thing. I mentionit because they’ll do it, not because they’ll be cheap. They get pushed up in price just because they look like a Bo.
Also wouldn’t rule out a well built RV or other popular EXP if you have the aptitude to maintain it and/or local support of builders that know RVs. Gives you a ton more options for cheaper but plenty solid avionics and also maintenance savings if you’re willing to turn a wrench.
Finally I wouldn’t rule out co-ownership. Biggest bang for the buck is the first co-owner. 50% discount on everything and even two weekend warriors can find a schedule that works very easily. A 50% discount in a hobby is rare and is nothing to sneeze at.
