I'm an aircraft owner!

RyanShort1

RyanShort1

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
6,480
Location
Dallas, Texas
Display Name
RyanShort1
Home Airfield
KRBD
So this is our new bird!

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I have to complete a few more hours of time in her before I can give dual, but she'll be available for dual and rental (with 10 hours time in type) within a week or two. We hope to use the aircraft for Sport Pilot and tailwheel training in the Central Texas area.

Ryan
 
Nice! That's a good looking plane. Simple. Seductive. I would fly her brains out.
 
So one of the things we found out is that rental and instruction insurance is quite pricey - to the tune of nearly $4000/yr. I decided to bite the bullet and we'll be seeing if we can make a go of it here in the Austin area starting next month after I've got some things sorted out. She's a Taylorcraft BC-12D and can do 95 mph or better in level cruise on the same horsepower and approximate fuel burn as the J-3 I've been flying (and plan to continue flying as well) down in Boerne.

Ryan
 
RyanShort1 said:
So one of the things we found out is that rental and instruction insurance is quite pricey - to the tune of nearly $4000/yr. I decided to bite the bullet and we'll be seeing if we can make a go of it here in the Austin area starting next month after I've got some things sorted out. She's a Taylorcraft BC-12D and can do 95 mph or better in level cruise on the same horsepower and approximate fuel burn as the J-3 I've been flying (and plan to continue flying as well) down in Boerne.

Ryan
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That's not too bad; I considered doing lease-back of my Apache for cheap so that people at my original base airport had easy access to the multi-rating. The cheapest we could find was $11k. At a planned wet rental price of $120/hr, it would have been impossible to reclaim even half (assuming $6/gal fuel and 18gph worst-case).

Still, I guess it depends on how much you pull in on top of the operating cost and how popular of a trainer it will be.
 
Congratulations, and welcome to the club!
Have fun, there's nothing like having a set of plane keys in your pocket.
 
RyanShort1 said:
So one of the things we found out is that rental and instruction insurance is quite pricey - to the tune of nearly $4000/yr. I decided to bite the bullet and we'll be seeing if we can make a go of it here in the Austin area starting next month after I've got some things sorted out. She's a Taylorcraft BC-12D and can do 95 mph or better in level cruise on the same horsepower and approximate fuel burn as the J-3 I've been flying (and plan to continue flying as well) down in Boerne.

Ryan
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I did my last flight review in a Taylocraft - they were charging $75 per hour - about the same as a Cessna 150 at another airport down the road a bit.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I did my last flight review in a Taylocraft - they were charging $75 per hour - about the same as a Cessna 150 at another airport down the road a bit.
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I would bet that the aircraft didn't have insurance then... or it flies at least 200 hours a year. Break even at 150 hours for me is going to be close to $100/hr.

Ryan
 
RyanShort1 said:
I would bet that the aircraft didn't have insurance then... or it flies at least 200 hours a year. Break even at 150 hours for me is going to be close to $100/hr.
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Could be dual-only, too. The Interstate S1A that I got my t/w in is insured like that. Good for flight reviews, not good for having solo students.
 
RyanShort1 said:
So one of the things we found out is that rental and instruction insurance is quite pricey - to the tune of nearly $4000/yr. I decided to bite the bullet and we'll be seeing if we can make a go of it here in the Austin area starting next month after I've got some things sorted out. She's a Taylorcraft BC-12D and can do 95 mph or better in level cruise on the same horsepower and approximate fuel burn as the J-3 I've been flying (and plan to continue flying as well) down in Boerne.

Ryan
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You can always use to non-owner insurance combined with your own policy to get around that.

Good method, as the student pays 2-3 hundred upfront, covers them on any plane (value to them) and gets some initial skin in the game on their part (value to you)
 
NineThreeKilo said:
You can always use to non-owner insurance combined with your own policy to get around that.

Good method, as the student pays 2-3 hundred upfront, covers them on any plane (value to them) and gets some initial skin in the game on their part (value to you)
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That's good so long as it isn't a mechanical issue. Then the owner still has liability. That's why I'm going with the I&R coverage route.

Ryan
 
I like it! The first taildragger I got a ride in was a T-cart - belonged to my primary instructor.

Nice airplanes, steeped in nostalgia!
 
Congrats Ryan! Here is something a friend who has a Tcraft sent me:

One Friday at Oshkosh, Pitts instructor and magazine writer Budd Davisson (www.airbum.com) gave his annual standing-room-only forum about taildragger flying. Always informative and entertaining.

During the Q&A, new BC12-D owner Blake Carlson of Crookston, MN asked, "Any advice specific to Taylorcrafts?"

Davisson answered, "To land a Taylorcraft, keep telling yourself on final, 'I'm flying a maple seed. I'm flying a maple seed.' And remember that with a Taylorcraft, the throttle is mostly just a volume control."

Davisson then explained for the rest of the audience that Taylorcrafts have lower wing loading than some sailplanes, and take some skill to fly well.

He continued, "People see some guy wheel-land a P-51 at a fly-in and think he's a hot pilot. But the guy coming in behind him, three-pointing a Taylorcraft in a 15-knot, 30-degree crosswind, he's the hot pilot."
 
The only bad thing that ever happened to me in my T-Craft was the webbing on the hammock seat ripped.

It was hard to steer while sitting on the longeron.
 
Over the runway in landing attitude, unlock both doors. On count of three the guy in the right seat (or whoever is PNF) opens both doors simultaneously to increase drag and help it want to land. Works like a charm.

Jeanie said:
Congrats Ryan! Here is something a friend who has a Tcraft sent me:

One Friday at Oshkosh, Pitts instructor and magazine writer Budd Davisson (www.airbum.com) gave his annual standing-room-only forum about taildragger flying. Always informative and entertaining.

During the Q&A, new BC12-D owner Blake Carlson of Crookston, MN asked, "Any advice specific to Taylorcrafts?"

Davisson answered, "To land a Taylorcraft, keep telling yourself on final, 'I'm flying a maple seed. I'm flying a maple seed.' And remember that with a Taylorcraft, the throttle is mostly just a volume control."

Davisson then explained for the rest of the audience that Taylorcrafts have lower wing loading than some sailplanes, and take some skill to fly well.

He continued, "People see some guy wheel-land a P-51 at a fly-in and think he's a hot pilot. But the guy coming in behind him, three-pointing a Taylorcraft in a 15-knot, 30-degree crosswind, he's the hot pilot."
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Nice looking Taylorcraft!

A guy at our club owns one, and I got a ride when we had our annual pumpkin-drop contest at Halloween. You can see it about a minute into this video - it's a great plane for having fun.
 
Fun Flying, economical bird. Gotta love the T-craft
 

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Nice plane Ryan! BTW, I'll be in SA again for the holidays. May look you up again at Boerne Stage.
 
Ryan, great looking T-craft!! Im hoping to have mine back to 100% first of the year. They are super fun airplanes! As mentioned earlier, if you come in hot you are going to float a lot!

kgruber said:
The only bad thing that ever happened to me in my T-Craft was the webbing on the hammock seat ripped.

It was hard to steer while sitting on the longeron.
Click to expand...

That happened on my last flight about .5 seconds before touchdown :yikes:
 
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