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spiderweb

spiderweb

Final Approach
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Ben
You have just come into some money--enough that the interest allow you to retire. After calculating cost of living and reinvestment amounts, you determine that you will have $100,000 each year for aviation. (This means, of course, either that you are not married, your spouse is a pilot, or you have $300,000 for other pleasures.) Anyway, what aircraft would you purchase? Would it be new or used? Remember, that $100,000 is all for aviation.

I think I would buy a three or four year-old Seneca V. I could take out a ten year loan which would probably run me $60,000 per year, and I'd estimate flying 200 hours per year in it would cost me about $40,000, everything included.
 
I would build hangars wherever I could find places with lots of planes tied down and rent them out. Now my aviation fund per yer just doubled :) but since I'm limited to 100k. Repeat as necessary. Oh I'm limited to 100k in aviation. I guess I'll have to divert 100k to an "other fund"
 
I'm extremely low maintenance so what would keep others in $100K/yr would probably give me $200K/yr most likely. I'd sit on the money for a year while getting my act together. For $200K I know I can come up with land, cabin, grass runway, hangar, etc. If that stuff is included separate (cost of living or startup expenses), that just moves up the calendar window considerably. At that point I win the game because my cost of living drops to operating cost and for me that's not much.

$100K/yr aviation expenses? That's what? 26,000 gallons of 100LL. Overestimate and say 20 gallons/hr, that's 1300 hours/yr minus maintenance costs. Way too much flying time realistically. I would be willing to reduce that amount slightly and buy (in full, zero interest) an older CE185 with floats, tundra tires, skis, STOL, etc. (Don't need no steenking jet engines or computers or tv's on the panel of my aeroplane) The next year's $$ would be used to bring it completely up to my standards and keep it there. I can easily see a supercub or Cherokee 180 sharing the hangar a few years later. A&P license is mandatory.

A scaled down version of this plan is in the initial stages right now though I'll have to keep the money coming in unless I win the lottery or such in the meantime. May not be pretty but it's doable.
 
Ben said:
Anyway, what aircraft would you purchase?
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Someties called "the greatest machine created to turn gasoline into noise"... T6. Let that big round Pratt and Whitney drink!
 
Without crunching the numbers to come up with specific models, I would make sure I had a sport/acro plane that would probably be a Citabria, Extra, CJ-6 or LoPresti Fury, and augment it with a Saratoga/Bonanza, and if there was money left over I'd keep a Lake Amphibian in the back yard with a ramp down to the water.
 
Modest small home out in the country with enough land for a grass strip.

A 185 (with float kit) and Citabria in the barn would do just nicely.

Maybe add a 195 to the barn sometime down the road.

Love my family, fly lots, complain little.
 
A lot of this sounds optimistic. I'm thinking $40,000 a year for 200 hours of flying a newish Seneca V. That money is everything--gas, maintainance, training, annual, hangar. I think with 200 hours of flying, estimating $200 per hour in the Seneca is probably reasonable.

I'm hoping annuals on a two or three year-old twin would average about $5000 or so. At 200 hours per year, I'd want to be ready for new engines at 1,600 hours, to be safe. That means I'd need new engines in eight years. I'm thinking that new engines and props would run me about $60,000, so I'm factoring in $7,500 per year for those.

(Bruce, any thoughts?)
 
Richard said:
Caravan on floats or an Albatross with cargo layout.
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That sounds great, but how much flying could you do on $100k per year? You could probably get a good older Caravan for $700k, but you'd need a 15 year loan. I'm not sure how much you'd have left over after your annual loan payments. Nice thing, though, is that even though you're maintaining a turbine engine, there's only one of them, and it should last, what, 3,000 hours?
 
wangmyers said:
You have just come into some money--enough that the interest allow you to retire. After calculating cost of living and reinvestment amounts, you determine that you will have $100,000 each year for aviation. (This means, of course, either that you are not married, your spouse is a pilot, or you have $300,000 for other pleasures.) Anyway, what aircraft would you purchase? Would it be new or used? Remember, that $100,000 is all for aviation.
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I think I'd have to design and build something around an FJ44 engine or maybe a PT-6 although I'd like to get away from propellors. Possibly amphibious, along the lines of the Seawind but with a bit more cabin and a lot more fuel, 2500 miles worth. Either that or redo a PBY.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Modest small home out in the country with enough land for a grass strip.

A 185 (with float kit) and Citabria in the barn would do just nicely.

Maybe add a 195 to the barn sometime down the road.

Love my family, fly lots, complain little.
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A 195 eh? Best get some time in that 185 first and get good at landing it with foggles on.
 
Henning said:
A 195 eh? Best get some time in that 185 first and get good at landing it with foggles on.
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Something about the 195 really gets to me, like it does when looking at and driving my Dad's '46 Chrysler Windsor (A really sweet car in top condition). Maybe the elegance of days past, and the great optimism looking forward. Even the old ads for the 195 are very cool.

I really like the old style interior, the "streamliner" look (maybe?), the radial engine...and, the 195 is a cool classic plane that I could actually own someday.

Now, if we're talking cool classic planes that I don't have a chance of owning, I *lust* after the Spartan Executive. What a hot bird!
 
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I'd step up from the Citabria to a Super Decathlon (with spades!), and trade in the Skyhawk for a Skylane. Gotta luv those beautiful high-winged airplanes. :)
 
Well, based on my level of experience and what I'm familiar with, I'd get my own Super Decathlon, keep it in a hangar, and take glider lessons and lots of acro with all my spare time. I want to learn how to do that very high-altitude gliding.

I'd fly at least 3 times a week.
 
Diana said:
and trade in the Skyhawk for a Skylane. Gotta luv those beautiful high-winged airplanes. :)
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I don't find the Skyhawk very pleasing aesthetically, but Cessna got something right on the Skylane, they look really nice. Maybe its the more smoothed cowling and more graceful transition from the cabin into the tail section.

If I go travel plane when the time comes, the Tiger and Skylane are running neck and neck (for different reasons).
 
Bill Jennings said:
Now, if we're talking cool classic planes that I don't have a chance of owning, I *lust* after the Spartan Executive. What a hot bird!
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A Beech Staggerwing would do it for me, or maybe a Cessna T-50 so I could have two of those engines you like on the 195.
 
Diana said:
Lance, what's a Cessna T-50?
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Not Lance, nor do I play him on TV... but if I may (and boy will I be embarrassed if I'm wrong!), I think that'd be the "Bobcat", otherwise known as the "Bamboo Bomber" (think Sky King... earlier, before the Cessna 310).
 
T Bone said:
Not Lance, nor do I play him on TV... but if I may (and boy will I be embarrassed if I'm wrong!), I think that'd be the "Bobcat", otherwise known as the "Bamboo Bomber" (think Sky King... earlier, before the Cessna 310).
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Oh, I see now. I need to refresh the page before I answer! :D

In my defense, I was still bouncing around over on the Viper Jet site, and contemplating landings in a Cessna 195 (there's one at my home field, which is only 2556 feet. I guess if you're not gonna get to SEE the runway, it might as well be a short one!).
 
Define the mission.

If it's just you & you're doing a lot of long distance traveling, I might opt for something turbine powered. $100K a year should about cover it.

If you're into aerobatics, an Extra might do it.

Or you get two. A Stearman just for fun and a moderate piston traveling machine.

Not enough info....
 
I really only need about 30K to do most everything I want or have the time to do. If I had to spend it on aviation then I guess I'd donate the rest to aviation related charity
 
wangmyers said:
That sounds great, but how much flying could you do on $100k per year? You could probably get a good older Caravan for $700k, but you'd need a 15 year loan. I'm not sure how much you'd have left over after your annual loan payments. Nice thing, though, is that even though you're maintaining a turbine engine, there's only one of them, and it should last, what, 3,000 hours?[/QUOTE

I've already thought about that. Either get some rich, fun-loving partners or put it on someone's 135 ticket and do things like haul dredge equipment to the Yukon or surfboard blanks to Costa Rica.

Henning mentioned the PBY. That reminds me of a plan my brother and some partners had in the mid 1980s. One of his partners had a contract to haul equipment to the placer miners on the Yukon. They found 2 PBYs at Mojave to be outfitted but after much planning they found they couldn't afford the projected annual mx.

Myself, I think hauling sports down south would be the ticket. Fly in, meet the boat, collect the money...ah, the life.
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