Would You Buy A Plane Just For Training?

There are a few more costs to put into your spreadsheet:
- maintenance (tires, brakes, oil changes, lights, instruments, radios, ELT, dead battery assistance, etc.)
- annual inspection
- tie-down or hangar rent
- oil consumption (not unusual for older planes to need a quart of oil every 2nd or 3rd fill-up on fuel)
- insurance costs may be higher than you think since the instructor would be PIC
- property taxes (often minimal for planes)
- annual State registration (often minimal for planes)
- company set-up such as legal fees, state fees, etc. (a lot of folks own their plane within an LLC or Sub-S Corp - provides a layer of protecting personal assets in case the worst case scenario happens)
- time and elbow grease to wash the plane yourself or pay someone to wash it for you
- potential ferry costs if you can't get all repair work done at your home field
- subscription costs for charts and publications
- landing fees at certain airports
- tie-down guest fees if you stay somewhere overnight
- loss of investment return potential for money tied up in the purchase of the airplane

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Buy your last airplane first.

Get your PPL in a rental.

Go buy your last airplane and do your IFR in it.

 

I wouldn't. I'm flying a 1977 c172 for my ppl right now. It's always having little issues pop up. The window latch fell off in the runup area and no one could find it. I broke the seat a while back- requiring all new tracks and seat frame hardware. The landing light kept burning out, so they finally replaced it with an LED one. The radios also suck and the GPS is from 1994!

 

The short answer from someone that has done it before is yes. It allows you a freedom to learn and freedom of use that a rental never will. And you might make a few coins on resale of you buy it right. I speak from experience. 38 years of flying and counting. Do it!

 

Jason that's not really practical if someone wants a jet or turboprop is it?

 

I think it's a good idea. It gives you a lot of flexibility, and the opportunity to build some time once you have your license.

 

My first 2 planes I owned, a 177 and 210 I did a leaseback through a local FBO, they hammered them pretty well but I was able to do the avionics work on them and traded A&P work...made ownership affordable at the time.. just be careful if you choose a leasback route....

 

When I owned, I calculated that I had to fly at least 200 hours per year to break-even or better versus rental of a similar airplane. There are a lot of fixed costs that go out the door, regardless of how often you fly. There are also variable costs that you have to remember to include. One of these is engine rebuild allocation; though if you find a plane with a recently rebuilt engine and pass it on with an addition of just 50-100 hours, then it probably won't affect your asking price very much. Net, for a beginning flier, it will cost a lot more unless you can share it with 2-3 others.

Here's a comparison of ownership costs by flying hours that someone did:

Aircraft Ownership VS. Aircraft Rental

The plus to owning while learning is that the plane is always available to you and you know what condition it is in. It's also nice to learn IFR in the same plane you get your PPL, but that probably moves you up to at least a 172 that's better equipped, so it won't be $20K.

I rented a flight school Piper Warrior to get my PPL, then bought a HP complex single with a full panel to get my IFR rating. My idea was that would be the plane that I would keep for a while and have fun in post-rating. In retrospect that made things harder, due to the much higher speed of that plane, which gave me much less time to plan and execute approaches, though it was nice to get trained with the equipment I would be using flying solo IFR.

 

You could possibly get something like a Citabria, which would give you taildragger time plus aerobatics - it would be worth keeping later on even if you wanted something more advanced for transportation purposes. Note however, that these are not usable for IFR training - but neither is a 150/152.

To me, a 150/152 or similar is not worth much except as a trainer...not even the aerobatic versions.

 

I really want a Citabria!

 

Super Decathlon 180hp is even better...you can pick up on flaps and retractable gear later on after you get down basic stick & rudder - which any of the Citabria family will certainly teach you.

One thing to note is that it will be easier to learn aerobatics with a Decathlon because of the constant speed prop. This prevents you from over-revving the engine every time you put the nose down.

 

I went through this in the last year, in my opinion it all depends on what you want to do with your license. I started out and soloed in my instructors 172, and took a ride in a Cub the same day. That was an expensive mistake/blessing. The 11th hour in my log book is the first flight in my Cub I bought a couple weeks after soloing, and flew it almost exclusively after that. I used the 172 for my check ride and still fly it occasionally to stay proficient, which is a piece of cake after getting comfortable with taildraggers.

I'm happy with my job but wanted to work towards getting my commercial, that all changed after buying a Cub. Flying it is enough to keep me happy, I'm still planning to add an IFR equipped plane in the next couple years once I complete my ticket though.

Long time lurker, first time poster. The depth of knowledge here is amazing, great site.

 

The citabriab and decathlon are over $20,000.

 

The one I want is a 7GCBC, which is both aerobatic and has flaps. True, it can't do what a Decathlon can do, but I really don't want to do outside maneuvers anyway-- and being able to land on a sand bar would be pretty darn cool.

 

A Cub or a Cessna 140 would also be a great choice. My brother bought a 140 on eBay for around $18k, and it's been a great airplane. He eventually sold it, for more than he paid for it.

 

Hell No !!!

The basic trainer is out grown as soon as the ticket comes. Boring holes in the sky is about all the basic trainer can supply...

it takes a better platform to advance pilot skills...

economics do not make any sense except for the joy riding one can do in a trainer as no additional skill sets are being added while resources are being consumed

if ownership is a goal, post #4 makes sense, get a plane that will advance the skill sets and would allow for easy transition to other type ratings

 

I would, and in fact did do exactly that. I bought a used Citabria 7KCAB. Learned my PPL, in my second logbook entry there is: "Aileron rolls to the right and left" etc. Needless to say, my check ride was a breeze. After my PPL, I towed banners a few times, and learned to tow gliders as well.

Once I got tired of that, I sold the plane for close to what I paid, and bought my first of many Bonanzas for going places. I've almost never been a renter, although smart money says; 'if it floats, flies or ****s, rent'. Guess I'm not smart money.

One thing I strongly recommend, is buy a plane you are interested in maintaining yourself. You can very quickly get upside down badly on a plane you need to have repaired often. A&Ps charge money, but on an early fabric or Al airframe the owner can do a ton of service, and almost anything under supervision. If you are not one of those handy guys(I know you are cause you own a vintage F car), owning is not for you.

Leasebacks can potentially defray a small part of your ownership costs. But - the leaseback shop has many, many ways of making your ownership experience with them a nightmare. Ask around with the owners about the FBO before getting involved with them in a leaseback. It can go well, or it can go very bad.

I recommend a Citabria 7ECA, or Taylorcraft, or Luscombe. Not a fan of 150/152, but nothing wrong with them if you can keep it under gross with you and inst on board.

As always; YMMV, don't try this at home, pro driver close course, and may cause anal leakage!

 

Wrong. You can easily do more than bore holes in the sky with a nice Currus SR22 which also makes a great platform to learn in. Nobody here is talking about buying a 152.

 

Sure it is. Rent til you get there.

 

Which is less than a top of the line Italian motorcycle.

I bought my 7ECA Citabria in 1981 for 11,000 and sold it in 1986 for 24,000. The maintenance was less than my Ferrari, but of course I did have to rent a hanger...you simply do not leave a fabric plane on outside tie-downs in Oklahoma if you want to keep it.

I want to emphasize one point about the down side of buying one of these as a trainer - and that is the important IFR ticket. You will have to budget the 40 hours or so in an IFR equipped trainer to get this, and that is an expense not covered by the Citabria cost.

In my case, I already had my ticket ten years before the Citabria so it was not an issue.

 

Your on the right path. But, consider a Warrior II. Four seats. Cheap price. Bullet proof. Far cheaper than renting.

 

If you want to save money, join a club that runs a cheap plane. Your fixed costs will be 1/4th to 1/6th of what they would be otherwise. You will recover your initial investment when you sell your share. All you pay are variable costs, instructor costs, and 1/4th-1/6th of the fixed costs.

It's what I did, and I saved thousands. Our club had a 152.

I never bothered with an IFR. Having worked up a spreadsheet, I would use the same strategy with an IFR plane.

Even when it comes to buying, I will buy in partnership. Makes sense. Costs are split and you get 100% of the benefits of owning one by yourself (if other members are nice and your schedules don't conflict).