Recession Flying

I just read an interesting article about the decline of general aviation. It was about the "Wonder Bread Theory" of economics. What happens when workers produce more because of better tools yet are paid the same or even less. We all got cheap wonder bread a big factory "pumped out" in the 1950's and it did to the local bakery back then what China is doing to consumer electronics today. And what Wal Mart is doing to everything. And an income gap gets created and chokes the middle class. The amount of money to be spent on a hobby like flying isn't there today as it was in the 60's. The author says a schoolteacher could afford to fly back then, but not now. I couldn't really follow the author's logic through most of it. Some of the economic theory seemed a bit vague. But I liked the article anyway. If the gap between rich and poor is getting larger, that's probably not good. And it could be one reason for the decline of general aviation. If people are getting poorer and poorer in the U.S, and our economy is collapsing, we've got bigger problems to solve than how to fix it so guys can fly little airplanes. But I don't think it's just about economics. I read fifty or more comments from readers about the article. They didn't think it was all about economics either. Are student starts down mostly because of the high cost of lessons?. A lot of the comments I read were from pilots like me who remember back in the day I could rent a 172 for xx dollars. You could buy a cub for xxx dollars. My first lesson was x dollars and I had to walk ten miles through the snow. The cub was on skis. The wheel wasn't invented yet. All these hero stories of the great good ole days are fine. Save them for the campfire or the hangar party. It's hard to accurately compare the economics of the post war era civilian flying to that of today. Inflation is the biggest factor to adjust. The price of new and used airplanes, fuel, maintenance, instruction, compliance with regulations, inspections. These factors all inflate differently. It's complicated. It seems to me that flying has always been expensive. In the good ole days just as today, if you see an aircraft that is worth ten times your salary: somebody rich owns it. The owner may not be the person flying it. Owning an airplane has always been a rich man's game. Yes yes, the J-3 and the Ercoupe were supposed to put an airplane in every driveway. But airplanes have always been about the price of a single family home. I'm not trying to say that it's not more expensive now than ever... I'm not good at math. It is more expensive now. But not enough to kill gen av. I went to the wings and wheels at Georgetown, De. on Sat. It was great. I flew the CherOHkey in, with wife and wife's dad. There was a hundred beautiful classic cars. There were a bunch of war birds. Not one, but 2, B-25 bombers. And very, very few gen av. classics on display. And a low to medium turn out of fly-ins like me in your basic 2 or 4 seater single. I have no idea how the owning of something like these warbirds work. If you're not rich. If your not rich, then I say you can go up to a $100K airplane, and you have to be real dedicated to maintain it. And you can't be married, unless you're wife works and loves the airplane and you have no kids. I know guys who have these $100K airplanes like Stearmans and PT-23/19 Fairchilds, and they do it. But most of the warbirds cost way more than that. Are all these guys rich? Or is the owner off making money or playing golf and some young pilot is flying the thing to the fly-in. Maybe the guy's son. It's a rich man's game. I'm trying to come up with a formula. A way for a twenty something person.....or anybody, to start up and get a private license and fly around every weekend there is nice weather. I know guys who have all the ratings and they can't find a way to do it. Now I'm gonna say something you may not agree with. It's cheaper to go and get a regular license than to go light sport. If you do what I tell you. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with light sport. I'm not saying I don't like light sport. So here's what you do to set yourself up flying: (wait...a couple of caveats.....my list is not step by step really, just facts; and I am going to assume you really, really want to fly and have at least had a ride or two and know that you can basically operate a machine. If you can't master a stick shift car, or can't stand a roller coaster, or get through high school, or read a compass, you won't be able to fly) 1. buy a simple single engine airplane. Anyone can buy a plane. You don't need to be a pilot.I recommend a Cessna 150 or Cessna 152. Yesterday at GED, I saw a nice 150 with good numbers on airframe and engine and it looked like factory paint that was pretty and the guy was asking 18K for it. You will need to hire a mechanic to do a buyers inspection. Not the seller's mechanic. This is routine and most mechanics can do it. And you will be looking and learning too. There are books written about this. Read one. The internet has good stuff of course. 2. to do step one, you need to educate yourself on how to judge and buy an airplane. and you need help and consultation. that stuff is free. Don't get your advice from the guy selling you the plane. All this before- you- buy knowledge is good info. you need as a student pilot anyway. It's free ground school. 3. speaking of ground school, there are lots of them around. Most airports have them. It's not free. But it's a great way to meet other students and instructors and have something structured. It is not required. And it will not spoon feed you. You and you alone must do the book work. All the book work is basically free. Old books are fine for things like aerodynamics, and the controls. Newer books are needed for regulations which will change constantly. You can't study and learn too much or too often. Your study time is like free flying lessons. Write your questions down in a notebook. Almost all your questions will be answered as you go along. Get the current FAA Flight Training Handbook. This is the governments official way to fly, so make it your bible. Also read and own the book "Stick and Rudder" by.....(listen to this guy's name).....Wolfgang Langewiesche. 4. while I'm talking about bookwork... folks may keep mentioning the "written exam". Some folks think that all the book learning is just so you can take and pass the "written" My advice is learn all you can and don't think about the written until you have "soloed". The problem with the written is, it's only good for two years. It expires if you don't get your license within that time. If you take a formal ground school, then by all means, take the written with your class. They will prime you for it. And the exam costs, so you've probably paid for it up front. 5. Look for an instructor. You will own your own plane, so you need an instructor who is willing to "freelance". Explain up front that you have your own plane.Tip: almost all instructors are willing to freelance. Go to the most convenient or favorite airport and start your search there. First just try to talk to the instructors, or get a recommendation from a friend who flies etc. If you don't like an instructor when you meet him....go on to the next guy. If you're not sure, then buy an hour of ground school from the guy. If you think you really like the guy, then buy the shortest lesson in the airplane they will sell you. You want to learn to fly and learn whether this guy is an instructor you like. Keep looking and buying ground school lessons until you find the right man, or woman. The first lesson when you walk in the door is fine, on a pretty day. But don't waste it and the money on an instructor you can already tell that you don't like. Lessons are expensive. You're gonna work the system. Try to get an instructor who is a part timer, free lancer. You've got your own plane and schedule. So you want to hire him to meet your schedule. Not some flight school's. 6. you may want to hire the instructor before you buy the plane, so he can help you find it and inspect it. But you don't have to have him help you do that. Anyone can buy a plane. 7. When you take your first lesson, make sure you're not paying for just a "ride". If you just want a ride at first, that's fine. Buy a ride. But it will cost as much as a lesson. I'm trying to save you money here. On the first lesson you want to be in the left seat. The guy beside you is a certified instructor who will sign your log book for the flight. You should be the one operating the controls, not him. He already knows how to taxi for example. So you should be taxiing. Of course he'll be helping you. Some instructors will fly you around for hours and you'll never learn. If an instructor does that....get another guy. 8. After you get your plane, start looking for some partners. You want at least two. Do not get only one partner. A total of four guys is good too. If someone turns out to be all nuts and wants out of the partnership, than the others can just buy him out. 9. Let's run some numbers. You buy a Cessna 150 for 21K. Three partners, including you. Get an aircraft loan for 10K. Each partner puts up 4K cash. Each partner's monthly payment is $75. There's 1K left over for the first year's insurance. Form a corporation if you want. You can avoid state sales tax. Tie down at the local airfield will be 40 to 80 per month. Say $25 per partner. So each partner pays per month $75 loan payment, $25 tie down, $33. insurance, $150. annual inspection and thru year maintenance. So each partner pays $283 per month. to own and maintain 1/3 of the airplane. About $60. of that is equity per partner against the loan. 10. A hangar can be fun. They are not always available. But you can get on a waiting list if you have an airplane. You might get a hangar for $250. But you've already budgeted $75 for tie down so you'd only have to make up $175. So for an extra 60 per partner, the partnership could keep the plane high and dry and have a place to store tools and parts and have partnership meetings. Hang out. BBQ. You name it. Hangars are great. 11. Now those lessons. With the good instructor. Some numbers we call direct operating costs. Let's pay this great instructor $35 per hour. Remember, if he's truly freelancing, the school doesn't skim 5 or ten off the top for the "dual". That's win win for you and he. Let's say the C- 150 burns 6 gal. per hour of 100LL av. gas at $5. hr. that's $30 an hour for gas. The C-150's Continental Engine has a "time between overhaul" of 1800 hrs. I'm going to guess that overhaul might run 10K. Let's budget $5. per hour as an overhaul fund. We'll change the oil every 25 hours. If we do the oil changes ourselves, they'll run $50. So there's another $2. per hour. We might add 3 or4 qts between oil changes. Let's add another buck an hour for that. So our direct operating costs are $38 per hour solo. And $73. dual. 12. Now let's add that monthly stuff in so we can compare to a flight school. Insurance, tie down, annual inspection, etc. Let's say in the first 12 months of operation we fly 75 hours per partner. That's 6.25 hrs. per month. So $283 divided by 6.25 hrs. is $45.28. call it $45. So now it's $83 solo and $118 dual. And that includes the monthly loan payment. And all expenses. The only thing not factored in is the $4K each partner put up in the purchase of the plane. But that $4K is not gone at all. It comes back whenever the plane is sold. So these numbers compare well even to light sport. :::::+::::: 13. Let's see what it will cost you to get your license. Let's say you get your license at 60 hours and 9 months. Let's say 30 hrs. dual at $73 is 2K. And 30 hrs. solo at $38 is $1150. That's $3150 direct operating cost. Now $283 per month times 9 months is $2547. Lets add in $1000 for the medical, the written, the FAA checkride, books, and ground training. So we're at $6700. Not too shabby. As the number people throw around for a private nowadays is $10K. And I figure about 8K for a light sport license. Again, I didn't count the $4K you put down on the plane. But it's equity. And you just paid off 9 months of the five year loan and I did include that in your license. 14. The biggest reason to have your own plane is scheduling. At a flight school students are always trying to get a cross country, or an important lesson, or a check ride done, and if they or the flight school must cancel for any reason, then the reschedule is tough, because you start all over with a new date two more weeks or so down the road. If you own your own plane, you can go fly when the weather is good. When your instructor is free, etc. With your own plane, after you solo and get certain "sign offs" you can virtually fly your plane anytime you want just like a pilot with a private license, except you can not carry passengers. You can build your time up quick and have lot's of fun and get your private a lot easier. Some students fly solo for hundreds of hours in their own plane having fun and building up their confidence. :::::+::::: 14. Medical certificate. The medical exam certificate doubles as your student pilot's license. You take an exam from an FAA approved doc. It costs about $80. If you are under 40, it's good for three years. Otherwise 2 years. The medical certificate allows your instructor to sign you off for solo. And other sign offs. But you will officially be a student pilot on the day of your very first lesson. Your log book will be signed by your instructor and you will be a student pilot. You must have the medical to solo. You can solo and get a license without a medical if you take lessons under "light sport" rules. But the scheme I've been describing would be for "regular" rules. Everyone is going "light sport". I offer my "scheme" as a way to get a regular license without the light sport restrictions at a comparable or even lesser price. :::::+::::: Gen. Av. Informal