Financing an affordable plane, or, is aviation REALLY available to the masses

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Originally Posted by geosnooker2000

All I'm asking is, is aviation REALLY available to the middle class? Because The scenario I just painted is, in my opinion, a MINIMUM situation. Nothing could be described in that as extravagant. Please. Tell me I've got this all wrong.

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I've always been middle class guy, I've owned 5 airplanes so far but I would have never been able to do it the way you are suggesting. While you can buy a ~$25k airplane today, you can also spend $20k just in the first year of owning and flying it if you plan to fly and write checks. Same for the second year.

If I could go back and do it all again, I'd buy an airplane before taking the first lesson.Would have flown more, had a bigger head start on leaning how to keep cost down and would have owned even more planes.

The price of a "new family car" also covers a lot of ground. One model of 4-door sedan alone runs $16K to $40K depending on trim level. It's not even slightly difficult to spend well over that. And of course car manufacturers offer all sorts of financing that you simply won't get for a 40 or 50 year old airplane.

Again... forget "aircraft financing" companies. Pay for this like any other $20-30K toy you would buy, like a boat or a classic car. And do look into clubs and partnerships, it's more than likely you won't fly it enough yourself to require sole exclusive access to it. In 3 years of co-ownership, my partner and I have never had an actual conflict that inconvenienced either of us. Just one other owner cuts the fixed costs in half, and you've always got someone to help out when something needs to be done or you don't feel like flying alone.

But in the end, the "Can I afford it?" question can only be answered by one person. If you're toward the $40K end of the "middle class" scale, you're gonna have to really want it or share ownership. If you're on the other end, it might be a little easier.

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Originally Posted by geosnooker2000

I'm not going to defend myself on financial decisions in this thread, other than to say, We don't buy new cars, we don't have credit-card debt, and we are Dave Ramsey fans. But this is getting too micro-centric. I was asking if, in general, people felt the average ordinary guy (or gal) can afford to fly? Not - "can geosnooker2000 afford to fly?"

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Wow. Sorry if you saw my post as an attack. It certainly wasn't meant to be. It was meant to say "If I can, so can anyone else." And went into a bit of detail as to how I have been able to own multiple aircraft for over 40 years now. My apologies if you read something else into it.

-Cub Builder

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Originally Posted by cub builder

Wow. Sorry if you saw my post as an attack. It certainly wasn't meant to be. It was meant to say "If I can, so can anyone else." And went into a bit of detail as to how I have been able to own multiple aircraft for over 40 years now. My apologies if you read something else into it.

-Cub Builder

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Oh, no, NO! I didn't take it as an attack! I'm just having a conversation, and I appreciate ALL of y'all's views. I knew that first sentence was gonna come across more "extra" as the kids say these days than I intended. I just was saying I wanted for us to discuss this from a macro perspective, and not a micro perspective.

I was considering buying a 1965 Cessna 150 a couple of months ago, went to see it a couple of times, went over the logs and took a flight in it. It was very affordable and the TTAF was less that 4000 hrs and the engine was strong and had a little over 1200 hrs on it. I even had an instructor that said he would use it for his students as much as possible. Also, I could have bought it outright without financing it and there was no tie down fee at the airport. BUT, after checking on insurance and annual inspection fees, getting the required ADS-B, and thinking, what if I have to do major work to the engine, and what about that squeal in the radio, I could see thousands of $$$ going by by, and that would have put me in a bad place. So, for now, I'll just rent, I won't be flying as much as I'd like, but my mind is at ease.
Bob

A few thoughts:
1. I would at least solo with a rental before buying my own plane.
2. If you are a stable individual you may ask a seller if they will carry a note on a plane you are interested in. I know people who have done this and were able to get a nicer plane than they would have gotten from a bank. be professional, have it drawn up correctly, offer to have the payments auto deposited to their account. Make the down payment big enough so that they feel good about it. Make sure the plane is insured with their ownership interest protected in case something does go bad.
let us know how it works out! -Robert

I financed a $16,800 Cessna 120 with a loan from my credit union, and paid it off early. I financed a $24,000 Stinson 108-2 with a loan from AOPA’s finance company partner at the time, and had no trouble, and I didn’t have any 6 times the $ needed! Payments were low. I was also only in my 30’s!

I’m glad I did, I was able to get two planes that were a blast to fly and were not available to rent, anywhere. I put hundreds of hours on them flying whenever I wanted, and I didn’t have to schedule with anyone. I still have the Stinson. Do it, you will not regret it, try a bank loan or another finance co if one gives you too much grief- they’re out there!


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Originally Posted by dwmmg08

I financed a $16,800 Cessna 120 with a loan from my credit union, and paid it off early. I financed a $24,000 Stinson 108-2 with a loan from AOPA’s finance company partner at the time, and had no trouble, and I didn’t have any 6 times the $ needed! Payments were low. I was also only in my 30’s!

I’m glad I did, I was able to get two planes that were a blast to fly and were not available to rent, anywhere. I put hundreds of hours on them flying whenever I wanted, and I didn’t have to schedule with anyone. I still have the Stinson. Do it, you will not regret it, try a bank loan or another finance co if one gives you too much grief- they’re out there!


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So you are saying the terms of the (airplane-specific) financing company I contacted was not the norm? I hope that's the case. How long ago did you finance your Stinson?

The terms I got were far more of a normal loan. I had good credit, it was more of a 10 year note though. It has been some time ago, but I never got the impression that they weren’t wanting to make the loan due to the size, etc.: it went through quickly.


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