dublinpilot wrote:
I don’t think that I know in person, a single aircraft owner in their 20’s or 30’s.
We must change that when my Mooney arrives! Though I don’t make the criteria by much. I’ll most likely be looking for a co-owner quite soon as I think financially and in terms of hours flown it will make more sense for me.
dublinpilot wrote:
I don’t think that I know in person, a single aircraft owner in their 20’s or 30’s.
I know quite a few. I Germany, we already have the second post-WW II “Erbengeneration” (generation of people who inherited their parent’s/grandparents fortune). The average financial assets of every household is currently 200.000 Euros – about 80.000 Euros for every citizen. On average. There is over a million of millionaires. I had more than one flying student who drove to the airport with the Ferrari or Porsche he got for his 18th birthday. But even these guys don’t go ahead and buy their own plane but fly as passengers on business jets instead…
Peter wrote:
This is a bit of a side topic but I am astonished at how many men choose a woman who dislikes their principal pre-existing hobby and eventually drives them out of it
Considering that the principal pre-existing hobby of many men is “hanging out in the pub with their buddies” it seems that quite a lot of wives seem to be unable to drive them out of it 
But I think you are right as far as activities like flying, rock-climbing or motorbiking are concerned. Family life terminates a lot of these.
dublinpilot wrote:
I don’t think that I know in person, a single aircraft owner in their 20’s or 30’s.
I think we’ve met Colm? I bought my first plane at age 18, with my own money mind. Bought my 2nd one when I was 47.
what_next wrote:
That is simply because this thread is all about the topic: Negative aspects of aircraft ownership.
I thought it poses the question whether the old moniker which is the thread title is correct or not. I say it is one of those sayings circulating in the circles of those who either have made a frustrating experience or rather those who never owned and are jealous enough to talk others out of it.
Peter wrote:
If you want to make real progress in life, you do have to start with the potential negatives and eliminate them as far as possible.
I agree but that has a very real danger of being put off your life goals if all you ever hear is negative banter. Clearly, there are personalities who are strong enough to withstand that, but there is a lot of them who are not.
Silvaire wrote:
I think the extreme pressure that some people in Europe seem to feel in relation to owning a plane must come from buying too complex a plane, combined with limited disposable income and (especially) bureaucratic obstructions to maintaining their property. So find a way to avoid those issues, first and foremost.
Absolutely correct.
Add to that the fact that almost at every flight school, small town airport and most flight forums the first reaction any newbie gets when asked about ownership is “forget it, it’s awful, expensive and generally not achievable unless you are a millionaire”.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
dublinpilot wrote: I don’t think that I know in person, a single aircraft owner in their 20’s or 30’s.I think we’ve met Colm? I bought my first plane at age 18, with my own money mind.
So dublinpilot was right! You were not in your 20’s or 30’s when you bought your first plane. BTW, I bought my first plane at age 13. I had to make it myself mostly from Balsa wood and it had a wingspan of 2 metres. It still exists, so I have not given up aircraft ownership altogether
At age 18 I would not even have been able to pay for driving lessons (got my driving license at age 21) or buy a car…
I bought my first motorcycle at age 9 ($25), first car at 15 ($500) and first plane at 38 ($22000) I was using all of them within a short time after purchase and paid nothing or almost nothing to be licensed on all three. FWIW.
The guy who taught me to fly (and who is younger than me, in his forties today) bought his first plane at 19 and got his instructor rating to earn money in it, doing tailwheel endorsements, which paid off a loan taken to buy the plane.
I observe the same as Dublinpilot… Many many 20-30 year olds buy cars for 30k-50k (not too hard if you live with your parents ) but none I know have bought a plane of any kind.
So most people who sell up are a lot older.
As I said before, I don’t subscribe to the subject header on this thread. It’s a bit like “there are old pilots and bold pilots but no old and bold pilots” which is just a stupid phrase used to excuse inadequate PPL training. But it’s worth exploring why some people are so glad to get out of it when they do.
I can understand it. I gave up water-skiing c. 1999 because (a) I never got quite good enough to do the whole slalom course (b) the club became disorganised and one hung around for hours to get a ski (c) the traffic got worse and worse (1hr drive). I gave up windsurfing c. 2010 because (a) I never managed to learn carve gybes (b) the roofrack or trailer stuff was more and more hassle with newer cars (c) with flying, I had less time to waste half a day on. Did each of these for ~25 years but did not miss it for a moment after I gave it up.
How do those two statements:
Silvaire wrote:
… and paid nothing or almost nothing to be licensed …
and
… The guy who taught me to fly … got his instructor rating to earn money in it…
go together?
Almost nothing is not nothing. The instructor charged me $40 per flight, regardless of length. It worked out to maybe $10/hr, and we both had fun. Flying is what we like to do for fun, and fun is the purpose of the entire exercise. He had previously trained others in much the same way in his own plane, but mainly tail wheel endorsements for licensed pilots. At that rate it didn’t take long to pay off the loan on a plane that cost him $9000, circa 1989, with a loan for maybe half that amount. The plane was that cheap because it needed some odds and ends fixed, which he did himself while working as a mechanic/helper part time, which is where the other $4500 came from. In that way he was also able to earn his A&P. He eventually sold the plane for a profit before I met him to fly my plane, and he also ended up with both a CFI and A&P while still a teenager.
Before you ask the next logical question, which is how did he get his license in the first place, he did that in his dad’s C140 at age 16, with an another instructor friend teaching him for almost nothing. Today he rents a large hangar to store his Citabria and Pitts, bought with pay from a very good non-flying job for which he qualified based on aviation experience plus a degree that was partially funded by selling the original plane.
