What planned flights when things get back to normal?

Beautiful 182, I love time warp planes.

@MedEwok, most would say your proper role is to stabilize the market by buying when you can. You are sacrificing opportunity to have the stability you describe, and should act if and when the market provides opportunity for somebody who has made your particular choices.

The Annecy fly-in is quite likely to be delayed, but we will run it.

As soon as training flights and the associated checks are allowed again, I hope to finish both my CRI rating and the Instrument Rating.
The latter one gives me headaches; I had the final 10ish ATO hours booked for the Easter holidays, but I don’t know when I will be able to take a whole week or two of leave again. So the CoViD-crisis will probably shatter my plans for the IR…
That’s going to be the most annoying effect- my job is safe, as I am paid by the federal government. I guess lots of people have problems much worse than mine!

Oh, and I hope the Annecy Fly-In will take place, although I honestly doubt it.

Thank you for the insight on the market, William.

I’m one of the few people who will PROB99 be guaranteed to remain completely unaffected by the economic crisis that is sure to follow the medical crisis of Covid-19, and I sometimes wonder if I might be better off the harder the economy crashes? And I feel guilty for even thinking this.

But if house prices fall because everyone is out of work or their business has closed, that would be beneficial for my family. Same with aircraft prices…

I have 15 aeroplanes to sell here on a list in front of me. I am not panicking over it, yes prices may fall but when I started out at this in 2011/12 aeroplane prices “like for like” grew by 66% over that 8 year period so it’s no big issue to recalibrate downwards. I can deal with it by taking trade in’s against our own stock. If you opened a Pilot Magazine in 1994 it would have been full of low time desirable touring aircraft for sale in the UK. That supply has dried up considerably over the years as a lot of stuff has been crashed/exported/gone to group ownership.

So even if prices fall we won’t see masses of 182RG, late model Cherokee 6’s, Beech F33’s, Piper Dakotas for sale at knock-down prices, because they are so few and far between to begin with. I think that things will find a new normal after this, and there will be shifts in the way people do business from disliking the idea of sharing a subway, condiments in restaurants, working in big offices and perhaps individual air travel can benefit from the change in attitudes. On the brokerage side, a reduction in prices is good news in a way as it will spike some interest as you recalibrate prices on the way down. I am listing a 1999 Cessna 172S for €120k today that would have been €140k a month ago. I asked an old school aircraft dealer in the UK, who would buy 6-7 aeroplanes at a time without losing a sweat, I said “Glenn do you ever worry about a recession coming and not being able to do business” and his reply was “No, not at all it’s all down to mindset, if there was world war 3 going on outside that door I’d be outside there making money off something”.

As an aside I’ve been offered €10k extra to back out of sale I had agreed, this guy is willing to pay €10k more than the guy we’ve sale agreed with. Very much the opposite of what you would expect. I can’t break a deal for anyone. I learned this when I was an estate agent and people used to offer me various incentives to give them a tip-off on the Best & Final offer number to formulate a winning sealed bid. No is always the answer.

" is deciding to buy a plane (I was actually getting close) or to keep the cash and weather the storm"
There may be less money around after this, and there may be a glut of aircraft for sale, putting you in a strong position wit your cash.
But money may have devalued considerably.
We were trying to sell our Jodel DR1050, but that’s now on hold. I think the price will have to be greatly reduced.

Prague (was planned for Easter)
Some places in Germany (I had Düsseldorf end of April, Nürnberg at some point)
Annecy meet-up (looks compromised imo)
Portoroz or Croatia (club trip, still planned for early June)
Visit the family in France this summer

Then main hold-up at the moment is deciding to buy a plane (I was actually getting close) or to keep the cash and weather the storm.

I have a fabulous summer of flying planned as I have my FIC booked in August/September this year, having completed all CPL theory exams last year. Hopefully restrictions will lift and the pandemic subsides in time but I’m not holding out hope, looks like it may be next year… still that nation’s health is way more important.

In the interim? As a sucker for punishment I’ve gone and signed up for a CB-IR Theory course. My circumstances have changed slightly and my plan (with my other halves full support) is to also obtain an EASA ME-IR in the next year or two with a view (once experienced) to obtain an CRI(ME) and IRI.

I do have an FAA CPL/IR SE/ME but haven’t touched an multi since 2004 and the last time my FAA IR was valid was in 2010 (via an IPC). I am a few hours short of the required 50 hours for a conversion without theory exams but have decided to go down the exam route whilst we have the current restrictions in place in, at least that’ll fill my hours at home with something purposeful (I have already decorated our bedroom this past week) and will also bypass the requirement for an oral exam during the skills test.