What To Do With My Bonanza?

Snoopy wrote:

You can buy and sell airplanes anytime.

You have to get into the mindset though and Chris alluded slightly. I may take a bath on the money I have spent. It is the same as any commodity. It is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Your plane looks lovely and should sell. It will be all about price. I even checked recently about selling in the States but was told the ‘market had cooled’. There is also another matter that if selling get into the mindset of selling, and not, ‘I may sell this to the right bidder’.

It itches me very very much too !
I am sure you could make a pilot and his family pretty happy with your plane. Being a « plane sitter » for a few years would be a dream come true for many.
There are serious pilots among the crowd. You could mentor one before sailing around the world. Some have some IFR/turbo experience ? Or maybe someone who has its own aircraft and would fly yours sometimes ?

If you sell it, you will be back at age 70. You would rake years to find, buy and repair all discrepancies on another plane (cf all the threads about finding the right aircraft, sorting out issues on newly bought planes). Would you really do it ?

I would love to fly one but actually I feel that in your position, unless you can earn some money by renting it locally in order to not loose too much money, it would be wiser to sell it. You also may find companies that can manage your plane in a renting business, this way you can either fly without managing cost that would be paid by the renters, or may be just having the plane maintained in exchange of some flying ours.
We have one here (LFMD) that is managing/renting planes, I can ask if he would be interested to have a look. E.G. they have 2 TB10 (one is G-reg), He may be selling his arrow4 but may get a TB20 in to replace. If you’re interested I can put you in contact.

If you want to keep the plane, you are really looking for two different people.
– Somebody to manage the plane for you,
– Somebody (or several) to fly it
And since change over five years, you want the one who manages it to be able to vet new pilots according to your criteria. Or, in short, turn it into a (probably unprofitable) business; worst case – the thing sits on the ground and the manager takes proper care of it, best case – you have 1 or 2 good renters over the time who pay for it.

The reason for that is that in most cases, no pilot who has not been an owner before will have the foggiest about maintaining an aircraft, and you certainly won’t want to micro-manage this remotely.

All higher-end aircraft I ever rented from an owner (Bonanza 35, Saratoga, Columbia 400, SR22TN, Cessna T303) were under such an arrangement, although the owner was definitely around and flying them, not in a boat on the other side of the world.

If you are lucky enough to find a pilot who does know about maintenance, you could also sell a share. That way, the aircraft is more likely to be treated properly, and when you come back you may not own the aircraft 100% anymore, but still have good access to it.

Just a few ideas…

edit: pretty much what greg_mp says…

You could remove the wings, inhibit the engine properly for long term storage as per the manufacturer’s instructions, lubricate the hinges and all moving parts, find a hangar, or even rent a garage or have access to one big enough hand store the whole thing in one of these:

https://www.airflow-uk.co.uk/product/car-airchamber/

The XX Large – 6.7 × 2.2 × 1.8 I don’t know if it would be big enough? Or have one custom manufactured?

Then you would need someone to drop in on it once every couple of weeks to check on it, and a power supply.

You could additionally remove the avionics from their trays, leave them in an airing cupboard or very dry place for a week or two, then seal in airtight bags with dessicant sachets.

I think you have already answered your own question. You are going sailing around the world, not flying around the world. However, you also say you will prepare for the trip for a year or so. Good, here’s your timeline:
- initially, keep the airplane
- during that year, see which of the two modes of transport you really enjoy more
- if you find that sailing now floats your boat (sorry, couldn’t resist…), sell the airplane
- if, however, you find that pottering around at 8kts at sea level isn’t your thing after all, sell the boat
- live happily ever after (cue rousing music, boat / airplane flies into sunset, roll credits)

My 2c

I would estimate that leaving maintenance/upgrades aside you are probably up on what you bought it for. I have a picture in my mind of the advert for that aeroplane back in Summer 2013. Maybe you overhauled the engine, but I’d still hazard a guess you bought it at the right time and are in the black. I would bank the money and move on. An A36/B36 is reasonably easy to replace, and they will commonly be owned by owners who maintain and upgrade them without regard to cost. When you want to get back in a like for like replacement should not be hard to find.

Maybe you can change from ownership to fractional ownership. Instead of selling the plane you may find someone who is really happy to buy a part of the plane, because this will fit his budget and have only part of the annual costs instead of paying it all alone. The right guy – and I’m sure you can find him – will take care of the plane because knowing to fly the plane more or less alone and paying only the half of the maintenance costs will be a unique opportunity to him. Maybe a younger pilot who got the IR not to long and who is not looking for a career as airline captain might be the right one to be sponsored in a way by you. To be honest, this was the way I came to my first plane, a Cessna 182 just after the PPL. It was the way how I finally owned the Piper Arrow after the Cessna, and the arrangements went the other direction, when I bought my Bonanza and the last fractional owner of the Piper beside me thought about to end his pilot career. Then I offered him to fly the Bonanza for a small fee, so he got his payback by still having a plane for his flying when he needed it. Now he is retired and decided to end flying.
For you @Chris, this might give you the opportunity to fly until the departure of your boattrip, will keep you your plane and give you the opportunity to come back afterwords and continue with the flying or sell it totally to the guy.

couple of years ago I formed a group of pilots offering a special kind of service “we fly your aircraft for free”. It was dedicated towards aircraft owners who didn´t have time to fly their aircraft and who didn´t want their aircraft accumulate too much dust in hangar corner. Well, the business plan didn´t make it out of the pub where is was created – not enough customers even I amstill dead sure the number such aircraft owners is pretty high ;-) time to restart? ;-)