Buying a family plane (and performance calculations)

Alex_ wrote:

@MedEwok has this thread changed your plans ?

It’s a shame group ownership doesn’t seem to work for so many people. To me it sounds perfect for the amount of utilisation (30 hours of so) you are predicting and all of the fixed costs would be shared.

Are groups a more UK phenomenon?

You need to convince a few other Drs at work to take up flying!

Only insofar as I don’t think I will buy within a short timeframe (say the next couple of years) but stick with renting and gain some more experience first.

Current plan looks as follows:

1. finish PPL this summer (duh!)
2. take wife/family on short trip to some nice place that is difficult to reach by other means (e.g. an Island)
3. evaluate after trip if / how much wife/family likes flying in a light airplane

Then it is

EITHER

• Aim for a four to six seater, possibly as part of a group of owners (the point you made about convincing colleagues is actually quite sensible and I already heard one of my future colleagues at the new workplace is flying half-time!)

OR

• Buy a cheap old two seater (C152 or similar) to get more hours and experience, re-evaluate in a few years down the road (maybe after acquiring a couple of ratings such as night, multi-engine and instrument) and upgrade as needed

OR

• if ending up unexpectedly rich, buy a PC-12 or Citation :D

Aviathor wrote:

Don’t get their hopes up too high and have a plan B in case the weather is not flyable.

No need for a plan B, if the weather is too bad for flying I don’t want to be on the East Frisian Islands anyways

Peter wrote:

Those two could hardly be more different in terms of where you can fly them. The PC12 can land anywhere a TB20 can land, well almost. The Citation, no…

I must admit I have a faible for jets ever since first flying a Lear 35 in MS Flight Simulator 3.0 as a seven year old…but from a practicality point of view a PC-12 is probably better suited for private air travel in Europe (more destinations available). Of course since this is purely hypothetical, I could as well say I’d prefer the Millenium Falcon over a PC-12, even though it looks uglier.