Silvaire wrote:
Before you ask the next logical question…
I am good at that because I really read everything 
But I really like the underlying idea (at least this is how I see it) of " Don’t pay back, pay forward! ". Instead of paying the guy who teaches you a lot of money (which at that time you don’t have), teach someone else later in your life without asking a lot from him. I try to do it this way myself as much as I can, but sometimes we have bills to pay and need to be paid for our service. And 10$/hr as a flying instructor will not help me much in that respect…
what_next wrote:
You were not in your 20’s or 30’s when you bought your first plane.
No but I owned it through my 20ties.
Peter wrote:
As I said before, I don’t subscribe to the subject header on this thread.
Half and half as far as I am concerned: When we sold the Seminole it came as a relief, because this thing – instead of earning some money for us as we had intended – started to get more and more expensive. New paint, new engines, new this, new that, but the hourly price at which we rented it out could not be adjusted accordingly. In the early years it produced enough income so that we owners could actually fly it ourselves for the cost of the fuel. But later it got so expensive that – apart from instructing in it – I was not able to fly my own plane.
The Cessna 421 was very different. We operated that one commercially and I really loved it as much as a human can love a piece of dead metal. It was a wonderful and reliable machine that took me not only all over Europe in the course of almost a decade but across the Atlantic Ocean as well. The best airplane I ever flew with no exception. Ever. Serial number 0709 – if I ever get a tattoo (I will not) it will be that number together the name of the horse I had for 18 years – maybe my wife’s name too otherwise I will get myself into trouble…
When we gave up our operation (the introduction of JAR-OPS made it impossible to run a two-man air taxi outfit in a profitable manner) the aeroplane needed to be sold of course. Flying it to Maastricht VFR on a wonderful clear morning to leave it with the company who did the pre-purchase inspection and paperwork for the N registration for the new owner was the saddest flight of our lives (I think I speak for myself and my business partner). We had to wait in Maastricht for our train back and we both had quite a lot of alcohol that morning (and I really never drink before 6PM otherwise). No happy moment but a sad one. And one of the reasons I will never buy an aeroplane again.
what_next wrote:
But I really like the underlying idea (at least this is how I see it) of " Don’t pay back, pay forward! ". Instead of paying the guy who teaches you a lot of money (which at that time you don’t have), teach someone else later in your life without asking a lot from him.
I think community works out in aviation better than in most other things because people really are dependent on each other if big bills are to be avoided. Having bureaucracy as a common enemy also helps 
After learning to fly ‘on the cheap’ (although that really wasn’t the primary objective) in my own inexpensive plane, circumstances allowed me to help my instructor/mechanic friend and his friend get jobs with substantially higher pay than they had before I stumbled into their world. They’ve subsequently advanced further in those same jobs so apparently it went well for everybody.
I’ll actually be SAD the day I sell my airplane, because I know that will be it. No way would I start to rent. I could fly our club plane, but my feeling is that the day i sell the airplane I will not look back and start doing other things more. But nevertheless it will be a sad day.
Alexis wrote:
…but my feeling is that the day i sell the airplane I will not look back and start doing other things more.
That was actually my first thought as well. But it turned out differently. Now I fly more than before, and planes which I could not have afforded to taxi across the apron, and actually get paid doing it. I even get paid for not flying when no flight is scheduled… And when something breaks I will tell our mechanics in the evening about it and next morning it will either be fixed or the plane be grounded (and another day for me on which I will get paid for doing nothing). When I owned planes, anything that broke would instantly invoke nightmares about 5-figure repair bills and days of ground time without income. I will never go back to that!
Well, that’s a very lucky constellation! But I guess I will not find anybody to pay me for flying … and I have no intentions to hang on to it once I have decided to stop.
Flying is one of those things you either do with a passion – or you better stop. Every now and then I am asked by private pilots who fly very little to do the BFR with them. To me it was always good training, so I always did it for free, but it was also frustrating to see how (some) pilots who only fly the minimum hours per year perform. I have no intention to become one of them. I’d rather start something competely new. Life is full of fascinating possibilites.
Alexis wrote:
I’d rather start something competely new. Life is full of fascinating possibilites.
At our age? I guess you are are in your mid 50s as I am. The choices start to get limited. I always wanted to climb the most beautiful mountain in the world one day, but this opportunity is already gone I’m afraid. And the same with a lot of other things.
But flying a glider or microlight or teaching people to fly a Cessna 152 well will always be possible for me until they pull my medical. And hopefully that day is still two or three deacdes away.
I am 57, so what … The day I’ll stop flying I’ll travel more, practice guitar more, maybe write another book or get into photography again, … I could also clean up my basement, something I wanted to do for 15 years now!
But I am not there yet :-)
One thing is pretty clear though: When my kids (they are 14 and 12 now) are grown up flying small planes will be a (nice?) memory for them. I don’t think either one of them will start to fly. But you never know ;-)
Alexis wrote:
When my kids (they are 14 and 12 now) are grown up flying small planes will be a (nice?) memory for them.
My son just finished school (he will still be 17 when he begins university in fall). I have taken him on all aircraft categories I fly (SEP, MEP and bizjet) but he didn’t enjoy either very much. Just one thing to do out of many and nothing that he was eager to repeat. Nothing that he can’t see better on Google Earth on his compter I’m afraid.
