If you want to start a lively argument at the airport, skip politics and bring up used airplane prices. Just ask what a used 182 is worth these days. You’ll get the fellow who swears values are crashing, the fellow who just bought one and swears they’re rock solid, and Read more
There’s a special kind of silence that falls over a hangar when the mechanic walks over with a clipboard and says, “So, I found a few things.” Every owner knows it. It’s the same silence that falls over a dinner table when the doctor calls during dessert, and it’s the Read more
Pilots have been hearing that unleaded avgas is “coming soon” for so long that it’s become a bit like the weather forecast for the weekend you planned the big trip. Everybody talks about it, nobody quite believes it, and then one day you’re sitting on the ground watching it happen. Read more
Ask ten aircraft owners about the cost of owning an airplane and you’ll get ten answers, nine of them suspiciously low. Nobody’s lying exactly. It’s just that the human brain has a remarkable ability to forget about the $3,800 annual by the time spring flying weather shows up. I’ve often Read more
There are two kinds of aircraft buyers: the ones who pay cash, and the ones who want to know what the payment is. If you’re in the second group, pull up a chair, because we’re talking aircraft loan rates. You’re in good company, and you’re probably smarter about liquidity than Read more
For a couple of years now, checking aircraft insurance rates at renewal time has been one of the few pleasant surprises in aircraft ownership. Right up there with finding a twenty in your flight bag. After a long, painful hard market, general aviation insurance softened, and plenty of owners actually Read more
Every hangar has one. The fellow who leans on your wing and explains aircraft bonus depreciation like he invented it: “Just buy it through the business, the government pays for half of it.” He usually says this with the confidence of a man who has never been audited. He’s not Read more
For years, hangar rent was the quiet cousin at the family reunion of aircraft ownership costs. Fuel got all the complaints, the annual got all the drama, and the hangar just sat there costing about what it cost last year. Most of us stopped thinking about it entirely. Well, the Read more