Buying an Airplane?

It's still early and I've got a ways to go but when the Cares Act runs out, I'm assuming there are going to be a flood of furloughed pilots looking for any job available and a lot of them will have CFI II etc and more hours and experience than me. I'm hoping to have my multi commercial add on done by end of August and get CFI, II, MEI done asap after. I maybe able to get on with the flight school I've just spent all this money with as a CFI but if that doesn't happen. It got me thinking and two other people have called me about buying a plane and flying all over the place every day to get 1500 hours. I'll need about 1100 when the training is all said and done.

I've got to put the numbers together but I'm looking at, down payment, pre buy inspection, monthly financing, insurance, fuel, hanger/tie down, squawks, and an annual after about a year of flying to get 1100 conservatively. Anything missing here?

It seems like it might not be the worst idea to almost guarantee the timeline to get the hours needed vs maybe taking 16-24 months or so instructing to get to 1500? Anyone know anyone that did this and what type of plane? 150,172, Cherokee 140/180? Going to put a good number of hours on the engine and the hope would be to sell the plane or maybe find some partners and get a new engine and keep it? I've got several people I think would be interested if the plane wasn't ratted out that would be interested.

Still way early but if there are no jumper jobs, pipe line, cargo or something, I want to be getting a plan in order.

 

Why not just build your hours instructing, instead of paying to build them?

 

The potential for a large number of furloughed pilots CFI'ing and not enough students. Not every airline pilot will CFI, some will quit, some will do other jobs, but I'm already seeing people post looking for work with thousands of hours.

I'm ahead of myself I know but wanted to entertain the idea

 

I’ll ask my neighbor. He’s a pilot for major airline and will be the one instructing me. He’s fortunate enough to be high seniority as well as pretty set financially but he was actually mentioning just last week about the furloughed pilots instructing like mad to offset some income. He has a small personal plane but also instructs for a company that flies business jets (no idea what classification that is). That’s definitely a dynamic market at the moment. One thing I can tell you is business jet charters seem to be going through the roof at the moment. A lot more % of people that used to fly commercial to get to their lake houses seem to be chartering net jets, etc

 

The biggest problem IMHO about an Aviation career is too many pilots willing to work for Nothing just to build hours . Commercial pilots are way under paid and the same is true on the maintenance side as well

 

Where are you located? The reason I ask is that I have a few airline buddies that have kids doing the flying track. The trick in FL is to get your CFI at a big school that trains a lot of foreign pilots (mostly from Asia). Those guys need alot of hours, so it's possible for an instructor to spend 8 months getting 1000+ hours basically burning holes around central FL helping these students build time. S3 in Sanford, FL is one of the ones I'm thinking of.

My brother and I did buy an airplane, Beech Sundowner and then Piper Twin Commanche and built alot of hours. Fuel is cheaper now, so that helps. There will be unexpected maintenance items that crop up, and you should plan on your first annual being about 1o% of the planes value, because your mechanic will need to get comfortable with it. Other than that, it's basic math on fuel, insurance, etc.

I'm not going to lie to you, it's going to be a long road to a good job in the airline industry right now. Oct 1 there are over 12,000 professional airline pilots that will be getting furloughed. Many of those guys don't know how to do anything else, and they will be looking very hard for ANY flying job to pay their mortgage.

One thing that is unknown this time around is what will be available as far as foreign contract work. That has always been a good option for US trained pilots with some experience- however, the whole world is screwed up right now, so who knows?

If I can give some advice- the airline world is a great career if you can get the right job- but if you have the time and you can't get a good job, take some time and invest in yourself with a 4 year degree or some other skill, and still build your time flying so you don't fall behind other candidates. There are alot of pilots who thought they were snug as a bug in a rug with their airline jobs, and now will be on the street in a matter of months with no other skills to fall back on. Don't be that guy!

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more in depth.

 

Its gonna be a rough couple of years.

The current de-globalization is also gonna hurt the air cargo sector.

Dont go into debt in order to fly. Its a trap many folks never escape

 

I'm in Nashville with a Finance degree from Auburn ( yes I know you knuckleheads, Auburn is a cow college blah blah but my senior year was Cam's year and it was awesome.) The flight school I did my Commercial Single at was super busy so this all maybe moot and it might work out but the DPE suggested the plane route and my multi instructor has as well. I'm 31 so this was kinda my "going back to school" to do something I loved after the music biz and steel business. Steel about killed me with the boredom. I talked to quite a few airline guys pre covid and it was obviously a great time to get in.. now all the guys are taking early retirement. A guy I work out with flies for air Wisconsin and hasn't flown since April, but he also has a law degree and is gonna stick out with flying. He's got CFI, II, MEI so I need to break his knees.

Got a 100% on the FOI test yesterday, that was a joke. Gino, I'll Pm you after my multi commercial check ride. I can run by what I've got going on and it'll be about a month away from Oct.

Right now I'm debt free and maybe this is just gonna take longer than 2 years but gotta figure out how to get to the hours needed so when it picks back up I'll be right there but not be balls deep in debt.

 

I’m confused. Are you looking at buying an airplane or not being balls deep in debt??

 

Have a beer.

 

Make sure your insurance is great, not good, but great. A friend of mine bought a plane and it passed a thorough 3rd party inspection, only to dead stick at 100agl. He broke his back and was hella beat up, but lives to fly for a regional. He had to fight tooth and nail to get his insurance payout. He somehow managed to rudder this thing down in a residential neighborhood with hardly any room but clipped the tree.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.he...85e6cd16-1ad5-11e6-9e72-f7e58359083c.amp.html

 

Ouch !!

 

I suppose he was well versed in emergency procedures too, after this landing gear failure during one of his solos

And no... I won’t fly with him.

I will fly with my friend, Shaun though. He was the only survivor after the pilot “calculated” the fuel load wrong and wouldn’t take Shaun’s advice that he should land and fuel up.

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...=20100925X02732&AKey=1&RType=Summary&IType=FA

 

That's expensive.

 

I’m just glad you Auburn rubes took the last Iowa State President, Steven Leath off our hands. He was an academic elitist douchebag. Speaking of flying he used a University plane for private use multiple times and kept it hidden, then damaged the plane making a hard landing and didn’t report it and had the university pay for the repairs etc. A real POS. I think he only lasted at Auburn for a year or so before getting canned. You homos also took our head football coach Chizek as well, thank God.

I have a buddy who just retired from Deere looking to get a 172, so can’t wait until he gets so I can fly with him to SoDak to pheasant hunt etc,

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...h-damaged-plane-after-personal-trip/91034990/

 

Yeah fat fingered those so F off stalker.

 

General aviation and aircraft sales are what I do every day. I, personally, think this is a very good time to consider starting a career in aviation. PM me for my phone number if you'd like to talk.

We rent an old Archer for $129/hr and we lose money every hour it flies. Remember, we own the FBO so we are getting fuel and maintenance at cost .

 

Chizik was terrible a coach, (can you say that if he's got a natty?) and may have been part of laundering 180k to Cam but I got to meet him at an AFCA thing couple years ago and he was pretty cool.

Just flew the baron around doing some single engine work. Little rusty since I haven't done any maneuvers or flown a twin in about 3 years but will get it worked out!