I passed my PPL last week and I had hoped to make my first contribution to this forum with a few pics of my first post-PPL cross country, but weather and paperwork are keeping me grounded. I could have asked what advice the forumites might have for how to build confidence post PPL, or what plane to buy, or should I bother with an IMC rating (does that even exist anymore?), but no…my first post is about the Gold Standard. My wife would not be surprised!
I would pick some nice locations to fly to. Places which deliver high value in both the location and the difficulty of simply driving there. Doing that will give you a high return and will keep you and potential passengers interested. Le Touquet in N France gets the p1ss taken out of it by some UK pilots but actually it is a really nice place to visit – a short flight (for most), a nice walk into town (no ripoff taxis), nice town, nice food, nice beach, and how the hell would you get there any other way? Too many pilots fly to places they could drive to and eat sh1t food when they get there 
Many even just fly to an airport to sit in the cafe!
I would not recommend instrument training until you are a good relaxed VFR pilot. You can do it, and it will improve your VFR flying a lot, but it will be a lot harder. Try to get maybe 50hrs post-PPL first.
Regarding aircraft purchase, you need to define your “mission profile” i.e. where, who (how many) with, etc. I bought a TB20 50hrs post-PPL but I knew what I wanted to do.
Silvaire wrote:
Silvaire 10-Aug-15 17:34 #54
In the US there is a govt produced no inflation policy. Read that to mean no wage growth for the masses.
Over the last 27 years my salary has increased a average of 7% per year in stable corporate employment. Meanwhile, a Pitts S2 that cost $70K then costs $70K now, and many other very nice aircraft are the same.That aside, I’ve found it useful to be doing what others are doing to make money, and not following trends to spend it and enjoy it. My analogy in having fun is going to the beach… If you aimlessly follow the crowd and plunk down your towel near the entrance from the parking lot, you’ll find yourself surrounded by (often unpleasant) people. Walk very little further, away from the crowd, and things are a lot better. It doesn’t take far.
Last Edited by Silvaire at 10 Aug 18:11
By the govts own admission salaries have been flat for the past 10 yrs. With that the real purchasing power has actually gone down, as reported by Fareed Zakaria on CNN. Due in part to our (US) govts manipulation of the inflation numbers.
Stable corp employment is an oxymoron. There used to be loyalty in the corp world think pre 1970s. Thats true for both the employer and the employee.
Lets see where are the exceptions to the masses rule: Finance, the Legal Profession, Accounting profession, Semi govt supported industies Teaching profession, Govt agencies like Police Fire and Sanitation. Small business owners involved with the Trades.
You are comparing a new Pitts price to a used 27 yr old Pitts price. How about a new to new comparison?
Somewhat on topic, Warren Buffet buys Precision Castparts (bold mine). Interesting factoid – the number of kilometers flown by paying airline assengers has jumped sixfold to 6 trillion now from 900 billion in 1981.
The facts and figures published by government are useless. They are designed for confusion of the masses. Keep em dumbed down. SHEEPLE. The fact is that in the UK, the mean average wage is £21,643 per annum. The graph however is very skewed. 60k per year, a modest salary to the corporate world, is in the upper quartile. I.e. past the 75% mark. If you earn more than 104k, you are in the top 1%. That is an amazing statistic. If you pay tax on that 104k, your take home is app 5k per month. After mortgage, school fees, living, and attempting to live the high life, well it does not add up. So the purchase of a new plane, in excess of 250k, one would assume is restricted to the 1%. Not accurate, but, within the 1% we have Roman Abramovich, and he has his beautiful 767. This
C210_Flyer wrote:
You are comparing a new Pitts price to a used 27 yr old Pitts price. How about a new to new comparison?
How about a comparison of a perfect used Pitts S2 27 years ago, and a perfect used Pitts S2 today? In real terms, today is much, much cheaper because the market is flooded with nice used planes. I think ‘new’ as a concept has very little meaning to wise consumers in aviation, the machine doesn’t know if its new.
LOL!
Yes and a 2015 Cessna doesn’t have 4 ashtrays anymore…
Not only do they not know they’re old, they’re also the first example of perpetuum mobile known to mankind.
Ahahahahahahah
Nothing I fly has an ashtray 
The most appealing thing about aviation and aircraft for me is that they force consumers to think in terms of first principles, and not about superficial stuff like when the thing was manufactured. That does require a certain level of intellectual discipline.
Its a great time to be buying and flying aircraft, in the real world, not the dream world. I think the quality of hardware average people like me can afford right now is better than ever before, very much so in the US and even in Europe to some degree.
I really have to try hard to imagine 4x Don Draper in a suit with cigarette and vodka glass flying in a C182 to a business meeting. Those were the times when the planes were sold.
I agree that buying an old plane is sensible, that’s why I fly a 1979 plane and not a 2015 plane. However, I am very unhappy about that. I could also buy a 1979 car, could get it for 100 € probably but I think 2015 cars are both significantly better and attractively priced. With GA aircraft, neither of the two is true because the industry is dead.
