So this is a ricipe for a quick divorce
I don’t think many would use that method to look for a wife 
I am looking to buy such a plane but cannot find anything under 200k.
Well, a new IFR one, actually usable for European IFR, will be much more than €200k, but you really want a brand new one?
A nice 2002 TB20GT, like say mine, would go for €150k, very roughly, depending on the usual factors.
They would be better off owning with two others.
A syndicate is always better than renting if you are committed and funded, but there is the usual list of syndicate issues Whereas a renter can just turn up, fly, come back, and forget it till the next time. And some (very few) people are willing to pay over the top for that.
The four months were because it was the OI-360 engine that turns in the opposite direction and one camshaft was worn outside the limitations
The last time one could have made money renting out a piston twin (in the UK, anyway, and without FTO IR/ATPL training usage) was before I started flying. Not enough usage nowadays.
Re the camshaft, hence my comment about an engineer-owner running a lease operation with number of similar planes with bog standard O-200 or similar engines which can always be fixed.
That model works because ownership of such an old plane, by a non-involved owner, can be very expensive. I know of a syndicate around a C150, ~25 members (i.e. it was well shagged) and they used to pay ~7k GBP for their Annuals. Plus they had to run an engine fund, etc, and any engine work would have gone to an engine shop i.e. 4 digits just to look at it. Now they rent a C152 from such an engineer-owner and according to the guy who runs it, it costs them less. They are happy with the deal. But nobody is getting rich on it; the engineer probably makes a basic living out of it. I don’t see how that model could be scaled up.
Apologies in advance for the thread drift, but to find a wife you need to carefully consider this analysis:
You could draw much the same diagram for planes
I can think of certain types which belong in the LH half… A TB20 would end up on the border between the Date Zone and the Wife Zone. An SR22 would be in the Wife Zone, due to the BRS chute option.
;-P
An SR22 is very high on the HOT zone and very low on the crazy zone (well, since we’re all crazy that’s relative :-)) … I would say it’s more in the Unicorn zone
I think the idea of the Unicorn is that it doesn’t exist… like a 220kt IAS SEP, or a DA42 with the originally advertised 210kt and a 2000nm range.
because far too few blokes want to pay £500+ to impress a girl with a lunch at Le Touquet (well, she would have to be ultra classy and at the same time the payback would have to be pretty well assured
Umpf. I thought that legend is long dead. Most girls will run far and fast from anyone remotely connected with GA short of a Citation. Sit one of them into a small airplane and unless they are aviation buffs as well (in which case there will be no impressing at all but with good flying skills) they will run for anyone offering a “safer” past time. I know many such cases which happened around… not to me though. One ran off with a biker (as if that is safer??) and the others quickly ran back to their clubs in the banking row to look for Mr 1 million a year and the promise of 2 1/2 kids and a large house. To impress a western european girl with a SEP? Forget it! Some people do win the lottery but most….
The only way to make a small fortune in aviation is to start with a large one…
Ah well how I love these sayings. They are the sum of experience of all those who failed. The others will nicely shut up about their success unless they live in America.
It’s like “if you have to ask you can’t afford it”. One of the bits I have to fight EVERY TIME someone starts asking me about owning an airplane. The genuine envy statement really meaning one of two things: " I me and myself can’t afford it so how dare you?" or “I can afford it and I don’t want you because you don’t have my class!” Both types I am trying to avoid knowing but around at every airport (and many forums with the great exception of this one…)
In the end, ANY business venture will get people who will say doom and be right a fair amount of times. Most of the doomsayers are those however who either are compulsive loosers and simply do no longer believe in success, others make money with it.
No matter what business venture, the bit about it is it has to be SOUND, it has to be well thought through, no “pink curtains” to blank out the contras. If your idea still stands after you blow up the columns you build it on with dynamite, then there is a good chance for it to succeed, especcially if nobody else thinks it can be done. Because if so, then you are alone in a market. Until you succeed, when those who said it can’t be done will be on your heels faster than you think. Hence, most people shut up if they do succeed…
I think that old phrase about starting with a large fortune is one of life’s many one-liners which is (with respect) of no use to anybody. I have lost count of how many “simple truths” like that I have heard in business…
The reality is more subtle, and there are scenarios which will make money. Nearly all will make money only for a certain time, for obvious reasons. I outlined a couple which are assured to “make money”. Maybe not a net profit in strict accounting terms, but they should be cash positive overall which, let’s face it, is the holy grail in business. Nobody wants to make a taxable profit – that’s completely pointless. The hard thing is generating net cash while not making a taxable profit, in the long term 
As regards girls, the crude device of turning up in a fancy car still does work and I know guys who rent a top-end Merc for a weekend. They pick up a certain type, which the UK (and probably most other places) has plenty of. To do this (picking up girls for a one night stand) with a SEP isn’t going to work (a bizjet would), but if you go to interesting places and the plane isn’t some shagged wreckage, that is potentially a very attractive proposition to a girl who is interested in that sort of thing (seeing places, meeting people, etc and possibly maybe even flying). So I would not write it off…
The 2 kids and a house scenario applies mostly to a particular age group (loosely speaking 30-40) and is nothing to do with a plane
I’m not sure I understand the OP’s question quite. Is he asking:
1. Is there any way you can bill for your flying time and get ahead financially?
or
2. Could there be a finical benefit for a company to have an aircraft?
If it’s question one, then at least here in FAA land, there is virtually no way to bill for your time legally without it becoming a need for a commercial license and a AOC type deal. The interpretation is very, very strict and even incidental stuff will be viewed unfavorably. So, no.
If it’s question 2, then I would say yes. Many companies and entrepreneurs report that increase in sales and productivity almost always accompany an aircraft addition.
Mixing business with pleasure, is that such a good idea?
Well, you could make a living of buying cheap airplanes and sell them with a profit… There ’re opportunities out there if you manage to seize them…
