I understand that many people do not have the income to fly more,…
But I also think that people should be more realistic and safety minded. Today you can fly an Ultralight airplane for a fraction of the cost, and if I could not afford to fly the Cirrus anymore I’d either quit (there’s so many nice things to do) or buy a FK9 Ultralight, or maybe a Savage. An utralight airplane can be maintained for about the same same money as a good motorcycle.
I tell everybody who can barely afford to fly 12 or 15 hours to not do the PPL but the ultralight licence.
There are multiple ways to cost reduce flying…
However if someone cannot afford to do a PPL, they sure won’t be flying afterwards in almost anything. Well, not for long.
The cost control mindset tries to avoid investments and expenses to maintain the gained capability. Instead it tries to buy services rendered by someone else. Essentially it is a race to the bottom.
Most of society is a race to the bottom, and if possible freeloading off somebody else 
This carries on until the race actually hits the bottom and you get “consolidation”
The moment you are really old is the moment when you start thinking that things used to be better and that society as a whole is on a negative trajectory…
As a member of a Group of 6, operating a Jodel DR1050, hangared, at £50 per month and £60 per tach hour wet on mogas, I flew 13 hours in May. These charges allow the Group to make a good profit towards maintenance and upgrades. We hope DR1050s will be approved for night and IMC soon.
As an informal decision-making tool, I cost my time at £100 per hour. For example if I’m not sure whether to drive to an airport farther away to save £50 on an Easyjet flight, I’ll count the extra time driving at £100/h and see if it’s worth it. Obviously, everyone will have their own nominal hourly rate. The time/money saving would make a difference to @RobertL18C ’s original post.
Edit: typo
On pure direct costs, it rarely makes sense financially (but that’s not why we do it, right?). On shorter flights here in the US, sometimes it can be cheaper than a business ticket. A classic one is Los Angeles to Las Vegas. This is a short trip of less than an hour with the airlines, but the prices stay pretty high due to demand. I would think a business class ticket on that trip would be about $4-500. I could fly myself for about the same in the turbine, and if you had a single, it would be a bigger cost saving. Not to mention all the time you save. And as Capitaine mentioned, if you can put a price on your time, then the savings can be big. This is the same justification that lies behind every corporate jet department – they save money in the big picture.
Now, on longer international flights, it’s impossible to compete for us private users. Let’s say an average US to Europe business ticket is about $5K. There’s no way we can match that, not even in a frugal diesel single.
But I had a case last year where I had to throw away 3 international tickets due to my work schedule changing last minute. They were not refundable or open tickets, and where the cost of changing them was higher than buying a new one. I wasted about $6K. In such a scenario, an economical personal plane would have saved me money.
AdamFrisch wrote:
But I had a case last year where I had to throw away 3 international tickets due to my work schedule changing last minute. They were not refundable or open tickets, and where the cost of changing them was higher than buying a new one. I wasted about $6K. In such a scenario, an economical personal plane would have saved me money.
But presumably you don’t know at the time of purchase which tickets you’ll need to bin and which you don’t, so it’s academic. Unless you just take a view of never to fly commercial, in which case the issue it will never arise.
Wouldn’t it make sense for 5 people to start a company that owns a Cirrus Jet? 400k buy in per person, full warranty on airframe and engines etc…
Sure, 400k gets a lot of airline tickets. Or a plane that is a viable alternative in many scenarios.
I suspect that the mission capability of the Cirrus Jet won’t be what people expect of a “jet”. It doesn’t go anywhere near high enough, for a start.
Snoopy wrote:
Wouldn’t it make sense for 5 people to start a company that owns a Cirrus Jet? 400k buy in per person, full warranty on airframe and engines etc…
Sure, 400k gets a lot of airline tickets. Or a plane that is a viable alternative in many scenarios.
Getting people to stump up for the maintenance programmes would be the problem. However it is at least predictable assuming they have TAP Blue for the engine and the equivalent of proparts.
