Certainly some French aeroclubs do. And I don’t know many individuals who liquidate existing assets to buy what is in effect a toy (I am not including those on here who can and do get a return on that investment) . And I don’t know many people with a couple of hundred thousand euros sitting in a bank at the historically low interest rates, waiting in case the right plane at the right price should appear. (Again I do not include those who can make a business or some sort of return, from this.)
@ Silvaire possibly does what the majority of owner pilots in France do, ie buy an inexpensive, interesting aircraft on which he can keep control of the costs in the same way as one might buy a classic car or.motorcycle. One that can be bought for cash and maintained as out of pocket expenses.🙂
Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a 5 percent interest rate if you income is following 10 percent inflation …
If 😃
@Silvaire possibly does what the majority of owner pilots in France do, ie buy an inexpensive, interesting aircraft on which he can keep control of the costs in the same way as one might buy a classic car or.motorcycle. One that can be bought for cash and maintained as out of pocket expenses.🙂
That’s pretty much my plan and it’s more fun to me than any other. As your resources rise, and perhaps when you have more time in early retirement, you can while still following that plan own a more complex plane. However for now and with 9 motorcycles and a classic car also in the stable, I’m not interested in complexity.
Re the discussion on interest rates, I have never taken anything but a fixed interest rate loan and have never borrowed money for anything other than a mortgage, or for a few months on a car to get some rebate that provides a net discount. I have only one loan now, at 2.875% on a property that rose in value by 17% last year. We’ll see what it does for the next few years but since it’s where we live I’m not planning on selling it regardless. Maybe in 15 years.
Silvaire wrote:
Re the discussion on interest rates, I have never taken anything but a fixed interest rate loan and have never borrowed money for anything other than a mortgage, or for a few months on a car to get some rebate that provides a net discount. I have only one loan now, at 2.875% on a property that rose in value by 17% last year. We’ll see what it does for the next few years but since it’s where we live I’m not planning on selling it regardless. Maybe in 15 years.
That’s downright stereotypically German behaviour 
The only loan I ever took was for the house as well. 1,23% interest for 20 years (thereafter it is fully paid). The kind of 2-year mortgages that are popular in the UK (or so I read) wouldn’t fly here. And the general rule in Germany is that the down-payment should be a third of the total cost of the property, albeit that’s less strongly enforced by banks nowadays than it used to be.
You can find lots of financially imprudent Germans, but those usually never get wealth enough to even consider buying a house, a plane or anything of similar value.
This is the French approach to this topic. Don’t shoot the messenger; this was at the airside entrance to Le Touquet airport
Peter wrote:
This is the French approach to this topic.
I’m highly supportive of French approach.
this was at the airside entrance to Le Touquet airport
I was planning to return Friday but I think I am booking a reservation for Saturday overnight
Yes, Adam, don’t sell your plane, after all the money and time you have sunk into it.
This is the time where I have a chance to get not everything I put back into it, but at least the most I can hope. The US market is a little behind the UK one still, so here it’s still moving inventory. I’m not giving up flying, but will most likely move back to an Aerostar. It’s time to face the fact, as my earnings and other business endeavors take up more of my time and money, that I can’t be playing in the turbine world. As much as I like them, it’s an ownership model where you at any time have to be able to write a check for $100K. I can’t do that – and frankly, I don’t think I could even when my earnings were better. I just kind of convinced myself I could. With a piston plane, even a pretty costly one like an Aerostar, that number goes down significantly. Piston twins can throw surprises, but they’re rarely to the tune of $100K or even half that. One other advantage of sub 6000lbs planes is that as I get older (and maybe one day won’t pass my medical), it can be flown on Basic Med.
Will see. With my luck, the market will have turned before I get the new interior in and it’ll be a falling knife scenario.
AdamFrisch wrote:
What concerns me much more is how many old-timers who used to go places have recently got out of it.
There certainly seems to be a change in the way younger pilots are flying. I can see that in our club. While there is no shortage of applicants (we are capped at a certain number and have a waitlist), the flying patterns have changed a lot over the last 2-3 years. Hardly any meaningful x-country trips. Most flying is local or to nearby destinations that barely qualify for the FAA definition of a x-country (50nm). I don’t think this is driven by economics, as most of the new entrants have high paying jobs in tech, but probably are rather time-poor.
