As I begin my journey of aircraft ownership, I am both excited and scared. Can I actually do this? What happens if I mess something up? How much is this actually going to cost me?
After spending a ton of time doing research on what options are currently available (purchase a used plane, renting, partnerships, building an experimental), I am getting to the point where I think I know what makes the most sense for me.
Buy: Buying a plane outright is just not an option financially. Too much uncertainty on maintenance and history. I love reading This Old Cherokee and wish I could do the same. Granted it looks like he has some A&P friends that are supervising his repairs and I just don’t have those resources available to me. Finding and fixing up a certified airplane just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me.
Renting: it’s what I’m currently doing as I get my PPL. Sure it works for $100 hamburgers and local trips, but not sure if this really allows for longer XC trips. Too expensive (daily minimums for more than local flying) or difficult to reserve in advance (take the plane to Florida for the week over Spring Break / holidays?)
Partnership: This seem like a great option, but would need to find the right situation / right plane to make this work. Sharing costs seems like an awesome idea, but also worry about the whole scheduling thing. Will I be able to get the plane when I need it? How do you find a partnership where the other partners don’t really fly the plane so there are no conflicts? 🙂
Build: That leaves building my own plane. It has a number of positives already going for it. Lower cost to buy into a new plane (not counting my time). Ability to customize it to meet my needs and the ability as the builder to do maintenance on it should the need arise. This doesn’t remove the need to have an A&P work on the engine as I’m not an engine mechanic, but it does allow me to put in Avionics that don’t have the cost associated with certified equipment.
This has led me to research what experimental airplanes would meet my needs / mission. Basically need a 4 passenger (two adults and two kids) that can go up and down the east coast. This lead me to two specific planes. First the Raptor caught my attention. Fancy looking plane with crazy specs (230 KTAS Cruise, 1800 lbs Usefull Load, 29,000 Ceiling, pressurized, retractable gear), but since the plane doesn’t even exist yet and the requirement to put down a deposit for a plane you will get years from now, I decided to look elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much enjoying the constant updates on their progress and wish them the best of luck. Heck, once they have them flying I would LOVE to take one for a spin!
For me, I’m excited to build an RV-10. There are lots of others that have completed the RV-10 and a great community to support other builders. I have been consuming a number of blogs and will continue to do so until I’m able to put in my empannage order. From a build-log perspective, I have to say I’m most impressed with Brian & Brandi’s RV-10 site. Hopefully they won’t mind if I emmulate how they organized things as I think they have a fantastic site with great information.
I’m also following Jason Ellis. He has been doing a great series of YouTube videos documenting his build and providing information / entertainment along the way. Not sure if I have the on-screen personality to follow in his shoes, but may do an overall time-lapse of the project for my personal records. We’ll see.
Basically my goal is to document this project, provide others with information I wish I had before I started, and learn a bunch of new things.
Welcome aboard!