Buying a plane vs flight school/CFI

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ResponseRadiant123@reddit

Rent for your ratings and buy a cheap airplane for time building. I’ll spend 35k building the hours in my airplane. I’d take a 115k pay cut if I did CFI… sell the airplane at the end.

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I would rent till you get your ratings and then buy and fly time off. See the pure math LOOKS like it works out to buy a plane, fly it and sell it when you are done. And if nothing bad happens it can work. But if something goes wrong you will very easily be 8-10 months sitting around waiting for that new engine and you will have to drop 40K dollars for it.

And being a new pilot? Well you are going to be hard on the plane. A decent trainer like a 172 and you are going to be basically bidding against flight schools to buy it and you will be beating the hell out of it while learning. Something "nicer" like a Mooney or Bonanza might actually cost less to buy than a decent 172, but now you are going to have higher insurance and the "nicer" planes don't handle students very well.

I'd make all my learning mistakes on a rented plane, and then buy a plane to build time WHILE being a CFI. You can buy a little LSA aircraft with an N number and build time when you don't have students.

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Ok_Battle121@reddit

So, a guy at the airport I fly out of bought a C152 to grind out 1500hours instead of working as a CFI. He hasn't got a called back from the regionals or any part 135/91K. Main suspicion is that he had no professional pilot experience ....

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walleyednj@reddit

Primary reason I bought is that my club is an hour drive away. The driving was a bit too much. I bought my plane and it’s hangared 15 minutes from my house. Costs more than the club, but fortunately, I can afford it. Having it close and always available is priceless.

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SWADRVR@reddit

Buy a C-172 with clean FAIRLY RECENT major maintenance, fly the piss out of it, maintain it, sell it. Much more pleasant way of building time! ( your very fortunate 💵)

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TrickBit27@reddit

A wise man once told me, buying a plane is never the cheaper option. So far he has been right, if you do the math it’s always cheaper to rent.

It definitely won’t be as convenient, or the most fun way, but it will always be cheaper

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Frost_907@reddit

If your intent is the airlines then CFI is going to be the better route. No airline will ever consider you if all of your 1500 hours is from leisure flying in a personally owned airplane. They are gonna wanna see some experience in a commercial operation, whether that is time spent as a CFI, or flying at a 135 operation or something similar.

Plus why spend money for all that flight time when you can be earning money for the vast majority of it instead.

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betterme2610@reddit

This just isn’t true at all.

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ThatsSomeIsh@reddit

Interest comment. Crazy to think that an airline has never hired someone who only did leisure flying! 🙄

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YamComprehensive7186@reddit

When I was getting started I bought a little taildragger right after getting my PP, flew 250 hours first two years, sold it for more then I bought it and then bought 50% of a twin engine and flew it about 400 hours. I then had enough hours to get hired at a local part 135 operator flying single pilot VFR operations, did that for two years and the rest is history, never did get a CFI. It's an option and I've flown with numerous pilots at the airline who did something similar.

You can also buy a nice trainer like a 172 and lease it back to the flight school for some positive income flow.

All this requires some work on your part, it's probably easier to just rent and go if you have the money sitting around.

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BeeDubba@reddit

Is there any reason you can't do both? Buy a reliable but cheap plane, then you can be an independent CFI if flight school hours are slow, or if you can't get a job. If you have the cash to time build, you could do that in your down time.

So long as you have a significant amount of commercial time, the airlines won't care that you have a bunch of personal flight time.

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LegendL600@reddit

I’ve heard there are people who actually make money on leasebacks. I’ve also heard there are these creatures called unicorns that look like a horse and narwhal put together. Seriously a leaseback can work under ideal conditions but that’s not realistic and the owner almost always gets hosed. This is especially true for primary instruction airplanes that will just get beat up by PPL students.

I am certainly biased as the only plane I’ve ever owned is an SLSA but that’s not for lack of funds to buy certificated. It was a dollars and cents choice for me and my partner who just didn’t want to fly around in a 182 gulping 13gal/hr and stressing about $25k annuals. Our SLSA has a wider cabin than a 182, full IFR glass cockpit (no IMC per regs but can train under the hood) and burns 5gal/hr of 91 at 115kts. It also has a chute to make the wives a little more comfortable.

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I-r0ck@reddit

This is a conundrum, is it cheaper to get paid to fly, or to pay to fly?

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bulldogpenguin89@reddit

Not all of us can burn 3 ish years of our life getting paid $20/hr to almost get killed every other day by a student

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ZealousidealItem9872@reddit

You’ll need an aviation tax attorney for this, but buy the plane and rent the plane to the flight school. It’s essentially a dry lease. It will need to be specifically structured entity wise, but you can usually receive enough rental income to cover your expenses. You’ll still “rent” your own aircraft, but you can generate income through the 3rd party rentals. If you do this, just make sure you have a competent attorney set it up. It’s worth the engagement fee. Most charge a set fee each year. Typically $2,500 to $5,000.

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Kermit-de-frog1@reddit

And don’t forget experimentals , purchase and maint costs are significantly less than cert. GA aircraft. Mx time is also generally significantly reduced if your local A&P knows the engine. BUT make sure you’re looking at an experimental built that has a long manufacturer history, you want to be able to get parts readily if you need something. VAN appears to be holding steady so far working through bankruptcy, Zenith is still trucking along . You will still have hangar and insurance costs , and depending on the bird and your hours the first year or two of insurance may shock you ( it did me !).

As an example, my Zenith 650b was around 60k with under 300 hours. UL 350is engine with full fadec ( no mix, true fuel injection) full Dynon glass with trans/adsb in/out , ForeFlight compatibility , full dual controls for training, etc. runs like a champ and can easily take off in under 1000 ft at 60% power. Downside is it’s light, and max gross is low so you feel EVERYTHING in the air. A bird farts, you feel it. But as a trainer it’s awesome, and for vagabond travel ( that’s a light backpack in the wing locker ) it’s a fun bird. Autopilot is next, the dynon is already set up for it, I’ve just gotta install two servos at about 2k dollars. And if I need a new landing light for example, I can truck over to the local Napa, wallyworld, or amazon and get outfitted for about 100 bucks.

TLDR: also look at experimental or lsa if your looking to buy, you can get more for much less if you do your research.

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cjonesaf@reddit

Top tip for buying an airplane: don’t. You can thank me later.

Slightly more seriously, I wouldn’t. You don’t have enough experience to even know if you want to fly for a living yet. You’ll need access to different categories and classes to get all of your ratings anyway, not to mention that as you gain experience, you’ll better learn what you like and don’t like about various aircraft. So I’d wait on buying a plane until you’re a legacy captain, then go for it. For now, rent and let someone else deal with the headaches of ownership.

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IrishThree@reddit

This is anecdotal and 16 year old story. But, when I was going to school paying for flight school at a university, a fellow student was in the airframe mechanic program. He bought his own plane, did all his training through commercial single engine, and had intended to sell the plane. This greatly reduced the overall cost of his initial training and allowed him to freely build and log hours at his discretion on his own time. He took a month off in the summer and flew from Michigan to Alaska and back.

So, it's not unheard of and if you can find a reasonably priced aircraft, outfitted with required equipment for your instrument and commercial ratings, and has good resale value after you put a hundred or couple hundred hours on it, very doable.

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Texican84@reddit

I am going through the same conundrum as I work on my ratings as well. It boils down to this, if you have the funds for your own plane and plan to use it for travel and/or fun flying then by all means buy a plane. That said, I'd still be working as a CFI at the same time in order to further build flight hours for free in tandem and to broaden your skillset, make contacts/connections and all while staying current.

You will likely never be able to fly your own plane for cheaper than renting at a school or local club because of the other costs associated with owning your own plane add back up to a wash at best and yet you're still holding the bag for maintenance.

$200K puts you in a good spot for quite a few nicely equipped options but with a budget like that I'd be looking at $150K and under so that you can have a slush fund for all of the obvious and hidden associated costs (hangar, insurance, fuel, maintenance, repairs, overhauls, upgrades, etc.) that will certainly creep up when you least expect it.

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MostNinja2951@reddit

Buying a plane is not cheaper than renting. It's more enjoyable than renting. Buy a plane if you want to own a plane, not because you think you can save some money.

Also, if you don't have at least some professional experience you're going to struggle to get a 121/135 job. You can buy your own hours to help get to 1500 but don't count on doing all of it that way.

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Select-Storage4097@reddit

I had this debate too while I was an engineer with most of my ratings. I chose to quit as an engineer and work full time as a CFII. If I'm honest, my hours accrual as a full-time CFI was underwhelming, coming in at about 55 hours a month average in 18 months at a somewhat busy part 61 school, and I even paid for fully or split about 200 of my 1100 hours since CFI initial.

I quit working as an engineer because I couldn't stand office work any longer, but in hindsight, I would have had a lot of disposable income to commit to a plan and flying. I could have made better money and flown nearly as many hours as I did, but spending that time taking trips I wanted to instead of flying in the same area for 1000 hours. Not saying I think I made a mistake, but the grass looks greener on the other side.

If you have 200k and no job, I suggest buying a plane and flying the pants off of it. Get your PPL and start having some adventures. Stay in good standing with a local flight school in case your plane goes down for mx. Mx can cause significant delays. An engine overhaul can take 6 months or more. This is the only downside I can see to owning, but if you treat it well and get comfortable with preventative maintenance tasks, it shouldn't be too bad..

Since money shouldn't prove much of an obstacle, I would purchase something with nice, capable avionics and with an engine at about 300-400 hours on it. You'll be looking at about $175k asking prices in today's market. Good news is the used aircraft market has been appreciating like mad the last 5-10 years or so. The cost of the airplane itself is going to be peanuts compared to the cost of operating it, so I would spare no expense as long as you can find a reasonable deal.

If you can get your ratings plus about 700 hours total time under your belt some doors to low time pilot jobs may begin to open, so you'll start getting some options. Whatever you do, get your ratings done ASAP then fly as much as you can as often as you can.

TL;DR: If you're 100% committed to this idea of becoming a professional pilot, I would strongly consider buying a plane. Mx can throw a wrench into you plans, so buy something reasonable and learn to treat the airplane well. Then fly it as much as possible.

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Weasel474@reddit

It's less an issue for you of financial viability, and more about employability. Who do you think they're going to hire first- the person working for a school, teaching others, getting a job done, under varying flight conditions, or the dude just burning holes with no specific mission in mind? More than a few people who just did the latter had issues in training, and you're not going to be at the top of any hiring lists doing that. There's also the fact that 1500 isn't the magic number anymore- how much are you gonna toss at time building before you have to find something else?

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FridayMcNight@reddit

There are a lot of variables, and a lot of online calculators that might be able to help.

In general, you have fixed costs (insurance, hangar, annual inspections, etc.) and hourly costs (fuel, maintenance, repairs, etc.). Flight schools generally run at pretty low margins, and they can spread the unexpected costs across a fleet. It is unlikely that you will be able to do better than them on operational costs with a single airplane, so if you want a close approximate to what your costs would be, get some local rental rates for a plane you'd consider buying, and use those as an initial estimate.

In other words, if you can rent a 172 nearby for 140/hr, thats probably pretty close to what it'll cost you per hour to operate it. So take that number times the number of ours per year you think you'll fly and start there.

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kent814@reddit

Send me 20k of that money to finish my CFI ratings and Ill tell ya

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

I’m currently working towards my ppl and I have a goal of being an airline pilot. Is it cheaper to buy my own plane soon and get my flight hours that way or just go to a flight school and be a CFI? For reference I have about 200k in the bank now I can use. Just not sure how much annual costs for a plane would be vs renting planes. Any airplane owners or CFIs have advice?

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