Sid, you will need to sell a LOT of BIG expensive houses to get into airplanes.

I can tell you from what I have seen here Cessna 206 makes club racing in a GT1 class look cheap, real cheap.

I don't know about now, but in 1977 more people had airplanes than people had boats.

But a LSA is pretty inexpensive.

When you get in to the 206/210 and the Cherokee 6 yu are into $130-$150 per hour. The engine rebuilds are $35k on up.

That Executive with the radial......Better have a good tax write off.

Back in the late 70s a friend had a Cherokee 6 and a Piper Archer. He paid 5k for the Archer.

Guy at work joined a local flying club. Dues and rent on the planes and gas was cheap enough he could keep his IFR up-to-date, and fly his family of 6 in the club's Cherokee six on vacation cheaper than driving.

We are putting our 206 in for an annual next week. Part of the downtime is a new engine. $38K for a factory zero time rebuild. Add the other things like prop refurbish and all the inspections and it will blow past $40K with ease. :eek:

We have to do that about every 3 years. We do fly it a lot. The only time it makes us money is when it is in the air.

Yours is what 2000 BMOH and the annual you have to do if it sits or flies so it is cheaper in that regard to fly it. When you fly for money it makes sense. If I were to fly a Cherokee 6 that we owned it would be about as expensive as flying via airline. But I wouldn't have the TSA to deal with and could fly to the local airport instead of San Diego 2 hours from our final destination. Getting to skip the 2 hour mess if ticketing and security it isn't any longer time wise overall. Would have to stop once but you would be hungry and have to pee anyway. Wife won't do the lady john. :(

Emily has flight time with Young Eagles so she could help out up front.

Yea, our airplane pretty much does not come out of the hangar unless it is a paying job or for maintenance. It is a ugly old 1965 206 that is a pickup truck with wings used to haul around a 500 pound camera.

Evening Y'all,

I had to do a shake down on a 2015 Chrysler 200 today. It had 19 miles on it when I was handed the keys and I put it through the paces. What a POS, I can't believe people are actually buying these things, to call is a basket of crap would be kind.

out of curiosity, which new(ish) vehicle(s) do you like?

For fun I like the STI/WRX
For utility I really like the Crosstrek
The C-Class Mercedes still impresses me and is in the Subi price range
If I was looking for a new ride it would be one of those three, nothing much else out there catches my eyes and has the durability I require. The new fords seem to be much better cars but they still have some issues that will keep me off the lots

very interesting.

we might have to buy a new(ish) car in a year or two, i'll keep the mercedes in mind.

any other subarus that you like?

D. I just bought a new ford escape and I love it. Ford is building some seriously nice rides these days. Plenty of power, rides nice, good space, and all the goodies.

i was just looking at used C-class MB's.... damn.

2006 all wheel drive with 67K miles. $8K.

The thing about the Fords, Sid, is the material they are still using, put 100k on them and they will be full of rattles and will have had several components under the hood that should still be original, replaced.
Our MB has 180K on the clock, and has zero rattles or squeaks, it is still bone dry and has only had two failures, one alt and one ac compressor. You will never get that from a ford, or Subi for that matter

i wish we'd had this conversation before we bought our current subie.

Rick I think you have to be selective with the new fords. I'm not as impressed with their trucks. But they are moving towards a "world car" philosophy and making things that can be sold globally with little modification. They are pulling in the European design teams and really building the small cars right.

Plus, the 2.0l ecoboost is the cats ass. 240hp from a turbo 4! Even in the escape it pulls like crazy.

I gave props to ford, it just wouldn't bo on my radar right now. I want a car I don't have to work on. I'm kinda burnt out on it

That was my plan too. Warranty for the first few years!!

Just downloaded sharknado 2 to watch on the plane tomorrow! Yaaaaaaah for crappy movies!