Owning vs Renting
I was asked recently about my thoughts on owning versus renting and figured I'd share those thoughts here.
If I had the funds to buy a plane outright, I would, but a small flight club was the best option for my scenario. In this case, we're actually part owners since we all own a share of the corporation so we don't feel we're renting. Also, the plane is generally available since, believe it or not, many of the 14 in our club are not very active pilots.
The freedom that owning gives over renting is, well, liberating. If you've ever owned before, then you know what I’m talking about. The ability to fly for long weekends or vacations without having to worry about minimum hours and fees makes owning at least a piece of the plane worth while, in my opinion.
However, there is a joke you may have heard: How much money does it take to own a plane? All of it.
I don't know of anybody who's actually made the numbers work in favor of owning over renting. It really does boil down to what kind of flying you want to do. If you expect to do mostly local "sight-flying", then renting is probably more economical. However, if you expect/want to take longer trips (like my trip to visit family over Thanksgiving weekend or the beach trip we took last summer), then owning is probably your best option - and this is why most of the owners I know own versus rent.
I've heard of a "magic" number of hours that will make owning more economical than renting, but I think it's just folks trying to rationalize that huge drain on discretionary spending. I've flown a total of about 97 hours in the last two years which is about three less than what owning advocates say is the yearly number of hours to make owning worthwhile.
FWIW, those 97 hours over the last two years cost me about $7300. If I were to rent the least expensive 4-seat plane (a Piper Warrior) at my previous club, those same hours would have cost me $9600. However, the type of flying I've done over the past year alone would have made renting very costly, indeed. I used to spend most of my renting time making local pleasure flights without much utility. The last two years have seen a change in my flying to more destination-based so I'm getting more utility from my flying - and that can be a major factor in expenses.
Let's consider my Thanksgiving trip. We left on Wednesday morning and flew to Georgia. My previous club, Av-Ed
, has a 3 hr/day minimum charge and they only allow certain aircraft to be flown on such a trip (@ $104/hr). I didn't fly at all on Thursday or Friday, but I would have had to pay for 6 hours of flight time for those two days. I did take family flying on Saturday, but it was less than the 3 hr minimum, so I would have had to pay the full 3 hours for Saturday, too. The flight home exceeded the minimum, so I would have paid for "just" the flight time for Sunday. Also, the C172 that the club would have "allowed" me to fly on this trip is also slower - burning more time - but to keep the math simple, we'll assume similar airspeeds between that plane and mine.
So, considering actual enroute flight time of about 8 hours, plus the "minimum" 9 hours for Thu-Fri-Sat, renting that plane would have cost me $1768. My actual costs using the plane I "own": $825 (~11 hours x $75/hr).
Now let's consider the beach trip we made last summer. We flew from Manassas (the temporary home of the plane at the time) to Manteo, NC (Outer Banks) in about 4.5 hours round-trip flight time. Since it was an overnight trip, Av-Ed would have charged me 6 hours for the plane for a cost of $624. My cost using "my" plane was ~$338.
Now, to *really* throw some numbers around in a more apples-to-apples scenario, compare those flight times/costs with the airlines. Start with the Georgia trip. Flying on United leaving Dulles (KIAD) and arriving at Bush Field in Augusta, GA (KAGS), I'd depart at 0700 and land in KAGS at 1106. Lessee, 1100 - 0700 leaves me four hours travel time. Of course, I'd have to factor in the time I'd spend waiting in security taking off shoes and belts, but let's be kind and leave that at a mere 30 minutes to park and get to the plane at KIAD. Let's also consider that KAGS is about 45 minutes from my parents home and it takes me about 20 minutes to drive from my home to KIAD so let's add another 1.5 hours to the tally for a grand total of 5.5 hours door-to-door. Oh, and the tickets on United would run me $621 per person (round trip). Times three would have been $1863.
If I were to play around a bit and depart from BWI (over an hour's drive from my home in Leesburg) and fly into Atlanta (two hour drive from my destination), my ticket price would drop to about $175 each. Even if these were the most convenient airports for my trip, the total cost for the three of us would have been $525 plus car rental (and we would have had to make special arrangements for the dog or left him home).
It takes me maybe 10 minutes to get to the Leesburg airport from my home (catching all the red lights) and it took me 4.5 hours to fly to Georgia and land at an airport less than 10 minutes from my parents home. (They met us at the field so we didn't have to worry about car rental.)
As you can see, owning can make flying out of town easier and "less expensive". However, use caution when using my numbers. Owning the plane by yourself or with a smaller group may make a significant difference in the cost comparisons.
Also, I said "less expensive" because, let's face it, this is all discretionary spending. We could have driven to Georgia like we've done every other year and spent a fraction of what we spent to fly. Similarly, we could have driven to the Outer Banks for the cost of a couple tanks of gasoline and an extra 5 hours of time.
And there's the rub. Time. How much is your time worth? Any more, I'm considering my time more and more valuable and I'm willing to pay to fly to a destination to save me time and aggravation on the roads.
Your mileage may vary. :)