Would you rather be an aircraft owner or professional pilot?

pilatuspilot

pilatuspilot

Well-Known Member
Just wanted to get some insight, advantages and disadvantages to owning your own airplane and having a job outside of aviation.
 
I think as a professional pilot, you only fly where the company wants you to go. There's more freedom as an owner in that you can fly whenever you want, wherever you want. Then again, you could always rent....
 
Being an owner would be nice, but I also enjoy the challenge of being a pro. You could have both I guess, but a lot of owners don't have that mentality (bonanza owners, lookin' at you here) ;)

Me? I plan to be a pro and own a cub ;)
 
When I was about 19 I decided to end my pursuit of being a professional pilot. After looking at the cost and time to complete my ratings (I wasn't about to get a big loan), the nomadic lifestyle I'd have, cost to my future family life, and low earning potential until late in career, I decided I'd get another job and fly for fun.

In my other pursuits I didn't touch an airplane for about 10 more years. I started flying again a couple years ago and bought a plane and have a small rental/instruction business on the side now. Every once in a while I fantasize about getting paid to fly for a living, but the idea quickly fades. I'm very happy with my choices. The only thing I would've done differently is to have kept flying at least a bit during those interim years, but the reality was I couldn't justify the expense of the hobby at that point.
 
Having owned two airplanes, started with a Grumman Yankee and then moved onto a comanche 250, I will say the two happiest days I owned them were the days I bought them, and the days I sold them. I'll stick to getting paid to fly other peoples airplanes. Between MX costs, insurance, hangar, fuel etc, and working so much I rarely found time to fly for fun. Now if I want to ill just rent, or borrow.
 
The other problem is the cost of even recreational ownership requires a significant income - in my current role I would expect 10 years before I could purchase a 172. Then I am sure my wife and family would rather spend it towards other things.
 
I'm doing both and love both.

The key is to only work at flying jobs that don't suck, and only buy planes that won't eat you alive financially.

Unfortunately many people can't figure out how to do one or both of those things successfully, hence you'll hear a lot of complaining when the topic comes up.

As for reasons why I do each...I love flying, and fly professionally for numerous reasons. I enjoy the challenge, I'm good at it, the lifestyle is fine for me, and I can't think of anything else I'd rather do to pay the bills. As for why I own a plane, it gives me freedom from the rigors of professional flying, I love taking friends for rides, socializing at pancake breakfasts/air shows, etc. I blow off steam by cruising around low and slow in my 140.

It's kinda like a bus driver who owns a motorcycle. Both are forms of transportation, but reasons and motivations for doing each are totally different.

If I had to give up one or the other, I'd probably give up owning a plane. But only because that's a smaller part of my life than professional flying. I really wouldn't want to give up either one.
 
You can be poor as a pro pilot, or make a ton of money in another field and have aircraft ownership make you poor. I'd rather fly something bigger and faster and not have to stress about paying for the gas.
 
jrh said:
...only buy planes that won't eat you alive financially
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This is a very big point. Everytime I talk to people interested in buying planes they quickly try to justify more airplane than they need. "Well for another $20k I could get more useful load", "well for another $10k I could get a bigger engine and go faster".... quickly they've doubled or tripled their potential insurance, maintenance, and fuel costs. There are a whole lot of airplanes at our airport that rarely fly and I'm willing to bet that's because the owner simply cannot afford to fly them.

Unless you have a lot of wealth and/or disposable income, buy less airplane than you think you need and you'll probably fly it a whole lot more. When you get those "but what if I wanted to fly my 3 buddies to Colorado for a ski trip" thoughts, look at your logbook and count how many times you've done that in the past, then buy a plane that will satisfy the type of flying you do 80% of the time and rent something for those special flights.
 
IMO, purchasing an aircraft now is a bad idea. Wait 5-7 years. In that time, roughly half of all current aircraft owners will have either died or lost their medical. As many GA aircraft will rot away as will be sold. $8+ avgas (if there is any at all) and the complete lack of new recreational pilots will make most of these planes worthless in the near future. I hope I'm wrong, but the numbers aren't looking good.
 
Build your own.

Assembilng a kit plane like the RVs is not out of the realm of possiblity for even the average worker. I'd rather fly a Kitfox on the weekends with my kids, than be gone 20-25 days a month flying an RJ.
 
USMCmech said:
Build your own.
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If you like to build...

You should build because you want to build a plane. If you want to fly, you should buy a flying plane. Lots of cheap partially completed kits out there from people who got confused on this one.
 
I can only fantasize about being wealthy enough to own a useful airplane. By useful, I mean 4 people + bags + all weather without a sweat. Since that is the bare minimum type of plane I would own, it is not going to happen. As I have been flying for a paycheck for 26 years, If I was that wealthy, would not care so much about the flying aspect.
 
I will own a Pietenpol Air Camper one day. Even after a terrible month, one GA flight reminds me why I wanted to do this whole professional pilot thing in the first place.
 
pilatuspilot said:
Would you rather be an aircraft owner or professional pilot?
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What kind of plane? I would give up my pro flying job any day if I could own a Citation X free and clear and have enough cash flow to pay for fuel, maintenance, hanger rental and other crew member's salary. Now if you're talking about owning a C172, I'd rather keep my flying job.
 
When I flying the DC-10 my thoughts were of flying my experimental plane. When I was home flying I never thought about the DC-10.
 
Experimentals are the one area of GA I'm still hopeful for. As stated above they are within the means of the average worker
 
As someone who does both, it's important to define what you want to do with your personal airplane. Do you just want to putter around low and slow, going to pancake breakfasts and having fun, or do you want to go places fast with a big useful load?

I have a family of six. The cost of owning a plane to take them all somewhere is prohibitive compared to non-reving. Sure, it can take all day, but you can't beat free. On the other hand, the ability to spend a day with each child individually, without the others interfering is priceless.

That said, what works for me may not work for someone else. The key is to buy a plane, (or boat or even car,) without emotion. Otherwise, you will buy too much for what you need and never use it to its full potential.
 
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