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Old 26th Dec 2009, 05:45
  #20 (permalink)  
DBTW
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: NSW
Age: 64
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Vintage or veteran aeroplanes...an investment?

I'm afraid mine would fall into the later category. $80K aircraft + $50K to $80K SIDs doesn't = $150K aircraft. I have seen some of the SIDs cost upwards of $150K and take 18 month to complete.
Wizard, you make a point about the value of your aeroplane after the SIDS inspection/repairs and I understand this relates to some personal circumstances. However, you have brought up a related and interesting conversation.

In making your point, you have hit one of many nails on the head as to why GA in Australia is going backwards. Surely, when talking about the value of the aeroplane, you need to stack it up against the comparable cost of replacement? IE We seem to blanch at what should be considered good maintenance or life extension on vintage (or at best, very old) aircraft even though we consider the cost of new aircraft too high. In any other industry, people simply won't go near machinery as old as what we find the norm in general aviation because it is considered unsafe. In aviation, we talk about safety a lot and then hope something often as much as 35-40 years old is going to be free of corrosion, and expect maintenance to be cheap. As some have suggested here already, it is possible Cessna and other manufacturers want people to retire their older aeroplanes and get new ones.

On that basis, in working out whether GA can survive, and whether we as individuals can afford to be in it, maybe we need a major and concerted campaign to get banks and other institutions to allow new equipment to be more readily used as security against finance, for the equipment to be written down over more sensible periods, and for the repayment terms to be more representative of the huge initial outlay?
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