AA
I may have confused my point a little bit. I was saying that IF there was any kind of "program" or fund in place with an aircraft, then it would keep its fund up. But all too often, what you see is, people paying a years premium re insurance....paying their hangarage or WHY per month and the Mx bill as and when and just sloshing fuel in it. This means, the depreciation is never covered, if you use it personally and then you sell it, that hours flown have gone into the wind. I mean, your hourly cost isn't factored in "per hour" per se (!), you just lose the money when you sell....if that makes sense? The only people getting that back PLUS some, are schools and commercial operators.
The interesting thing for me as a lowly, 5000 hour "newbie" fling wing pilot, is that actually, I can almost rent one, wet, per hour, for the same as a Cabri....! There was a group near London that had non equity shares available and equity shares, that seemed to offer a decent hourly rate and were clearly building in a charge to pay for the overhaul. However, it seems to have dies a death and I cant figure out why? Maybe it was bought at too high a cost....so the utilisation didn't cover it....maybe the majority shareholder naffed off with the cash...or, who knows, but it seems that group ownership wasn't working....and I would love to know why? Lots of "possible" reasons....but nobody can tell me anything definitive?