it will cost you more to have/own it for hire than what you could possibly make on it.
In most circumstances, I think this is true. It would be interesting to hear from Chimbu Chuckles, who has had an aircraft on an aeroclub line.
I used to hire one & many other types many years ago (C210 $100 & C182 $60 P/H ) like a lot of us did in here but to own one you would have to be either very rich & or just plain dumb ! Best to hire it, pay the cost at the end of trip 'cause it's a known quantity & there aren't any surprises & then after thr fun sleep like a log at night. Because doing it the other way round you better have a good comfy pillow!
I don't think you can buy an aeroplane and put it on a line somewhere for private hire and expect to make money. If you need to do this to subsidise the cost of your own flying then you may well learn an expensive lesson.
For the first 25 years of my flying career I had access to a variety of good aircraft (many near new) at competitive rates. I looked at owning my own on a number of occassions but could not really justify it when I had other aircraft readily available.
For the last 10 years things have been quite different - at least in my part of the world. Access to good aircraft for private hire has been almost non-existant, and I have had some potentially "sticky" situations with poorly maintained aircraft.
You don't need to be "either very rich & or just plain dumb" to own an aircraft today, however if don't have a high disposable income, you do need a tax deductible reason for doing a reasonable amount of flying (200 hrs per year?).
I would never put an aircraft that I owned on a line for private hire. The risk of someone costing you a large amount of money is just too great. I would however allow a very few people to use the aircraft - those who I knew could be trusted to operate the aircraft as if it was their own and would operate it the way I want it operated.
Private aircraft ownership seems to be undergoing something of a resurgence at the moment. My LAME is very busy processing aircraft being imported from the US - most of which I get to test fly. They are being brought in by individuals who have a genuine business reason to fly.
I cannot see how anyone can put a C210/Bonanza on a line for less than $300 wet. At that you wouldn't make much if anything at all.
Dr 