Wow, cynical Arnold.
How would this cost $900-1200/hr to run?
CubCrafters: Aircraft for sale.
Yes there is insurance, maintenance and hangarage.
For an aircraft like the above that might total $8k/annum. 100 hrs/annum = $80/hr.
DOCs for a cub might be $60/hr.
So far we are up to $140/hr.
An aircraft like this will not depreciate significantly so forget that.
Missed opportunity costs?
Well if you'd invested that $50k a few years ago in the stock market, or even a house, what would it be worth now?
You'd be bloody lucky if it was still worth anything..it might be 25k had you bought blue chip stocks...it could VERY easily be a big fat zero.
Lets say you just shoved it in a term deposit at 5%...you'd still have lost out because (real) inflation would have eaten it away at probably 10%.
At some point you can sell the Cub and while it wont have appreciated much, and probably not even held it value compared to real inflation, it likely would have done as well or slightly better than sticking the money in a term deposit. Yes sticking into an investment property would (historically) have meant you might turn you 50k into 100k (Before CGT) after 10 years, it wont mean that in the next 10 years.
And in the end we are here on this planet for a good time not a long time...you could be run over by a bus tomorrow...a personal aeroplane, like a boat, sports car etc, gives a great deal of satisfaction that can not be accurately valued by just adding up $.