I'm not sure I entirely agree with the assertion that if you have never owned a Permit aircraft before it's sensible to buy a share. A share in any aircraft comes with it's problems, primarily that you are sharing it with other people which always leads to mostly small but sometimes large conflicts of interest. It's not that unheard of for people in syndicates to fall out.
That said if you have never owned any aircraft then a share is definitely a low risk way of getting to know the pitfalls of aircraft ownership. Just be prepared for a little bit of politics and quite a lot of over protectiveness of "the baby" when you join the syndicate.
There are plenty of people and companies willing to help with permit aircraft so don't let lack of knowledge put you off but definitely do your homework, get to know your maintenance people and your inspector. There's a good chance they will already know of local planes that may well be a good purchase. Go to a local strut meeting, I can't encourage people to do this enough, almost always a lovely bunch of people who are really into flying and fixing planes
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My recommendation to anyone buying an aircraft who isn't sure is as follows
1. Always buy something below your budget, not AT your budget because running a plane is expensive and it's not unusual for people to let a plane go U/S because they can't afford a replacement part
This is a spiral descent into dead plane territory.
2. Buy something that is fairly popular, a VANs, SportCruiser,Cub etc., for two reasons firstly because parts are much easier to come by and secondly because it will almost certainly be easier to shift on than something that is unbelievably rare.
3. Bells and whistles are brilliant but the more kit it has, the more stuff can and will go wrong
Buying something simple will make the learning process much more straightforward.
4. Try lots of different types, get to know the LAA guys near you and go look at lots of aircraft just to get a feel for them, you'll be surprised at some things you might find out.
5. Opinions are like arr-soles, there's an awful lot of them about and many of them are full of she-it
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6. Tailwheels are better, it's that simple
