about the time that allan bond won the america's cup ( so about 1982) the guy opposite me in the office asked what an aeroplane cost.
I didn't know.
his reply was that I had a phone beside me, find out.
I rang Transwest at jandakot. they were the cessna agents at the time.
a Cessna 152 cost $250,000.
yes, a quarter of a million dollars for a 2 seat aeroplane that wasn't even corrosion proofed.
there in lies the problem. as a private owner you can't amortise the cost against your income.
to get this in perspective I built my home in perth about 4 years previous to the phone call. the total cost of a new brick and tile home on a 650 square metre block was under $35,000.
the poor bugger with the 300 hour cessna 150 I take my hat off to.
he has fought cancer for years I was told.
to him that little cessna is an investment approaching a quarter of a million dollars.
its current value was probably $25,000 to $30,000 before sids.
its value now is probably the weight in scrap aluminium.
just consider for a moment what that poor guy has lost.
of course the clueless in CAsA have no idea of the tragedies their fckuwitted approach to safety has caused.
none of them ever owned aircraft during their working lives.
none of them ever put a dollar of their own money toward what they flew.
they don't have a bloody clue and my gods does it show.
hang your heads in shame CAsA.