How to buy a single engine aircraft in the UK?

[Toujours]

What does one need to do to buy an aircraft? Let say for eg. a C172 or P28 Warrior 4 seater?

If one wants to personalise the registration, how much does it cost?

Whatis the insurance cost?

Regarding its home, do you think it is a good idea to park it at a flightschool and perhaps loan it to the school for training and in return get free parking, maintenance and monthly rent for the plane?

If one owns a C172 for example, what do you reckon would be his operating cost per hour in terms of fuel?

What expenses must he budget for monthly/annually etc?

Can you please recommend a used aircraft for sale website as well as any website for new aircraft owners??

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[gasax]

Suggest you use the search function for a half hour or so. There are hundreds of threads answering or discussing these issues. Once you've done that then more specific questions might yield better information.

[strake]

Firstly, I have to believe this is some sort of troll given that someone wanting to buy a light a/c must have the capability to use a search engine, review the countless threads here, or just talk to their local flying club....but OK, I'll bite...

Caveat..Others will have different figures/reasoning. This is what it cost me.

What does one need to do to buy an aircraft? Let say for eg. a C172 or P28 Warrior 4 seater?

Have cash, go look, use friendly engineer to check a/c and docs. If you like it, pay money, tell CAA.

If one wants to personalise the registration, how much does it cost?

It used to be £250 but don't know now. Ask CAA or check website.

Whatis the insurance cost?

Depending on what you want to use it for, abour £2000

Regarding its home, do you think it is a good idea to park it at a flightschool and perhaps loan it to the school for training and in return get free parking, maintenance and monthly rent for the plane?

You will not get "free" parking or maintenance. If you buy an a/c then you buy it for the ownership of something that is yours, available when you want it. Otherwise, why not join a group?

If one owns a C172 for example, what do you reckon would be his operating cost per hour in terms of fuel?

The fuel will cost the same whether you own the plane or not. If you mean what are the running costs per hour of your aeroplane, it depends how often you fly. 1 hour a year will cost a lot, 100 hours less so

What expenses must he budget for monthly/annually etc?

As above, my experience on a TB9 was you won't get much change out of £800 a month..hangarage, insurance, maintenance etc

Can you please recommend a used aircraft for sale website as well as any website for new aircraft owners??

Google "used light aircraft for sale" and take your pick

[Toujours]

Thanks for your detailed answer Strake.

Cheers bud.

By the way - if I would like to offer the A/C for hire, do you think it could yield £500 at least per week?

What do you reckon I'll need, do I need to have a CPl to do this?

[clareprop]

Toujours

Why do you want to know?

[vanHorck]

this must be the most out of this world thread i ve ever come across.....

Can anyone tell me why so many planes have a prop on the front (because it seems rather dangerous on the ground)?

[Toujours]

Clare Just curious, that's all.

Would like to know the pros and cons of buying an aircraft to rent out.

[vanHorck]

it s the best investement you could ever make..... for us!

[JW411]

Don't bother to go any further my friend. I have been trying to make a profit for 5 years now and I haven't even managed to break even yet!

You simply do not, repeat not, buy an aircraft to make money.

[hammerman]

As others have said this is not a difficult subject to figure out. Since you are a serious investor, invest 20 quid in Owning and Operating Your Own Aircraft, has all the answers you are looking for.

['Chuffer' Dandridge]

Q: How do you make a million in aviation?

A: Start with two million.......

[BackPacker]

An aircraft is a hole in the sky that you throw money in...

Just to go back to the meat of the thread, do you also have to register your purchase with the manufacturer (or license holder or whatever) to receive ADs, SBs and such? I've always wondered about how that works.

And since this thread is going nowhere fast, might as well ask it here.

[theyounglaird]

You should all be ashamed of yourself being so miserable. Someone is excited about the world of flying and you just cut them down. Why bother having forums if the only advice and help you give is 'go and have a look at other threads' or look on Google.

There is not a good recent impartial thread here or anywhere else on buying aircraft for rental as far as I can see. I would love to have some answers to the original question. Maybe he could buy that German plane cheaply...

Is there any other optimists out there that can do some sums that make buying and renting out feasible? I would hope that those wishing to buy are buying out of cash rather than taking out a large loan.

[Toujours]

Thanks theyounglaird.

If people could only stick to the real thread.

And yes of course, will be buying the aircraft cash.

[clareprop]

You should all be ashamed of yourself being so miserable. Someone is excited about the world of flying and you just cut them down. Why bother having forums if the only advice and help you give is 'go and have a look at other threads' or look on Google.

Maybe it's because a quick look at previous posts show that Toujours is a "serial questioner", on various subjects, who only seems to respond to answers with another question. In any event, there have been some good responses here to which I can't add anymore. I'm sure that's the same for a number of other owners.

[P.Pilcher]

To illustrate what people have said above about the cost of flying your own aeroplane, in the early 80's two friends of mine purchased between them a Piper Tripacer. It was a loveley aeroplane in excellent condition. They decided that keeping it on a public transport C of A and the associated maintenance costs so they could hire it out was not worthwhile, so kept it on a private cat C of A and just flew it themselves. During that time, I "borrowed" the aeroplane and paid them about £35 an hour which at the time was the going rate for a light single (I know, I know). After about three years they decided to sell it. They carefully totted up everything they had spent on the aircraft: purchase cost, maintenance, hangarage, insurance, fuel e.t.c. and deducted what they sold the aircraft for, and the odd sum paid by friends who had "borrowed" it. They then divided this by the number of hours that they had both flown. The answer came out to £125 per hour, when they could have hired one similar for 35 quid. Escalate those costs to today's and you have the probable cost of owning your own!

P.P.

[Sam Rutherford]

My advice:

If you're not absolutely certain you can afford to buy and operate your own aeroplane - don't.

Rent someone elses...

When something fails on it (which it will :{), rent another one!

Sam.

[dont overfil]

I did it once.
Annually £5000 maintenence (transport C of A)
£2000 insurance
£2000 hangerage. All plus VAT this was 10 years ago!
I leased to a flying club so what can they charge today?
Probably £140 per hour
Minus VAT
Minus their margin say £15
Minus fuel say £54 before VAT
Minus engine fund £7.50 ph
You are left with £42.50 per hour.
Unless the flying club is huge your AC will probably do about 25hrs per month.
Because of the risk of personal liability you may want to form a limited company so you will need to employ an accountant, but to make this work you will need a fleet of aircraft to make it pay.
Don't bother. Buy an aircraft and let a couple of friends fly it. They'll maybe look after it.
You could probably half the maintenence bill by not letting a flying school or anone with low hours near it.
DO.