Buying an aircraft, explained

Mission first

The aircraft is the last decision, not the first. Start with the flying you actually do. Who is on board on a typical trip, and on the fullest trip of the year? What is the longest leg you want to fly nonstop? Which airports do you use, and how long are their runways? How often do you fly, and how much of it is family with bags and a dog versus two people with briefcases?

Write those answers down before you look at a listing. A family that flies Nashville to the Gulf beaches and the mountains a dozen times a year needs a different airplane from a company that flies two people to the coasts every week. Buyers who skip this step buy the aircraft they liked, then spend years paying for range or cabin they do not use, or stopping for fuel on the one trip that mattered.

The true annual cost

The purchase price is the entry ticket. The cost is what follows, and it comes in three groups.

• Fixed costs arrive whether the aircraft flies or not: crew salaries, benefits and recurrent training, hangar, insurance, a management fee if you use a manager, and the subscriptions for charts, data and maintenance tracking.
• Variable costs arrive with every hour: fuel, engine and auxiliary power unit program fees, maintenance labor and parts, landing and handling fees, catering, and the crew's travel when they stay out.
• Capital costs are the quiet ones: financing if you borrow, the drop in the aircraft's value over the years you own it, and the taxes that come with buying, owning and selling.

The point of the exercise is the figure per hour it produces once you divide by the hours you will really fly. Flown a lot, an aircraft is a reasonable way to travel. Flown a little, the same aircraft costs far more per hour, and a card or a share may serve you better.

New versus pre owned

New brings a warranty, the latest avionics and cabin, and a delivery date you wait for. It also loses value faster in the first few years than at any other point. Pre owned brings a lower price and an aircraft you can fly next month, along with inspections due, an older cockpit and a history you have to read. A late model pre owned aircraft, a few years old with an engine program and a clean pre buy, is where many first time buyers land, and for good reason.

The pre buy inspection

Never buy without one. Choose a facility that knows the type, independent of the seller, and give it a written scope: records review, airworthiness directive compliance, corrosion and damage, engine borescopes, a systems check and a test flight. Airworthiness items are commonly fixed by the seller before closing. Everything else is a negotiation, and the report is your list.

Crew, management and the pilot's eye

Someone has to fly it, maintain it and keep it legal. You can hire your own crew and run it yourself, use a management company that employs the crew and handles maintenance, scheduling and compliance for a monthly fee, or put the aircraft on a charter certificate to offset the fixed costs. Each has a price and a tradeoff, and the owner's guide to charter management covers the third in detail.

A pilot reads an aircraft differently from a listing. The logbooks tell a story about how it was flown and who looked after it. The cabin wear says how many hours it really carried. The runway performance says whether it will lift your family out of a short field on a hot afternoon. That eye sits beside you through the search, the pre buy and the closing, and it is the part of the purchase that a spreadsheet cannot do.

Related

• Compare cabin sizes
• Charter management for owners, explained
• Fractional shares, explained
• Selling an aircraft, explained