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Comment by w10-1

3 days ago

It's a sickening feeling to realize that to justify spending $50-100K on a plane and $1K/mo on maintenance and storage, you need some excuse to actually fly the damn thing at least 30X each year at $100/hr.

So no, it's not $100 and it's not a hamburger, but you gotta call it something in polite company.

6 comments

w10-1

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rcxdude  3 days ago

Only a tiny minority of pilots own the aircraft they fly, and all the context I've heard of $100 hamburgers in is when someone needs to log a certain number of flight hours to keep their license current (in the UK you need to on average do a flight once every two months to keep your license)

  • bombcar  2 days ago

    Most GA pilots rent or share ownership such that the $150/hr is “wet” and all inclusive - fuel, maintenance, capital costs, etc.

    The planes at $150/hr are often considerably older than the pilot.

amiga386  3 days ago

The economics are more that an entrepreneur rents the airplane to several enthusiasts in the area, each of whom enjoy flying and each would pay $100/hr for the thrill of flying.

But sure, there are also sometimes rich people and/or hyperenthusiasts who buy their own planes at great cost.

There are similarly people who enjoy car racing, horse riding, sailing, train journeys, and give excuses for their itineries but it's really to spend time on their hobby.

defrost  3 days ago

In Western Australia a number of people have aircraft for a variety of reasons, let's assume you have a working aircraft that's break even on costs wrt whatever business you run with that aircraft.

The $100 refers to the additional cost of doing something extra over and above.

People here also have garage built no quite aircraft purely for the fun of it and the challenge of the build:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ejG5bLdJxfI

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ILbQHnHPnY

coldpie  2 days ago

I think we should eat the rich as much as the next guy, but a handful of aviation enthusiasts spending too much of their money on airplanes doesn't really break through the noise for me. We got bigger fish to fry.