Thank goodness you aren't the king of the world, Mike. There would be no new anything, and we would all be relegated to fixing broken ass hoopties for eternity........ Not even sure I should have used green there.

Another element is that money gets a lot cheaper for folks shopping in that price bracket. I just checked and I can get sub-5% on an equities-backed margin loan right now, and I'm at the absolute bottom end of the premium banking barrel. That's still a substantial annual interest payment but it's a hard number you can plug into Excel, and you don't have to forgo the gains in the underlying equities. I got 2% on a short-term margin loan 5 years ago, when money was basically free, so anybody that bought or refi'd back then using a similar approach is doing pretty well.

From the outside looking in, I don't particularly aspire to own an SF50 - I don't see the bang for buck in performance terms and I don't need that new airplane smell - but to sell 700 copies of a $4m airplane seems like you'd need to rely on more than finding a bunch of really dumb multi-millionaires. And if they truly have found a bunch of dumb multi-millionaires, fair play to them and shame on Beechcraft for missing the boat.

I dunno, honestly, I see the SF50 and the PA46 turboprops as sharing the same rung on the ladder. Between the two, I find the SF50 far more comfortable.

Neither of them compares to a twin jet, big, medium, small, or really small.

On the age thing, I have pilot friends who will only buy new, period. I wish I could do the same.

I don't have millions of dollars burning a hole in my pocket. I also don't have millions of dollars worth of transportation needs either.

If I were in position to justify the buy of an SF50, I probably would. I think I'd enjoy flying it. I did enjoy the left seat time I got in it.

But I'm happy enough in the Columbia for now.

Might be surprised to find the cabin width of the SF50 is wider than a CJ4+ and there is literally no comparison in cockpit comfort. So there is that. Otherwise the CJ4+ is a great performer for 3-4 times the cost. Even my tiny PA46 has more copilot leg room than an M2. I can’t turn the yoke full deflection sitting in the M2.

But heck, those of us slumming in the cheap seats are still living pretty comfy. There are some great deals out there on older planes/jets, and I commend Mike for what he has been able to do with so little capital outlay. My day job takes most of my time and energy. Adding managing an older plane seems daunting.

From somewhere at 26,000 feet thanks to Elon.