Well, Mr Freas was correct!

It's an airplane. Basically the same, numbers are just bigger.

At a high enough level, it stops becoming a question of money saved and starts becoming a question of time saved.

The faster the airplane, the more time required to acquire and keep the skills needed to fly the faster airplane. There's a tradeoff in time saved and I think for a lot of people it stops around the time type ratings start showing up.

At a high enough level, it stops becoming a question of money saved and starts becoming a question of time saved.

The faster the airplane, the more time required to acquire and keep the skills needed to fly the faster airplane. There's a tradeoff in time saved and I think for a lot of people it stops around the time type ratings start showing up.

I have three tenants getting ready to give up their jets. They bought to avoid the airlines and after three years , they have evaluated the cost and decided to sell.

One is a CJ2 and the owner pilot says it’s too expensive for personal trips.
One is a Citation 3 and the owner says it’s not cost effective.
One is a sovereign and the usage has dropped to less than 100 hours per year.

Current used market, as others have pointed out, is crazy tight. However, I think that after the bloom is off the rose, in terms of aircraft ownership, you will see more of the situations listed above and used market will open up again. Big question of course is when.

The one with a flight attendant serving a full plate of hot lunch for three people while the captain says landing in 20mins? How does Herjavec plan to eat that burger and clean up and prepare for landing so fast

Same calculations apply, just multiply by a bazillion.

For a jet the fixed expenses are much larger. You have all of the usual (hangar, insurance, inspections, etc.) except that all of those are more expensive, and you also have recurrent training, and payroll (if you have a pilot). There will be a break even, obviously, because yes those operators like BAJ are making a profit along with a good margin, but there's also the aggravation factor that goes with your own plane, so how much is it worth to you to just show up and go vs having your own?

When I worked for a small 135 turboprop operation 7 years ago, brokers took upwards of 30% of the cost of a short trip. A lot of owners with managed turboprops (and jets) would agree to charter them out at ridiculously low prices (for marginal revenues which could not possibly cover capital or depreciation) which made it very tough for a dedicated 135 operation. It eventually went under.

The industry seems to have evolved into two camps: Fractional ownership and on-demand charter. The former costs more upfront, but you get a very consistent product - your airplane. The latter is cheaper, but you never know what you're goint to get. (Some of these "cheap" charters can literally cost their clients their lives. Here's one:
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Acc ... AR1902.pdf )

As usual, you always get what you pay for.

Most Charters are still safe, there are also crashes of owner flown planes and planes with professional crews.

I'm purposely taking this quote out of context, but I get a big kick out of it because we know this is exactly the question 90% of the aircraft owners on Beechtalk continually ask themselves. And the answer usually does not start with a $ sign or most of us would NOT own our own airplanes, lol.

Many, many years ago I heard something that I'll never forget.
The one executives couldn't buy,
Their most valuable thing,
Was time.

..and that's the value of aircraft.


One other thing I'd like to mention,
I started a thread years ago aimed at businessmen about the decision to occasionally hire a pilot the airplane you normally flew yourself, maybe if you were in the middle of a big deal and you had to give 110% of your focus to negotiations.

I couldn't imagine splitting the focus between business and flying.
One has to suffer.

You are correct, that is why I do not split my focus.

92% of my flying hours are business related. (literally go through the log book each year for tax reasons and play it straight). The only reason that I got started in aviation was for work purposes. I find that the requirements for piloting actually take my mind off of work. It is like skiing in the woods, operating heavy equipment, going to the rifle range, or any other activity that demands 100% focus for safety reasons. From the time I hit the FBO to pack up and start pre-flight the cell phone is turned off, or put into airplane mode. Time to focus.

That being said, there are times when I am tired, when I shift a flight from the early evening to the next morning. But not because I am preoccupied with business concerns. Aviation actually frees me up from work because it requires attention and focus. Particularly for those of us who came to it late in life.

I have done this on occasion.

One particular deal I made in the back of the airplane made enough money to pay for the airplane several times over.

I have done this on occasion.

One particular deal I made in the back of the airplane made enough money to pay for the airplane several times over.