Re: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group the Blame Game

tade,

IMO: you have missed the mark.

The base line for flying expense is NOT GA/private pilot
The base line for flying expense is UL/no license.
A UL often cost less than $5000.
A license was not required nor needed.
Training was highly recommended.
Training was ~50hr, including the UL (wet) and instructor.

Those numbers ($5000 and $50) are what you need to be comparing against.

R. Williams

---------- Original Message -----------
From: "tadel001" <tadel001@yahoo.com>
To: Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:51:33 -0000
Subject: Re: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group the Blame Game

> I often hear the argument that SP did not make flying cheaper because
> the planes cost over $100K. People seem to be upset with the fact
> that aircraft cost over $100K and therefore, SP failed to deliver.
> First, if the dollar and euro were at the same 2004 levels, there
> would be many aircraft under $100K. To simply look at the dollar as
> the valuation mark is short sighted. Many of these LSAs listed in
> Euro are less than $100K.
>
> SP actually has made it a lot cheaper to fly. The numbers are
> actually about 50-60% cheaper. The average private pilot license cost
> $8,000 to $12,000. Our school can produce pilots between $3,500 and
> $5,000. So the person that couldn't afford a $12,000 license can now
> get a license for under $5,000. I would say that is a huge savings.
> That person can now rent an airplane. At a $7,000 savings on the
> license and an average rental rate across the country of $100/hour,
> that is 70 additional hours of flying (which is a lot for the average
> pilot in a year). Now if you own the aircraft, you need to think
> about insurance, storage, maintenance, etc... on a $60,000 aircraft
> that could be another $5K-$7K a year. So, that is renting a plane for
> 50-70 hours a year. I would say that SP has made flying a lot cheaper.
>
> I don't think the advertisement was "Sport Pilot Rule will make owning
> an aircraft cheaper for all." I think the advertisemetn was "Sport
> Pilot Rule will make flying more affordable." At 50-60% less cost to
> fly, I would say it did that.
------- End of Original Message -------

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