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Ownership type data collected from a recent survey of Cessna Owner Organization Members.
We all want to own an aircraft. But if you are like me the checking account (and my spouse) will not always agree to spend all my (her) extra money on supporting my personal aircraft (toy).
And I’ve tried it all, “But honey, all I have to do is stop going to Starbucks for coffee twice a week!” It doesn’t work — especially if you are married to an accountant (although, she is a recovering accountant and she should be over most of this money detail stuff in a few years). For years I have said, “You can sleep in your aircraft, but you can’t fly your house!” Just as a reminder, that doesn’t work either — unless you really like sleeping in your plane but that’s another story.
Through the many years of buying and selling aircraft, I have looked at all the alternatives. Yes, I like ownership and no I don’t like to share, but sometimes I need to. And since I’m always shopping for another aircraft, I’m sort of always “shopping” for another method of ownership. And one way is to have someone help you pay for the expenses.
My fantasy “partner” is someone who wants to own an aircraft but doesn’t have any plans to fly the aircraft. You know the kind, an owner who is one of those people who has to own an airplane but doesn’t have the time or maybe not even a license to fly an airplane. Yes, it is probably a fantasy. I have heard of partners like that, but they seem to be like the “P-51 in the barn” stories. You always hear about them, but they never happen to anyone you know or much less to you.
Partnerships can be incorporated or limited liability as well as singular ownership, but most of these “business” variations are more for the owner’s tax and liability situation than for cost advantages.
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This article originally appeared in the February 2020 issue of Cessna Owner magazine.
