First Timer' Annoying Questions

[aviator79]

You have pretty clearly articulated the factors that go into this decision that pretty much everyone here had to weigh and consider. I'll give you my opinions, which are free and worth every penny.

1.) Owning a certified airplane: Yes, the expense is real, significant, and ungodly. I'm in a flying club that owns a Cessna 177. As airplanes go, it doesn't have a lot of complexity to maintain, and it is expensive. We've had several surprise expenses where the parts cost $1000 or more, and then you're looking at $80/hr for an A&P's time. The annual is $1600 for the inspection only, it can easily be $2-$3k by the time we're done. If you buy an inexpensive plane, it will be old. Old things break when you start flying them a lot, and those things cost a lot of money on a certified plane. The acquisition cost is a secondary consideration to what it takes to feed and care for a certified plane. $15,000 in maintenance wouldn't shock me at all.

2.) Building. I hate to say it, but your friends aren't really wrong. More than 75% of kit aircraft are not completed by the original purchaser. Our EAA tech counselor says that most of the people he's known take 5-10 years to build their first plane. That's the bad news. The good news is that among kit aircraft, a Kitfox is a pretty simple machine, and there is tons of factory and community support to help you finish. The construction techniques aren't complicated, and the "hard" stuff can be learned through EAA workshops, etc. Without any supporting evidence, I would bet good money that the Kitfox averages are substantially better than the 75% and 5-10 years above. Still, 18 months is very aggressive. I've seen that quoted as an average for someone with a full time job and family, but find it a bit of a stretch if you poke around on this forum. You don't see many finished on that timetable. I'm about 2 months into my build, and feel like I'm on a good pace to do it <=2 years, but I don't have a goal date in mind. Instead, I use number of hours/week as my progress goal (15-20 hrs/wk). I think if you want to finish, you have to enjoy the building. If building to you is just a means to obtaining an airplane, I think you're likely to find yourself among the 75%. Also, if you think you might be getting married or starting a family in the next few years, you want to make sure that building an airplane is part of the discussion. Big life events like that are among the things that result in partially complete sold kits.

3.) The best value in general aviation, strictly from a cost perspective, is to buy someone else's completed homebuilt. You typically will pay less, all considered, than you would to build it. You can do all your own maintenance, use non-certified parts, and any A&P can sign off your yearly condition inspection. If you don't think you'd enjoy building for it's own sake, this is the way to go. Unfortunately, the Kitfox market is pretty hot right now. Airplanes don't stay on the market long, and nice 5-7 models can easily be $60k. A Model IV-1200 would be substantially cheaper, but they still don't typically stay on the market more than a few days.