Buying vs Renting

[Posthumane]

Obviously this buy vs. rent conversation has gone on for as long as rental airplanes were available, and in many different forms. I've broken down the costs of the planes that I've owned on this site, and I agree that mathematically it makes sense to rent if you fly little (<50 hrs per year) and own if you fly lots (>100 hrs per year), with the in between being a grey area.

However, after some years of contemplation, I've come to the conclusion that the owner's personality is a larger factor than the mathematics. Ultimately, private pilots generally fly as a hobby (with the exception of some that use aircraft for business), and mathematically the best option is to not fly at all. That saves you all the money. But that's a cop out answer, since the assumption is that the person asking wants to fly. So if you are flying because you want to, then it's also important to consider the kind of relationship you want to have with your airplane. If you are the type of person that wants to show up at the airport, your airplane is fueled, maintained, ready to go, and you just fly it and return it when you are done, then you will be happier renting even if it costs you more. Conversely, if you are the type of person that likes to take care of your possessions, if you like to do light maintenance, if you like not having someone watching over your shoulder, etc. then you are probably going to be happier owning.

There are some years when my aircraft ownership may have come out *slightly* cheaper than renting when broken down by hour, but most years it didn't. But I'm still happy owning an aircraft. The reason for it is that I like to tinker, I like to fly my airplane to visit family for a few days and park it, I like trying to optimize my situation regarding parking, fuel, etc. That's just my personality. I also find it a lot easier to justify spending $50/hr in fuel to fly somewhere when I've already spend the money and maintenance and insurance, which leads me to want to fly more places than if I had to spend $160/hr on a rental.

[pelmet]

I'm curious, what kind of plane was it, and where did you get fuel up there ?

It was a 172: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=75176

Bought some barrels of fuel from a guy in Resolute Bay who had a stash in Eureka.

He's the Emperor of Resolute

Ozzie or something like that.