Sorry I over reacted and was a bit harsh. Please take no offense.
I do think you can get a decent mid time Cherokee IFR (no necessarily G430 but possible) for a great deal less than $30k I would assume $16-20k real money offered and accepted not asking price on TAP or BS.
I won't talk about finance as that is different for each of us, I paid cash for my plane but perhaps he has an uncle who would like to help out. If I didn't have the money I would still borrow and then lease it out to help with payments.
My costs were lower than most folks because I live in the air cap and can get every accessories rebuilt for under $200. I also burn mogas for half the cost of fuel. In many states there is no sales tax for aviation. Kansas is one of them. Not only that but there is no property tax on a/c older than 30 years old which a $20k Cherokee falls into.
My costs
$20k to buy
$485 insurance on $20k
no taxes
free tie down
mo gas at $3.15 today at 8 gph.
Average total annual and maintenance costs over 11 years worked out to a flat $10 per flight hour flown including many improvements.
Pre buy I would recommend a few things to keep costs down:
1. Pay $599 and attend the savvy aviator seminar asap before buying a plane.
2. Join Piper.org or Cherokee.org
3. learn all ad's on Cherokees (if that is the chosen plane)
4. (probably fly one to make sure you like them first)
Then you can do the preselection yourself without hiring A&P to go look at same until you are roughly sure you like it, priced right and then negotiate based on complete annual inspection included in the sales price.
I bought my plane with the seller paying for Annual inspection and I did not have to buy it until I spoke to the AI who did the annual afterwards and was completely happy with his report.
5. I would shop locally only for a time while I learned airplanes and got better at negotiating....could be you buy one right down the road save bunch of money flying across the country.
6....If I did go fly to see a plane that would come out of my training with cfi in a training Cherokee budget not necessarily added on to the cost of the airplane.
7. It cost about $80-160 to go online with most states and fill an LLC or Corp to own the airplane it is very simple and you do not need a lawyer nor accountant to do this for you. I bought my second plane in a LLC. The first plane I just bought personally. But that is another decision that has little to do with ownership so I am not sure that is even pertinent to this conversation. Getting a loan the bank might not want you to set this up. I didn't allocate as single penny to buying my first airplane. I found it on the airport 18 miles from my house after a 6 month search. So I do not think you need $2k budget for this on a trainer. Tie downs in KS are free but hangars are $120....different for every geography.
My flying worked out to $50 per hour all in for 11 years of good times....
I was careful but not necessarily any smarter than most of the other folks on this board who have bought airplanes.
how about the things i saved by owning an airplane? My cfi charged $12 per hour but took flight time in the plane on trade. It cost me next to nothing to let him fly 10 hrs in my plane in exchange for the 30 hrs or so I got duel/ground.
Also the many trips I took and made great friends flying to Sun N Fun 8 days, or California aopa.....all these trips would not be possible in rental a/c as I would have had to guarantee 40 hrs flight time to do the trip that only required 20 hrs.
In my view you greatly exaggerated the costs and undervalued the benefits.
Also there is a savings from flying 3-5 times a week which is seldom possible in a flight school for schedule reasons. Also savings learning in one airplane rather than one of 5 a/c going in and out of maintenance for 100 hrs inspections.
What about the additional safety of owning your own plane and having that little extra maintenance performed to make you feel warm and fuzzy....I have seen some fly school stuff and I cannot say they ever made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
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