TLDR: should I invest $30k more than planned, total $50k, to buy a 1/4 share of a 1978 180HP tiger with new all glass panel and hangar at the airport closest to me (vs sitting on the cash in case I get laid off)?
Stream of Consciousness
This thread has had folks on both sides of the argument. I'm on the side of prices have to come down and I think we'll see an economic correction (broadly - not just GA, but luxury goods like GA, boats, RVs and other higher price tag toys will feel it).
BUT - I sort of have a potential dream opportunity. Founder of this thread, AA5B man, may relate.
I've always had a strange love affair with Mooneys and Tigers. The first small plane I saw, as a kid, was an AA-1 (the smaller Grumman) in yellow/green checkered paint (aerobatic scheme?) tied down at MDW. Grew up there, and my dad and I would ride our bikes by and stop and look at that plane (and the others). That's when there was just a chain link fence you could look through (late 1980s).
FF to this week - I got a random unknown call on my work phone. Prefix near where I lived a while back, so I answered.
A man returning my call about a partnership from March. He had an answering machine and separate VM from the phone company. He didn't know he had VM until this week and had 43 messages, one of which was mine.
4-way partnership in a 1978 AA-5 with 180hp. They just put $65k into the panel for all glass last November. 1 partner flies for AA, this guy flies corp, there's a fireman and a gentlemen with a medical issue who hasn't flown in 2-years.
They can't get the medical issue guy to even call them back, but he keeps sending checks. They are trying to see if they can help him out of his share (unclear if he's ready to sell but has sat in the plane only once after the avionics and hasn't flown it since 2019).
600 hrs on a fact reman 180hp engine, 2,000 on the airframe. One partner is an A&P and does much of the maintenance. Paint is original but leather interior done in the late 90s.
Partnership owns the hangar out pays $200/month ground lease. $25/hr dry and leave it with the tanks full. Scheduling seems a bit informal but owned in an LLC with a written agreement (drafted by attorney - I haven't seen the docs yet).
Here's my struggle - I wanted a partnership at around $20k no more than like $35. I've never owned, I don't know anything about mx and I don't have a ton of time. 3-5 way partnership was ideal for limiting my financial liability. Sharing decision making with people maybe more mechanically minded than me and with deeper knowledge/broader view.
I had a 1/5 of a Cherokee 180 lined up in 2019/2020 that was financially perfect! But it was a 1967 with outdated avionics and I hadn't cleared basic med at that point.
Today - this price point doesn't exist. That outdated 1967 Cherokee 180 went from $55k to $100k and I just saw a 1977 Aa-5 with updated paint, but older (530 etc) avionics and steam gauges supposedly close for over $200k. I think that's insane. With the avionics this plane, with low time recent engine and low TTAF, likely appraises in that same range (right?).
Do you take the plunge and drop 50k into a 4-way partnership in a 4-place 180 hp 45-year old plane when you think that value will be coming down BUT it's a 125-130 knot airframe, 4-way partnership in a hangar at the closest airport to you?
Or do you sit on the $50k worrying about being laid off like 2008 and how you'll makeup that cash shortfall.
They haven't advertised the partnership, really, because it isn't their share to sell. I saw a flyer at the airport with no pics and called this guy in March. I wasn't sure if the flyer was from 2022 or 1992.
The guy I called about the Champ advertised next to it said he put that flyer up at Xmas 2019. He was surprised nobody pulled it down (at his airport the manager stamps the date on it to show it was approved prior to being hung).
Thoughts?
