Impressed with Wealth, Aviation-Style

spiderweb

spiderweb

Final Approach
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Ben
In my profession, one meets many patrons whose wealth is expansive and very obvious. I've been in many opulent mansions, seen manicured gardens which are several acres in dimension, and even witnessed someone shake hands on a promise to write a check for one million dollars. It was interesting, but I was never really that impressed.

Today, though, I met a person who outright bought a new, full-FIKI SR22. For whatever reason, that made quite an impression on me.
 
Did you ever ask the guys with the big houses and checkbooks what they were flying?

spiderweb said:
In my profession, one meets many patrons whose wealth is expansive and very obvious. I've been in many opulent mansions, seen manicured gardens which are several acres in dimension, and even witnessed someone shake hands on a promise to write a check for one million dollars. It was interesting, but I was never really that impressed.

Today, though, I met a person who outright bought a new, full-FIKI SR22. For whatever reason, that made quite an impression on me.
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Do you ever ask the big guys who they voted for for President and why?

And the guy who bought the SR22 . . . can he get in it and fly it or does it lack the payload to carry one standard sized adult?
 
To be impressed I would have to know his total net worth. If he was worth say $5 mln this purchase would not impress me but if he was worth say around $2 mln that would impress me much more.
 
olasek said:
To be impressed I would have to know his total net worth. If he was worth say $5 mln this purchase would not impress me but if he was worth say around $2 mln that would impress me much more.
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These days I don't know if I wold be comfortable buying and owning a brand new SR22 with even $5mil.


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800k for a fancy single, seems nuts. I can't see any residual value, other than possible meeting a flying mission, for that money I could get around better. No glory, outside of some pilots, the world can't tell a 800k cirrus from a 50k rotax powered da 20.
 
I have a feeling this will turn into an "I would've bought ____ with 800k" thread..which I'm ok with :rolleyes:
 
hmmm, interesting.
I was at a small auction the other day.
The bidders were a motley crew. Bib overalls, muddy boots, hats with ear flaps down, wearing stained or torn heavy parkas. They drove trucks with heavy trailer hitches. Red noses and fingernails with dirt under them.
They were loud and back slapping. Some of their speech was a bit ungrammatical. Often they were chewing on a bratwurst hotdog and slurping coffee out of a paper cup.

Your rich acquaintances with their manicured lawns wouldn't be caught dead in this crowd. Interestingly, every one of these pot bellied men (many, some were trim) had a verified statement on file with the auctioneer that they could write a check for a minimum of one million dollars if they were the winning bidder. Every one of those rough looking men were running personally owned businesses that had cash flow in excess of a million dollars a year.

Looks can be deceiving.
 
Well, the good news is that you'll be able to read most of the pseudo-expert responses with the knowledge that they were posted by financial light-weights who will never have $800k to spend on anything, let alone an airplane.;)

PBristolJr said:
I have a feeling this will turn into an "I would've bought ____ with 800k" thread..which I'm ok with :rolleyes:
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This sounds like a rehash of the book, The Millionaire Next Door. A fairly good read if you're shooting for any such thing...
 
olasek said:
To be impressed I would have to know his total net worth. If he was worth say $5 mln this purchase would not impress me but if he was worth say around $2 mln that would impress me much more.
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Net worth never impresses me. Why should it? I never could understand even for a second, envy over other people's things or money. What a colossal waste of time and mental energy.

I judge a man on who he is, not what he has. :dunno:
 
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Have you ever had any?

Geico266 said:
New worth never impresses me. Why should it? I never could understand even for a second, envy over other people's things or money. What a colossal waste of time and mental energy.

I judge a man on who he is, not what he has. :dunno:
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I used to think it was astonishing what people would spend on just one charter trip. Now it doesn't surprise me at all.
 
Geico266 said:
New worth never impresses me. Why should it? I never could understand even for a second, envy over other people's things or money. What a colossal waste of time and mental energy.

I judge a man on who he is, not what he has. :dunno:
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Character is worth far more than paper. Some folks you'll never know until something tragic happens to/or near them.
 
Not when you're trying to buy something.

bnt83 said:
Character is worth far more than paper. Some folks you'll never know until something tragic happens to/or near them.
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Me thinks if I had 800K to use towards a plane, it would be in the Malibu type plane
 
If I had 800k I would just keep flying my mooney until it all ran out
 
Need to win the PowerBall so I can buy a JetStar. Why?

"Let's take the JetStar!" just sounds cooler. Plus, four engines.
 
I flew in Pennzoil's Jetstar once when I was a kid. Always thought it was a cool-looking plane. Used to have a sales prop from Lockheed from that bird...a small globe with a cardboard arc showing the plane's range. That was a long time ago, though.
 
Dr. O said:
Every one of those rough looking men were running personally owned businesses that had cash flow in excess of a million dollars a year.

Looks can be deceiving.
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In this day and age, a million dollars is not a lot of money.




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DavidWhite said:
If I had 800k I would just keep flying my mooney until it all ran out
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Exactly...if you had a Mooney and someone gave you $800k, you'd be better off keeping the airplane and investing the $800k to provide a sustainable source of operating funds.

Invest it wisely and you can keep flying it and never run out....at least as long as you can still find parts.


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Wayne, you and I both know that if someone is truly wealthy they have need of riding in the BACK of the G-650.
 
DavidWhite said:
If I had 800k I would just keep flying my mooney until it all ran out
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The thing is that people who are buying $800K airplanes probably have a lot more than that in reserve. $800K may sound like a lot to you but there are plenty of people out there with much deeper pockets.
 
Geico266 said:
New worth never impresses me. Why should it? I never could understand even for a second, envy over other people's things or money. What a colossal waste of time and mental energy.

I judge a man on who he is, not what he has. :dunno:
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A man with new money is a man with a talent. The talent may be hard work, a brilliant strategy, or whatever, but new money is exactly the kind of thing Americans should be proud of and have respect for. I respect old money too, but that generally implies that someone generations ago was smart enough to earn "new money" and the people in succeeding generations were bright enough not to **** it all away.

On the other hand, I have zero respect for people with new or old money who go out of their way to make sure you know they have wealth...
 
Jim_R said:
I flew in Pennzoil's Jetstar once when I was a kid. Always thought it was a cool-looking plane. Used to have a sales prop from Lockheed from that bird...a small globe with a cardboard arc showing the plane's range. That was a long time ago, though.
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Funny you should mention the Jetstar. I was in a Jetstar I yesterday.

Of course, it was at a museum, but it was a pretty nice ride in 1970 or so...
 
Fearless Tower said:
Exactly...if you had a Mooney and someone gave you $800k, you'd be better off keeping the airplane and investing the $800k to provide a sustainable source of operating funds.

Invest it wisely and you can keep flying it and never run out....at least as long as you can still find parts.


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Id spend 100k pimping my mooney even more - invest the rest in blue chip stocks and never spend a dime out of my pocket on it after that.
 
comanchepilot said:
Do you ever ask the big guys who they voted for for President and why?
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I never initiate political discussions, except for in the SZ.

comanchepilot said:
And the guy who bought the SR22 . . . can he get in it and fly it or does it lack the payload to carry one standard sized adult?
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I didn't ask, but I know that a fully-fueled SR22 can comfortably carry two standard adults for quite some distance.
 
kyleb said:
Funny you should mention the Jetstar. I was in a Jetstar I yesterday.

Of course, it was at a museum, but it was a pretty nice ride in 1970 or so...
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Saw the James Bond Movie "Goldfinger" on cable yesterday where the villan was sucked out of the Jetstar window. :lol:

Cheers
 
Geico266 said:
New worth never impresses me. Why should it? I never could understand even for a second, envy over other people's things or money. What a colossal waste of time and mental energy.

I judge a man on who he is, not what he has. :dunno:
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Perhaps you missed the drift of my post.
I don't care about old/new money but I admire people who have passion to put a big chunk of their worth into their hobby whatever it may be. No doubt Susan Orman would not approve of it :D
 
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kyleb said:
A man with new money is a man with a talent. The talent may be hard work, a brilliant strategy, or whatever, but new money is exactly the kind of thing Americans should be proud of and have respect for. I respect old money too, but that generally implies that someone generations ago was smart enough to earn "new money" and the people in succeeding generations were bright enough not to **** it all away.

On the other hand, I have zero respect for people with new or old money who go out of their way to make sure you know they have wealth...
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I think you responded to a typo.
 
I suspect the first thing you would do is to carefully determine whether you needed any kind of plane. I deal with those situations almost every week and the pattern is both consistent and predictable. You don't accumulate that much money for discretionary spending without being just a little smarter than the average bear.

But if you decide you want one over the next few weeks, please call to discuss it. All the deals I've been working on are now completed and I need something else to do starting about May 1 and ending about July 15.

Zhunter said:
Me thinks if I had 800K to use towards a plane, it would be in the Malibu type plane
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True. Pilots are the only people who want to ride in front, and after you do it for a while you understand why the owners like to ride in the back.

bbchien said:
Wayne, you and I both know that if someone is truly wealthy they have need of riding in the BACK of the G-650.
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Never once felt any compulsion to drive the limo...

But it's no fun to sit in the right seat of the SLS on the trip.
 
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alaskaflyer said:
Never once felt any compulsion to drive the limo...
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Neither do most of the people who ride in the back even though many can well afford it. The ones who seem to have the most interest are the occasional people who are from the worker bee ranks or middle management, not the upper execs.
 
olasek said:
To be impressed I would have to know his total net worth. If he was worth say $5 mln this purchase would not impress me but if he was worth say around $2 mln that would impress me much more.
Click to expand...

If I 'only' had $2 million, no way I would drop almost half of it on a Cirrus.
 
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