Bruce raises a good point about what happens when your name comes up on a waitlist. In Greenville for example, when your name comes up, you only have 5 days to have your aircraft in the hangar, which pretty much means you need to already own an aircraft.
That's unfortunate for ragwing aircraft owners as leaving them out in the elements has a lot more cost to it than it does for the owner of the average spam can.
Another thing to consider is getting a full set of wing, fuselage and tail covers for it. They'll keep the sun and rain off most of it. The downside is that in high winds the hold down straps have been known to actually saw through a wing. But at least that'll be covered by your insurance as storm damage.
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When it comes to owning versus renting I am of the opinion that, provided you can afford to own an aircraft in the first place, the total cost per month will be the same - you'll just fly more, unless you fly less than 4-5 hours per month.
Let's say your hangar costs $200 per month, your insurance costs $100 per month and annual inspections cost you $1200 per year for the inspection and normal/minor maintenance. That's $400 per month whether you fly it or not, and that's assuming you own it outright and are not making principle and interest payments. (Those reflect my costs, yours will vary).
Let's say it costs you $175 per hour (wet) to rent a 150 hp fixed pitch Decathlon. The $400 fixed costs equate to 2.3 hours you could have logged as a renter, before you even get in the plane as an owner. (For a Super D, you're probably looking at $200 per hour wet.)
On the other hand, if you own the aircraft, your hourly costs depend on how often you fly.
If you average about 9 gph for fuel burn with an AEIO-320, and you are paying $4.50 per gallon of avgas, you'll be spending about $40 per hour for gas, plus maybe $3 per hour for oil. That's roughly $43 per hour in direct operating costs.
You'll need to put away money every hour to cover a $20K engine overhaul and if you've bought a mid time engine with maybe 1000 hours left on it, then that's $20 per hour you need to sock away. Add another $20 per hour for unexpected maintenance. We're up to about $83 per hour at this point.
You'll need to factor in an eventual recover, and that'll depend on the current condition of the fabric and paint, whether you can hangar it or not, whether you do the recover work yourself and get it signed off, or have it done locally, or have it done by ACA. Figure $20 per hour for an aircraft with recent fabric that lives in a hangar. Now we're at roughly $103 per hour, plus the $400 fixed costs.
If you fly 5 hours per month, that's a total of $915, and $183 per hour. That's slightly more expensive than renting, and you carry more risk in the form of being on the hook for any unexpected maintenance. On the other hand, you can fly whenever you want to with no worries about scheduling conflicts and you can take the plane on a trip for a week or two with no issues.
However, if you fly 10 hours per month, that's a total cost per month of $1400 and an hourly cost of only $140 per hour. At this point you are saving about $35 per hour and $350 per month compared to renting - plus pride of ownership and freedom to fly whenever the conditions allow. I'd argue 10 hours per month is also about the minimum number of hours you should be flying - otherwise your airplane is mostly just sitting and corroding - especially when it's out on the ramp, with greater temperature changes and more moisture working on the interior surfaces of your engine, etc.
If you fly 20 hours per month, the total cost is down to $123 per hour. You're now saving about $50 per hour and about $1040 per month. That's a lot flying, unless you are very well off, or are earning some money with the aircraft.
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If you just count the fixed and direct costs, plan on turning the aircraft back into money in a few years, and you consequently ignore the overhaul and recover costs, the cost per hour is obviously lower. You just need to get out at the right time so you don't take a big hit on the resale of an aircraft with a high time engine, bad fabric and a whole lot of deferred maintenance the not overly motivated buyer will have to cover with a correspondingly low sales price. And again being out on the ramp will hurt you a lot more in that scenario.
If you are flying the same 10 hours per month with the same $400 fixed costs and just $43 per hour direct costs, then your hourly costs - in the short run and barring unexpected maintenance issues - is just $83 per hour. If you plan to buy, put a few hundred hours on the aircraft over the next 2.5 years and then sell it in similar condition to what you bought it in for similar money, then you *might* be saving $90 per hour or so compared to renting - and that's a $27,000 savings over 300 hours/2.5 years. But again, being out on the ramp for that 2.5 years will have an impact on the resale value.
Still, if you buy a Decathlon for maybe $80K and then sell it for only $55K with some paint/fabric and deferred maintenance issues 2.5 years and 300 hours later, you're still not losing money compared to renting for the same 300 hours.
