I couldn't agree with you guys more which is why I'm on the fence. I don't need to put it in the leaseback in order to afford it...it's paid for. I just thought it would be a good way to offset some of the fixed cost and even make a small profit which I intend to put back into the plane. I've been renting for the past 2 years (how long I've been flying) and most people I've seen treat the planes as well as I do but I'm sure there are a few that don't. The Navy Flying club I belong to has had 2 broken 172s in the past year from hard landings. One just had a bent firewall but the other had a broken nose wheel and a prop strike (exited a 75' wide runway and hit a taxiway sign...how bad of a pilot do you have to be to veer off of a 75' wide runway??? That's an ocean of concrete!)
The other thing I'm considering is that it has 1.5k on a 2.4k TBO. By myself I could probably make it well past 2.4k which would last me the better part of a decade but if I put it in the school it will need one in a couple of years tops. But...theoretically the OH would be paid for from the revenue.
My wife is the one really pushing to put it in. She's just interested in saving money in our budget.
