I told my FA, who is also a dear friend and the one who introduced me to MMM that I think I want to buy a plane, and now she also wants to get her license and buy a plane, so we could do that together and cut the cost in half.
She was wildly amused that two people who connected over frugality are now talking about buying a plane.
I've been wanting to fly lately too. Browsing [size=78%]https://www.trade-a-plane.com/[/size] and watching YouTube flying vids a lot. I stopped by a local grass airfield a week or two ago and chatted with the owner & a new member for a while. The new guy was a retired commercial pilot that's owned a lot of different planes & currently has an old Piper J-3 that was restored by a group of guys at the little airport. He bought it and got a hanger with it. Seemed like a smart way to get a hanger space, since there are no vacancies there. He said that he bought the J-3 because he has nowhere to go, so it's an economical simple slow plane that gets him in the air to just putt around.
I doubt I'll actually start flying because of the cost & time commitment, but I'd be a lot more likely if I had a friend to share the plane with & to learn with. I'm not sure, but after each of you solo you might be able to build hours together, one as pilot and the other as copilot (I guess that what it would be called?)
It would be great if you & your FA start flying. Keep us posted if you do. :)
It's a long term plan. Neither of us have sufficient time to really dedicate to flying right now, but I'm at least getting the ball rolling. I booked a flight for a few weeks from now, have all my books, my medical is scheduled, and I'm good to start chipping away at it.
I live right near a small, really nice airport as well where I can train, so that's convenient. I'm hoping to start next summer.
I've decided I'm done with any more graduate degrees, so I need a new expensive learning-based hobby to keep me out of trouble.
I've never considered flying before despite coming from a family with a number of pilots, because I thought it was way too expensive, but it's A LOT cheaper than I expected to maintain a small plane, especially when split with a partner/partners.
I just took on a huge project that could result in significant extra money beyond what we need. I really have no interest in upgrading my core lifestyle at all, but did want some way to significantly and tangibly change my quality of life if it does work out.
So yeah, a plane made the most logical sense, especially since I really want to travel more within Canada, which is shockingly expensive by air and prohibitively time consuming and tedious by car, which is why so few Canadians do it.
I have no idea how serious FA is, but I'm sure if actually do it she'll lose her mind if she doesn't.