AIRCRAFT OWNERSHIP: THE COST BEYOND THE PURCHASE

Kevin:[00:00:10]If I could just say one last thing about ownership, man, I’ve loved it. It’s like anything else in life. If you budget for it, once you fit itto your budget, after a while it will no longer be a burden.It’s just an everyday expense at that point. So I love it. I’d recommend it to anybody.
Tim:[00:01:00]Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a special guest on today’s program, Kevin Walker, welcome to the Pilot Money podcast. Timothy P. Pope here, certified financial planner, specializing in the planning needs of the professional pilot. So, wanted to continue by saying thanks guys for sending in your questions to the Pilot Money podcast. You can send your questions to pilotmoneypodcast@seterainvesters.com, that email is in the show notes. I hope that last Q&A episode was helpful. So you guys can send your questions in and get answers from a credible source to the things that are top of mind for you. Along your financial journey. So today we are continuing our conversation about airplane ownership. You’ll recall on the last interview episode we spoke with Preston Holland, the chief commercial officer flying finance, and we talked about how to acquire an aircraft using financing. So today joining me in the studio is a good friend, retired air traffic controller, GA pilot, long time aircraft owner, Kevin Walker. And Kevin shares with us his journey of aircraft ownership and the lessons that he’s learned along the way.
[00:02:05]He’s gonna share those with me and because you’re joining, he’s sharing them with you. So with that, let’s dive right into today’s conversation. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a special guest on today’s program, Kevin Walker, welcome to the Pilot Money podcast.
Kevin:[00:02:21]Thank you, Tim. It’s a pleasure to be with you today.
Tim:[00:02:23]Absolutely. Well, I am glad to have you here and to have this conversation. Look, I’ve known you for a long time now, but why don’t we take a few minutes and tell the listeners who you are? Let’s introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your aviation background as well.
Kevin:[00:02:39]My name’s Kevin Walker, and I became involved in aviation really through my father, who is a private pilot. And as a kid, he had a smaller plane. We’d fly around in it. And my older brother, who was a traffic controller, suggested in around 1988 I was pretty young. I was 20 or 21 to take your traffic controller test, and I did. And there was a long way to that, and I was finally picked up in 1991 after a very lengthy wait. So I started, I guess my aviation career is near traffic controller in Memphis Center. I was there until 1997 and transferred to Charlotte Tower Traycon. and I was a tower and tracon controller from 1997 to 2016 until I retired.
[00:03:25]Along the way at Charlotte, we were working at satellite airports and I didn’t know what it meant as I was being trained. Hey, you got to start calling the pattern entry to these guys. You’re cleared for visual approach. And I didn’t exactly know what that meant. And I said, okay, And that was in 1998 or 1999. It was a year or two after I got here. So I started taking flying lessons at Rock Hill Airport. and I’ve just been flying ever since. Since then, I’ve got 850 or 900 hours, something like that, and a multi commercial and it’s been a lot of fun along the way. So aviation is definitely part of my life.
Tim:[00:04:03]So we have a controller on the pilot money podcast. So pilots pay attention. Listen up. We won’t be issuing you a number to call though.
Kevin:[00:04:12]Yeah.
Tim:[00:04:13]Yeah, so you’ve been flying for a long time. You’ve got this dual perspective as a GA pilot, but then also as a controller. The reason that I wanted you to come on the show is we recently spoke to the chief commercial officer of Flying Magazine talking about how to acquire. So, airplane acquisition, and I wanted to talk to you because you’ve owned airplanes and you currently own an airplane. So let’s give the listeners an idea of, of what airplane ownership is like. So maybe you can talk about your journey on, your own airplane acquisitions and things like that.
Kevin:[00:04:46]Well, you know, it’s kind of funny. mentioned that I was introduced to flying by my dad, and he had a 1-50 back in the seventies, and then he had a Cessna 1-72 in the 1990s. In business, he had always told me now, son, don’t take a partner unless you need a partner. and funny enough, my first airplane partner was my dad. So after I got my license in 1999, it was an opportunity. My dad said, Hey, buddy, would you like to own half of this airplane? And he was up in the mountains of Tennessee. And he said, you know, I’ve got some time during the fall and the winter that I like to fly up here. If you want to take it down to Rock Hill and keep it there.
[00:05:21]And he said, why don’t you just buy half of it? And I did. So that was my first airplane. And we had that for some years together until he got sick and then we sold it. And there happened to be another fellow at the airport, and I was just really good with tail numbers. I would go down to Rock Hill, and I just kind of drive through the, you know, the open hangers and just kind of dream about having another airplane. I happen to see a guy there. He was standing on the wing of an arrow, and I just stopped. I recognized his tail number, and I introduced myself
Tim:[00:05:48]Because you were a controller?
Kevin:[00:05:49]Because I was a controller. Yeah, there and worked airplanes there into Rock Hill as well when we worked satellite. And I introduced myself and a friendship developed and I ended up buying into half of his Piper Arrow. From there he complained a lot that for his mission the airplane didn’t have enough range and he was trying to figure out STCs for additional fuel and things like that. So, he would just beat me to death and he had a friend of his that was saying, hey David, there’s a Cessna 210, here in California. This is a deal.You need to go get it. And I kind of got tired of hearing that from my partner, David K Dub K Dub. Look at this. K Dub. We should look at this.
Tim:[00:06:26]When you say beating you to death, you mean always like bringing in additional ideas versus, you know, what, what was the error? What, what do you mean there?
Kevin:[00:06:33]Wanted this airplane like we need an airplane with more range. We need an airplane, I can’t figure out the STC on this arrow. The air was perfect for me. You know, I was married and had two smaller children. It was perfect. It was 135. It was a 1970 It had the small Hershey bar wing and we had a couple speed mods on it. We get almost 140 out of it. So it’s perfect for me, but he wanted something bigger, bigger, bigger. So he kept looking at this Cessna 210 out at cable airport outside of Los Angeles. And I jumped on an airplane without him knowing. I flew to LA and I met with the brokerage out there and started sending them pictures of the airplane. And he called me and said, Hey, where are you? And I said, Hey, I need you to send me a check. We’re buying an airplane. It happened to be that one and I’d be darned if he didn’t.
Tim:[00:07:22]Wait, wait, wait, wait, so you were in an airplane that perfectly suited your mission. And so it was good to go. You had a partner who was looking for something bigger, faster that, you know, could carry more. And it sounds like you kind of got tired of hearing about it and one day you’re like, okay, let me go see this.
Kevin:[0007:38]It is and here’s what I said to him, don’t get me wrong. This guy certainly had a lot more money than I did. I don’t minimize that, but I said, Hey, listen, the airplane is perfect for me. I’m perfectly happy being a half owner in this new one that’s bigger. That’s more money. And it just so happened it worked out. I’ll be a third owner and cover a third of the cost. No, I was a third owner, but I would cover half the cost. the purchase price of it. I’d already paid for what I had, and I really didn’t want to dig deeper. I said, If you’ll pay for two thirds of the airplane, I’ll pay for a third of it. We’ll sell the arrow when that thing sells. That’ll cover my third of it. He said, That’s fine. So it was very seamless for me in moving from that arrow into a Cessna 210 that I was extremely excited about. And, man, what a lot of fun that airplane was.
[00:08:23]I mean, that was a lot of fun. So we were in business together, as it turned out. So when I sold him my half of the business. The airplane went with the business. So now I didn’t have an airplane. And then I transitioned a friend of mine who is a controller with me in Charlotte had retired and was now flying a jet somewhere. And he had a 1984 J model Mooney. And he called me and said, hey, you know, I hear you’re looking for an airplane and he flew it down to Rock Hill. We had a pre-buy and he left it and I bought his airplane. So I had that one for some years and just wasn’t flying it, and I was airplane less for a few years until I bought the next one.
Tim:[00:09:01]the first two airplanes that you were in, you were a partner. It sounds like the Mooney was just yours.
Kevin:[00:09:07]That’s correct.
Tim:[00:09:08]Talk to me about some of those differences, between having a partner and then not having a partner, just having your own airplane.
Kevin:[00:09:15]Well I think I had the perfect partner, honestly, and I think my partner David felt the same way. We were just so easygoing. Our schedules never conflicted. And I have to be honest with you. If I had to pick between partnership or not having a partner, having a partner was the most fun I ever had. And again, I think the key is having the right partner, right? We did so much together. We flew so much together. And of course, expenses to her cut in half. And I think that’s what most people focus on. But right now, being an owner of an airplane all by myself, there’s an added pressure. an obligation for me to get down there and fly it.
[00:09:55]And it’s a struggle. And I really don’t have anybody to talk aviation with anymore. I mean, we would talk trips and we would fly to the Bahamas with our wives in that 210. And we just had so many fun trips in it that I no longer have, because now I have to be the driving force. And he was the driving force behind all that before. So I thought my partnership was absolutely perfect. If I had the ability to do that again, I would. It was just so much fun. So as far as cost, yeah, it costs a little bit more. But I don’t know that I really felt it too much because the 210 just cost more to own and operate and insurance. So when I went to a Mooney, even though it’s all on me I didn’t feel it that much I don’t think, but I loved the partnership. For me, it was perfect.
Tim:[00:10:41]I love that perspective because as a would be airplane owner, a lot of times you’re like, oh, should I get into a partnership? Ah, but you know if I have a partner I’ve got, somebody else to consider somebody else’s schedule What if we disagree, you know, and all of those, considerations and you’re thinking well My goodness if I just have it myself, I can do what I want. I can do it when I want. I’m sure it’s going to cost more, but typically there’s always a price for freedom and flexibility. But what you’re saying is if you have the right partner, then that can make all the difference.
Kevin:[00:11:13]I think so, and I’m just kind of reflecting back because he and I were partners in the 210 almost 10 years. probably five years prior to that in the arrow for five years. So I had a partner for 15 years, and I’m probably in my fourth year of ownership without a partner. And as I reflect back, even though my father had told me in business, don’t ever take a partner if you don’t need a partner. I didn’t need a partner. But in this particular case, man, I had so much more fun having a partner where you could do things together that I don’t necessarily have that anymore. Now I have to have a mission. I have to have a reason. And I think a lot of pilots are like that. If you don’t want to just get up and fly around the pattern and practice, you want to have a reason to go somewhere. And I don’t have as many reasons to go anywhere as I did when I had a partner, he had many reasons to go many places and it was fun to tag along.
Tim:[00:11:59]Yeah, no, I think about my future foray into airplane ownership and I’m like, oh, my wife doesn’t like to fly with me
Kevin:[00:12:06]Yeah, yeah. And neither does mine.
Tim:[00:12:09]Well, let’s talk about this, you know, because owning an airplane, it’s more than just. paying for it. You know, there’s a lot of other expenses that come along. So what would you tell the future aircraft owner what they should be mindful of as it relates to ongoing cost?
Kevin:[00:12:26]When I sold that J model Mooney, I really wanted a 182 RG. That’s really what had my attention. And I was shopping for a purchase price, I had certain criteria that I was looking for in an airplane speed. And actually this F model Mooney that I have now, the useful load on it is, I mean, I can still carry four people, you know, which I never thought could happen in a Mooney.
[00:12:50]But I was shopping for a purchase price. and many people I’ve heard said many times, Hey when you purchase an airplane, the purchase price is your entry fee just to get in. After that, you better duck. And I don’t know if mine, I’ve had some surprises. Absolutely. I’ve been punched in the gut with a couple of expenses here and there. But as long as you know that going into it just have to be prepared because these things are old. In order to get one that’s affordable, you’re gonna get one that’s, you know, 40 or 50 years old, probably. And they’re just old. They’re getting more and more costly to maintain. So as far as expenses after ownership, you just kind of have to plan for it and know that they’re gonna come up. plan A. Like when we were controlling, we always had a plan A, a plan B, and a shaky plan C. So I definitely have a plan A and a plan B, you know, for expenses.
Tim:[00:13:43]So you said, Hey, I’ve been punched in the gut a couple of times. Tell us about that. What were the surprises and what did it cost and what happened?
Kevin:[00:13:49]Well, on my first one my father lived up in the mountains and there was an A and P that used to travel. First year when I was with him and he didn’t know, of course, I firmly believe he had no clue. When I brought the airplane down to the Charlotte area, it was time for its annual. And I said, Hey, Dad, I’d like to go ahead and just have it angled while it’s here. And he said, okay, so we got a telephone call about a week or two after being in the shop here. And it required a drive for me about an hour and a half north and a drive from my father, 3.5 for four hours from Tennessee because what he was describing to us was wrong with this airplane and my dad had already owned it for eight or nine years and gone through eight or nine annuals. It ended up being an 18,000 dollar annual. And my dad said, son, we got back away from the shop. He said, There is no way it’s 18,000. He said, Every year that I pay for an annual, it’s only been 300 dollars .
[00:14:48]We need to get this thing back to Tennessee. I’m like, okay, did I really just hear that and he firmly believed the airplane was being inspected. But one would think that maybe it was just an entry into the log book. So we fixed it. It cost us 18,000 dollars and he called me and apologized and said “I’m so sorry about that”. Let me refund you all of your money. And I’m like, no, Dad, I’m cool. Well, that next annual inspection was 9,000 dollars. So in the 68 Mooney that I got, even though I had a pre-purchase inspection, I’ve had it for about a year. I had a pre-purchase inspection done when I brought it back and they start going through it.
[00:15:26]There a couple of improvements that we made or upgrades to have. I mean, it was 20,000 bucks. It was another punch in the gut, I did not expect it. So whenever you purchase an airplane, watch out for that first annual inspection. They do seem to get better. But I’ve got three instances where I jumped in, even on the aero. When I jumped in on that one, the next annual inspection, we had to send the engine off to opinion because there was a crack in the block. So I don’t know. It just seemed like that first one was something. So be mindful of that.
Tim:[00:15:55]We’ve got the annual inspections. I mean, this is a safety thing. There’s no place to pull over on the side up there, so you certainly want the airplane that you are in and that you have your family in to be, working as expected. I’d rather a surprise bill than a surprise in the air, right? So, talk about modifications. I mean, if you are buying an older craft you know, sometimes you’re looking at the panel, you’re looking at other things and you’re saying, man, I’d really like this or that. I mean, what experience do you have with that?
Kevin:[00:16:23]My total bill at this first annual inspection was like 62,000 dollars. 20 of that was from the annual and repairing and approving some things. The other things were some upgrades, radio upgrades. I just put Garmin stuff in there. And just trying to get the panel to a spot. to a place where I’m like, okay, now I can use this. And if I do end up flying, you know, I have foreign in the suit, but, I feel pretty, pretty comfortable doing that. I would not have felt comfortable doing that in 1968 Mooney stuff. I do still have the Mooney pilot controlled autopilot in there actually. And I’ll replace that with my next go round.
[00:17:03]I’d like to put a garment in it, but it works. It doesn’t work very well, but, you know, at least it’ll give you a little bit of relief on a long trip. So those are the big things that I’ve got on the horizon, you know, as far as improvements. But I’ve also, in my mind, I need to remove an AD on a prop because every hundred hours the prop has to be inspected. It’s changing that hub out. That’s going to be 6,500 bucks, you know. So, I just kind of have to prioritize things and when I was still working as a controller and I had a steady paycheck that went to my family, I had to go out and work a second job, which I, referred to as my side hustle, you know, and that’s how I paid for my stuff. If you don’t have enough money in the bank, to pay for my half of that, I had to write a check off my home equity line of credit. Now,
I wouldn’t do that again. But you really do need to be prepared for that kind of stuff, you know, and when you make these upgrades, it’s best to have a way to pay for it instead of borrowing money for it, in my opinion.
Tim:[00:17:59]As a planner, I 100 percent agree with you that we talk about airplane ownership like to say this is an abundance goal, right? This isn’t like, should I fund my emergency fund or should I buy an airplane? Should I fund my retirement or should I buy an airplane? Like all the other, the necessary things are taken care of. And then, you know, we’re talking about having an airplane like this. So what I’m hearing from you is just, Hey, the first couple of annuals if you’re not buying something brand new, right, if you’re buying something with a little bit of age on it expect to have to pay.
[00:18:29]This is not an endeavor that we can, paint or plan for a nice lean experience and expect that to actually come to pass. You know, I talked to a lot of pilots, talked to a lot of owners and the same things have come up with higher than expected annual bills. The other thing that I heard from you is, if you are making upgrades and modifications. Expect to pay for that as well. And these are, again, some things that we can plan for, we can hedge against just by having cash ready. I’d love to ask a tactical question, usually, you know, when you’re doing the cost of ownership analysis, there’s many calculators online that you can kind of punch in some numbers and say, well, I’m going to fly a hundred hours a year. I’m going to fly 200, blah, blah, blah. Right. And so then it gives you a cost per hour. As an aircraft owner, after you make a trip, do you move money from one account to your, you know, airplane fund for the hours that you’ve flown? Or do you just say, hey, I’ll, I’ll cover it as it comes up?
Kevin:[00:19:25]No, I don’t. And, you know, I never had even as I had a partnership he and I never really did that. And I don’t know if he flew a lot more than I did or if I flew a lot more than he did. I really don’t know. But we never did it. were more like brothers and family and I guess really didn’t think about it. If I was in a partnership with folks that I really didn’t know, and it was more of a business transaction, if you will, absolutely, I would do that. For myself personally, I know I’ve got three big expenses that come up each year, and they’ll come up roughly about the same time. And that’s the insurance, the annual inspection and the taxes on the airplane.
[00:20:03]And I’ve always got those set aside, but I don’t do it per flight. I just, I’m expecting those to come up each year. When I go flying and I do things, I’ll put the gas on my credit card and pay the bill off when it comes in. As far as engine reserves and things like that and we have had to replace engines in the past, it just seemed like we had to take money out of an account somewhere and pay for it. It would be a great idea, but I’ve never done that. Tim:[00:20:27]Yeah, I’ve heard and I’ve seen it done both ways where, you know, some do it and maybe it comes down to personal preference on just how you want to capture those future expenses. You know, I think you mentioned some other expenses that a future aircraft owner shouldn’t ignore, but insurance taxes, engine reserve, and then also hangering, where are we going to keep the airplane?
Kevin:[00:20:49]Here’s definitely a shortage of hangar space in America right now. Just for a shade port in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and I’ve been there for years and years, and I gave it up, and then I lost my spot in between the two Mooney’s. I think I was number 80 on the waiting list for one to come up. So now I’m having to drive 45 minutes. was able to get an enclosed hangar somehow. The airport manager said, you’ve won the lottery. because I was in a shade port down there, and he said, We’ve got an enclosed T hangar that just came up.
So I got very lucky. I think not many people are quite so lucky. I didn’t want to keep it outside. didn’t want to keep it on the ramp. I at least want some kind of a shade port and I was able to find that, but boy, they sure are hard to find.
Tim:[00:21:29]So you have owned multiple airplanes, five, if I counted correctly. It sounds like two Moonies, but outside of that, you had the Cessna, the Aero, and then also the 210. How did you figure out which airplane fit your mission? Because I think that has a direct relationship with, you know, cost and expense right? With either your entry fee and then your ongoing cost. How did you do that? Maybe you can speak to the Moonies because it sounds like the first Cessna was an opportunity with your dad and then the Arrow and maybe the 210 were also just kind of opportunity.
Kevin:[00:22:06]They were just opportunities, I guess. The first Mooney that I bought after selling the 210 and I went without an airplane for a couple of years was a friend of mine and I was actually searching for a barren. I’m glad I didn’t do that because I mean, I’m just not flying an airplane enough anyway. I really think financially I would have truly shot myself in the foot had I done that. I don’t know if that would have been sustainable. There would have been so much pressure on me to fly it and get it out and use it and I wouldn’t have done that. I would not have been able to justify that airplane.
[00:22:35]So I’m glad I didn’t do that. So as I was talking to him about that, he said, well, why don’t you buy the Mooney? I’d never had one before. What kind of appealed to me there was it was the newest airplane I’d ever had, and I knew it was the post, I think it was a post 82 Mooney, that seemed to be the ones that were coveted the most and I’m like, okay, and I knew him, and it only had 1,800 hours on it total. So I liked it and I bought it but when I got into the Mooney, I sure missed the 210. quite honestly. I mean, what’s not to love? Right? I had an SUV that I could put everything in. And then I sold that just because I couldn’t. I wasn’t. I wasn’t hardly flying it. And then I just couldn’t stand it not being without one.
[00:23:18]So really, the only one that I’ve really looked at where I really put much thought into it, and I probably shouldn’t say that out loud, but I didn’t put much thought into it. I went with a feel on those other ones. This one I put some thought into it, not so much emotion. It was a year ago when all the prices were so high that I really couldn’t find anything that met, the 130 or 140 knot better, you know, on the 10, 11, 12 gallons an hour would carry, even if I was just with half tanks, it would me to carry four reasonable sized people.
[00:23:49]And I found one. As I look now, as of last week, for the amount of money that I have in this Mooney now that I realize now I see one that’s on the market drastically reduced from a year and a half ago that I tried to buy. So I wish I would have been a little more patient with it. But when I purchased this airplane, it was all entry fee. How much is it gonna cost me to get it? And what can I do with it? How can I get back up into the air without doing 80 or 90 knots? I really want a purpose. So it was purpose driven, even though I struggle to find my purpose in flying. I truly do. I have to make up reasons to go flying. I think many of us may do that, but I wish I had a more valid reason inserted in there from time to time to be able to fly. But I knew that the airplane was sustainable financially and it would meet the mission, even though it wasn’t truly what I wanted.
[00:24:43]So, that was how I picked this one. It was all money related. Now, with that being said, I’m into it way more than what it’s worth. And I think you have to know that in most cases. You’re going to be into it way more than it’s worth.
Tim:[00:24:56]Yeah, if we’re buying a GA aircraft and there’s not a strictly business use of it, I think you could expect that. And you probably have to go in being okay with that, like knowing, that to your point, you’re going to be in more than what it’s worth. We haven’t said this explicitly, but kind of described it as you talked about, what you went through to buy this current airplane and the upgrades, but to me it sounds like, there’s unavoidable cost. Meaning if you purchase something with a bit more age on it, but then you want to upgrade the panel and then do some other modifications, all that’s gonna add up. Or if you bought something, maybe.That has already the upgrades done, and maybe it’s a little bit newer that. Also is a purchase point. I don’t know where the lines on the graph cross if they cross because we have been in some crazy markets, but I think that that’s also a consideration. I think it comes to mind as a cautionary tale for. somebody who’s not yet quite ready. They say, Oh, well, I’ll just take an older airplane, but maybe don’t think about the potential maintenance or the upgrade that they might want or need to put into it. And then the next thing you know that your cost of reason as well.
Kevin:[00:26:16]Yeah. in the 1 72 initially, when I purchased that with my dad, that was a lot of fun with him. But he was a VFR pilot. He would fly up through the mountains. And it was a lot of sightseeing up there. A lot of fun still had an old 80 F in it. It had a VFR GXL 300. I think is what it was. GPS old, I don’t even think it had a moving map on it. And the newest radio we had was a KX 155. When I was getting my instrument rating, I was trying to figure out the best way to upgrade this airplane, and I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it for a 1966 172 at the time. I could not make the numbers work. So you do have to be mindful of that to make sure that it is capable, even if, you plan on upgrading it a little bit, you have to make sure that you’re still within the box value, or it’ll drive you crazy, knowing that you’ve got so much money into it, if you can’t keep it within reason.
Tim:[00:27:06]Yeah, it’s so valuable to have you on the show talking to pilots, giving a lot of clients, right? A lot of pilots that I talked to who fly professionally somewhere in their financial plan are like, I’d love to own an airplane at some point. You having owned five of them now, I’d love to hear how experience has influenced your decision making on your purchase, you know, I think I heard you say earlier that in the first couple, there was a lot of emotion and then now there was a lot less and you took a different approach. So maybe if you could outline that for us a little bit, how experience has influenced your purchasing decisions.
Kevin:[00:27:44]Before I purchased this Mooney, RG in Texas. And that’s really what I was gonna buy. And I spent over 3000 dollars in inspections and having a cardinal expert check it all out. So at that point, I’m like, Dog on it. I’m gonna make sure this thing is right before I buy it, because I do plan on overspending a little bit, So I just want to make sure all the nuts and bolts are there, you know, just it’s, got the capability that, you know, what’s damage history, checking the spars and the wings on those cessnas were really important too, as it is with many airplanes. But I think the older that you get and the more experience that you get you know, you make a lot of mistakes out there, and when you’re flying, you can look at this a couple different ways, I guess, but there’s something out there, especially when you’re flying that whenever you make a mistake, you’ve taken something out of your luck bag. If it turns out, well, you’ve made a mistake and you’ve recovered, you’ve taken something out of your luck bag and you’ve put it in your experience bag and hopefully your experience bag fills up before your luck bag runs out.
[00:28:47]so I kind of think about that when I’m flying. You can also think about that, too, as you’re progressing through life as an aviator, as an airplane owner, that, okay, I’ve got some experience now in some of these types of airplanes. Let me jump on this ahead of time and have these things inspected. So that’s been the biggest thing, I think, that experience has taught me, is to really, really, really, and again, I learned another lesson here on this one,
that I did when I purchased the Mooney. I did have a pre-purchase inspection done. I mean, and they went through that whole thing. I’m like, It’s not adding up that these things need to be done now when they were all signed off. So who am I not getting the straight story from? And I really don’t know how to combat that, really. But I was checking it out for sure. so due diligence is a big thing, you know, when you’re buying an airplane, as you go through life. You’ll check more and more and more and then probably overspend now on your inspections.
Tim:[00:29:46]Because you want to be sure.
Kevin:[00:29:48]You want to be sure, and you know what? What I’ve determined is there’s no guarantee. There’s just no guarantee. You know, humans are inspecting these things, humans are flying them, all of us make mistakes and, you know, it is what it is.
Tim:[00:30:00]I think that this has been a great conversation. It tells the pilot at home that’s listening that this goal of aircraft ownership is absolutely obtainable. It shows the story of like, look, you certainly want to go in with eyes wide open and be prepared just for the financial aspect. I mean, after all, this is the Pilot Money podcast, right? So, you know, we want to understand the financial aspects of unanticipated things, some surprises that maybe you don’t know exactly what the details are going to be, but. you’ve hedged against it by coming to the table with enough cash for some of those expenses. And then of course we, you know, we’ve talked about in the last episode, the purchasing points and how to get into the airplane. But Kevin, one thing that I know about you is of course you’re an aircraft owner, you’re a retired controller, but you do other things that help pilots out. So maybe if you can tell the listeners about that.
Kevin:[00:30:51]Sure. Thanks. I’m a partner in a company called Beacon Relocation and one of my partners in this is a retired air traffic controller. He retired on the side as a combat controller and we have a real estate company with about 1,100 or 1,200 affiliate real estate agents. and when a pilot or an air traffic controller, it could be a professional pilot, airline, corporate, or even a GA pilot, when they’re buying or selling a home many of them are moving across state we’ll pair them with a real estate agent. One that we have vetted from our perspective, and we’re pretty thorough in vetting quality, but the benefit of our company that we’re finding really is the financial piece of it, the money piece of it. [00:31:34]When you list a home with one of our affiliate agents, they do it at a reduction at a discount. Still a full service, and when you’re purchasing a home, and you use one of our buyer’s agents you don’t pay that buyer agent. They actually are paying you. They would actually give you 20 percent of their commission that they get from the listing agent. And they would credit you on the settlement statement towards closing costs. Of course, there are some changes coming up in the laws in our nation in the summertime, and we’ll all end up navigating those changes together. So, it literally will find a quality agent for you and actually pay you to use the program. So we’ve been doing this for many, many years. It started out with their traffic controllers. You know, one of our biggest clients is a national airline that we do it for with a lot of pilots, but the Air Traffic Controllers Association, the labor union we have a contract with them to do it for their air traffic controllers when they move. So it’s pretty cool, I mean, it’s basically a financial benefit.
Tim:[00:32:33]Okay, so through your company, you guys have vetted, it sounds like over a thousand real estate agents across the country. And if you’re a controller, a pilot, a professional pilot or a GA pilot, there’s a benefit in using the agents that your company has vetted. So if you’re listing a property. They’re going to discount the agent’s fee, so that’s
more money in your pocket. And if you’re buying a property, then the agent will take some of their commission and apply it towards your closing cost. So again, that’s more money in your pocket. So I can think about several use cases, you know, I’m assigned my base. And it’s actually a base that I want to live in and I don’t want to commute, so maybe it’s important for me and my family to go buy a home there. Or, hey, I’m finally at the point where I’m thinking about buying a vacation property for my family, so a second property. And it’s not in the town that we live in, so we want a real estate agent that’s going to be familiar with that part of the country. Or maybe I’m buying, you know, an investment property because I wanted to get into rentals or Airbnbs or something. So I can see a lot of use cases. You said that you guys are the broker of choice for a major airline. Where is that major airline? Where’s the headquarters? Maybe you can tell us some bases. You don’t have to say the name.
Kevin:[00:34:03]Dallas and Charlotte would be two of the main bases, yeah.
Tim:[00:34:08]So if you fly for an airline that has major bases in Dallas and Charlotte, and you are thinking about moving, then maybe it makes sense for you to take a look at Beacon Relocation and see what they could possibly do for you.
Kevin:[00:34:23]Yeah, we had a sister company there called Flight Crew Homes. So, the airline has it in their welcome book. It could say beacon relocation or it could say as we had moved it over from Flight Crew Homes. They’re supposed to be pinned up there in the crew rooms there as well. But one thing I’ll say too, if anybody is listening, that is not a pilot and not a controller. This program is also offered to our nation’s veterans. So anytime. If you’re a vet, please call us. We got you taken care of.
Tim:[00:34:51]Yeah, that’s great. So what we’ll do is we will have Kevin’s information for beacon relocation. We’ll have that in the show notes. So you can just scroll down at the bottom of this episode, check that out, give them a call. Particularly if you’re moving, you know primary residence vacation, investment, you know, what have you. So you’ll have that information. Kevin, I want to say thank you. Thank you so much. This is fantastic having you on the pilot money podcast. And I know that just the amount of conversations I have with clients about airplane ownership being a part of their financial plan. I know that they’re going to appreciate a, you know, an honest look at the cost of airplane ownership beyond the purchase price. So thank you. Kevin:[00:35:28]You’re very welcome. Thank you. If I could just say one last thing about ownership, man, I’ve loved it. I hope I didn’t scare anybody with expenses. That certainly wasn’t my intention. It’s like anything else in life. You know, if you budget for it, once you fit it into your budget, after a while, it’s no longer a burden. It’s just an everyday expense at that point. So I love it. I’d recommend it to anybody.
Tim:[00:35:51]Well, folks, thanks for following along. There’s another episode of the pilot money podcast. Thanks.