marine air wrote:
The P-51 deal is nteresting. THey are asking $1.5 million USD. PLus the seller wants to retain rights to 50 hrs a year, for 10 years. So that's 500 hours. No big deal, but you have to figure several sets of tires, brakes, prop A.D. inspections and hours used up on the engine. The engine already has 335 hours SMOH. So who pays for the next engine overhaul? Also wear and tear on components , gages, actuators, etc. on this 70 year old plane?
On civilian jets there are MSP programs to insure the engines , and you typically pay by the flight hour. NO one knows on a Merlin, how long it will go between overhauls.
The cool thing about this proposal is a person can buy , at a discount, in on a P-51, take it home, do as he wishes and the seller with his bank of 500 flight hours can be looked at as a mortgagor or lienholder. Maybe the seller could be bought out of the contract at a future date.
How is 1.5 a discount?
That is about the going rate for P-51s that have been flyers for a long time. Freshly restored within the last 5 or 10 years will bring a premium or high value.
Stallion 51 charges around 4K per hour for instruction. Flying an hour with Red Nose, Red Tail or Cavanaugh is what 3K or more. That 500 hrs is worth more than the asking price of the A/C.
So paying 1.5 and then having 1.6 mil of usage equates to over 3 mil of value.
They should be giving someone that thing for free if they want to borrow it back like that.