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The common wisdom is that you need to fly at least 100 hours / year to make it more affordable to own versus rent. I've been a partner for fifteen years, and a single owner for the last five, and the flexibility to go flying whenever you want and wherever you want is priceless. Fixed costs every year can easily total $6-$10,000, before you fly the first hour. Loan payments, hangar / tie-down rent, insurance and annual inspection costs are the price of entry. Once you've gotten past those, every hour you fly reduces the cost per flying hour.

Probably. Depending on how much you fly. Having your own plane is nice. Only up keep you see monthly is fuel. Then you have annual and MX that pops up but if your annual is extensive it limits the down time. For example I did all three tires at annual instead of waiting until sometime over the summer when I would probably want to change them. Also changed both landing lights instead of one when one burnt out.

I will also say that my plane cost less to own and fly then a rental of the same caliber. Another option is lease back, probably pay most of your MX thst way.

If you believe equity is better than renting then absolutely it’s a great idea. It does stink that plane prices are so high right now. Find one that fits your mission, keep up with maintenance and enjoy your time in the air in YOUR plane! In the end you may even still make some money…

If you want to make it perfect and dump money into it, no. It’s not economically beneficial. Buy it right and get lucky, yep. If you can join a club for 6 months or a year do so.

For instrument training it would probably be better for your own personal time to rent. It will be challenging to find something with “modern” avionics (garmin 430 or better) that’s not at a high price unless you just have that money to drop haha. I don’t recommend this for your instrument training but maybe after, is buying something bare bones (that’s what I did) with a nav/com and second com and then out one of the garmin 175s or 355s in for a wass gps (7-9k for the gps and labor install roughly). The only downside to that is install will be pushed out 5-6 months minimum unless you’re lucky. At the end of the day I operate my Cherokee around what it would cost to rent. But also in 3 months I’ve put 25ish hours on the plane and just did a 11hr round trip for thanksgiving travel. To me that’s priceless. No way I’d get 25 hours in 3 months when I was renting.

Lets be clear, nothing is cheaper.

The whole process of flight training is ass backwards and stupid in my opinion. I am surgeon who teaches residents and medical students to do surgery, so I am all about muscle memory and training with the real thing from day one with the most up to date and tech savvy products money can buy, so why do we train students with archaic planes with mediocre avionics. So each and every person has to first decide what is the purpose of becoming a pilot. Why are you getting your instrument, commercial, CFI, MEI etc.... For me personally, I fly because I hate driving and hate flying commercial. So for me it was imperative that I buy a plane so I train in my plane, with the most up to date instruments for the sole purpose of flying safely in all conditions and environments. I completed my instrument last November. I have flown over 150hrs this year and 75hrs in IMC and have performed over 60 approaches in IMC conditions. There is no way I would have been able to fly to Boston, Virginia (x4), and Illinois in an old steam guage or measly 430GPS. Instrument training in real world IMC was critical and not all CFII's train their students in IMC. Too much time is wasted on the hood in my opinion. Flying under the hood simply does not compare to flying in solid IMC in a rainstorm with 30kn crosswind without a decent GPS or autopilot in Class B airspace with commuter planes buzzing all around you. ATC changing up routes. Air National Guard C130's buzzing around doing low level maneuvers not on ADS-B. An old fart flying a 152/172 which wasn't on flight following taking off the wrong direction at a non-towered airport failing to obtain clearance to takeoff within the Class B but you have been cleared for the approach the opposite direction. By FFA regulations, you own that airfield under approach clearance but some old geaser flying VFR below the cloud deck is flying directly at you as you started your approach in IMC. He cant see you and you cant see him, but you own the airspace since you are on the IFR approach. Flying in the most advanced avionics in a plane that you know inside and out is priceless versus trying to fumble and watch a bunch of unreadable steam guages that are very easy to get disoriented and lose your glideslope. ATC is calling you warning you that you are drifting off course as you are approaching your final approach fix. But you don't see the buildings or mountains that you are getting dangerously close to. You are dropping. I do, because I have synthetic vision with my G500TXI. You may get the warnings on your Foreflight, but it maybe too late. You have now hit the side of the mountain. If you think that is stressful, when I flew to Boston, I was in IMC from Ohio east. Never saw the ground until I landed in Boston. 400ft ceiling. Never been to that airport in driving rain. Every ATC from Pennsylvania to Boston changed my IFR flightplan. It would take me 5-10minutes to re-program my GNS355. Luckily, my G500TXI, Ipads and 355 were all connected via Flightstream. Re-programming a flight plan on an old 430/530 is so much harder and labor intensive than with the newer GPS systems. Very stressful as you are trying to maintain your course and altitude as ATC is yelling at you. You want to fly VOR to VOR, no thanks. We all get spoiled by KC Center and St. Louis. Fly in Class B in Dallas, Chicago, DC and of course Boston and they get downright rude and impatient with GA pilots regardless of your rating. So if you simply want to fly in Missouri, rent someone's plane. If you want to fly outside this state, in areas that you have never been too, then make sure you have the best avionics possible, but you better know that system inside and out. Flying a G1000 in a Cirrus or DA-40 is no picnic. Those systems integrate everything from ADS-B, radios and autopilot controls. You maybe accustomed to working with each individual system but running those systems in a G1000 is a huge undertaking and you better have a ton of hours of practice because flying in IMC not knowing exactly how to do manage that system is stressful. Know your system inside and out and what better than training with your plane with your CFII not just under the hood but in real IMC. Fly with your safety pilot without the hood. Too much focus is placed on the hood. Know your avionics inside and out FIRST! Then increase your workload and conditions. Don't forget to fly at night. IMC at niight is NO FUN if you are inexperienced. This time of year, it is getting dark real early. Before you know it, you are flying in IMC at night. If it ever gets cold in Missouri, fly thru icing conditions at 4500ft in IMC. Instrument training needs to be taken very seriously if you want to fly in IMC. Too many people plow thru it, and get in trouble in real world conditions.

I bought my plane in June and so far have put 70 hrs on it,even though I'm only able to fly it every other month due to my work schedule but I can tell you that I've loved every bit of ownership. My plane is a 95 and even though it's newer, I've still run into a couple maintenance issues but that's kinda expected, had I been renting, I definitely wouldn't have flown as much as I have and I plan on doing my instrument in MY plane as now I'm very comfortable with how everything works and my different speed settings.