Two other near term hurdles remain. Enough sales have to occur in the U.S. before insurance will be set at reasonable rates (lack of history for this aircraft) and loans are easier to secure.
I've been chomping at the bit to put an LSA on the flight line of the flying club of which I'm a member. Why? I've calculated that I can leaseback and rent at $110/hour, which is much cheaper than the $160+/hr for our Archers. I typically fly in good weather with one pax, either to introduce others to flying or snap a boatload of fall foliage pix. (I'm a CA-SEL, with a very moldy CFI-A, but not instrument current. That $169/hr. is hard to swallow with other priorities in the mix.) I know others in the club are interested in flying an LSA for similar reasons, with similar missions. I've asked around at our quarterly Safety Meetings. I think we'd also get a few Sport Pilot students as well, with even a modicum of "marketing".
I've been looking for 3-4 partners in order to keep the per/person acquisition cost down, but to no avail (even among 50+ active members). Have I been successful? Not in this economy, even though the 2 or 3 of us with an interest in doing this are well-healed and could probably do it on our own. No one, including myself, is quite ready to pull the trigger. (Don't get me wrong - I'm not bragging. My wife and I are very blessed indeed.)
So, what to do? Wait it out for the next four years. Wait for interest rates to improve. Wait for lenders to loosen their grip on all that money on the sidelines. Wait for the LSA manufacturers industry to consolidate. Etc. At some point the numbers will look good and we'll pull the trigger.
Here's another option: I've recently become aware of the fractional ownership approach that the Aviation Access Project has just starting to roll out. Some of you may want to check that option out as well. It's worth a look. www.aviationaccessproject.com (No, I'm not affiliated with them. I'm not a fractional owner. Yet. Maybe. Soon.)
