how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

note:thread topic changed**

how do you guys afford jets are you rich? do only rich people fly jets? i dont see where you pull $10.000 from! Also how do you get cope with the fear of crashing i mean make one wrong move and there goes your life savings!

RE: JET GOT PWNED!
 

edited due to topic change...

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

easy: we show our wifes just the vat amount that,s it..

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

We sell our kids, pets, horses, horse trailers, and tell the wife it is better than us going to the bar and fooling around. PayPal helps if she doesn't know about the account too, then you can sell some of that crap she has stored in the garage for the last 30 years and has forgotten about until she sees it. (do that at night)

Flying can be gut wrenching. I have to take ball growth formula the day before flying.
Jack:D:D

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

My hobby career depends on my wife thinking that turbines are less than $500
Plus I have a super secret "turbine" account.

Always remember when it comes to women let them know from the beginning:
turbines = less than 500
airframes = less than 300
and most importantly, 6 = 10 ;)

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

[X(]
It took me a minute... Good one:)

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

It's cheaper than golf!

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

My wife says my jets must mate in the garage late at nite to produce offspring since I never buy them. It also helps to use fake propellers on the nose of the jets to disguise them as she knows that jets cost more than props. It is still less expensive than full scale..
Later,
Jetboy

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

Jets in the long run are as cheap as say playing hockey or other expensive hobbies!! I played ice hockey for 7 years on a pro-am team and I spent alteast 2 grand a month traveling,etc.If I spend say 6-7 grand on a new jet a couple times a year it more than balances out on what I was spending in a years time playing hockey!! It really only cost the average guy like hmmm what 200-300 bucks a month for kero and supplies if you stay local & fly.Even if you go to a jet rally once a month you'd spend what 500-600 bucks if you went all out during your stay?Still alot cheaper as a whole in the scope of things! Look at what MANY big time golfers spend in the course of a month enjoying their hobby! Have you seen what it cost to play at a primo club or what green fees are nowadays :D


I am not married and the only bill I have aside from the expenses of my business is my mortgage which is 2 grand a month.So this definately helps alot! ;)many jet guy's beleive in their best friend-the ole credit card!I only use those personally on gas and business expenses. Many jet fliers own businesses while others have very good paying jobs.I have a successful business that provides well for this great hobby,but I work my ***** off in exchange for it.Here lately atleast 6 day work weeks



Steve

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

People ask me how our customers can afford their hobby, and I point out that it isn't particularly expensive compared with other hobbies. Someone has already mentioned golf. In the UK, a lot of guys are football-mad (soccer) and it's considered "normal" for them to spend a huge amount on season tickets for home games, buying tickets and travelling to away matches, team clothing for themselves and their families etc. etc. No-one seems to think it unusual to be spending all this money to watch 22 men kicking a ball round a field. Football fans don't get any money back at the end of the season either, whereas if you've been lucky with your planes and engines you will still have them and you might even be able to sell something to help fund the next project.

Sara Parish
Wren Turbines

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

The last guy who asked me why I was nuts enough to spend $10K on a jet, was driving a $60K+ truck with a rather expensive Bass Boat in tow, and he smokes 3 packs of cigarettes a day. I asked him how much his truck & boat depreciated the minute he drove them off the lot, and asked how much his cig's cost per year. He didn't bother answering, just stomped off. That was answer enough...

While there are definitely a lot of people who simply cannot afford turbines (been there, done that), I find that an awful lot of the people who decry the money we're spending on our hobby actually spend even more on theirs ... but somehow to them their substantial outlay on cars / golf / boats / wine / eating out every night / whatever is completely justificable wherease spending money on toy airplanes just is not. Well, to each their own, I guess. Choose where you spend your money so as to give you maximum satisfaction, and let everyone else do the same.

Gordon

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

or do like what im doing to join the jet set.... go to events talk to people and get ideas and prices... you can find a balsa airframe jet ..more or less trainers... but still a jet... ball-park price 400$..... then you save up.... buy a few things.... save...spend..save........speeeeeend.... complain you cant afford you other planes... sell...save... spend..

so far.... i dont have any thing other than a transmitter.. that im going to use.... and if you go with the cheap stuff... you have to know what to use and what not to use.... im still flyin my wattage mig 15 with a brushless motor and getting use to the lack of the prop blast to save my skin when your in neg-High Alpha! ( stalled flight pointed down)
~Matt

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

i think there is some kind of psicology involved..

specially for the people outside our hobby..a lot think that we are just kids, playing with toys..
and they don't get that we spend some kUSD in planes...just why they consider a RC plane a toy for kids!!

when fishing, a season football (soccer, basketball, baseball or whatever) may be a lot more expensive!!!! but they aren't "kids" hobbys!!

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

Cat juggling is very profitable.

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

EASY...............
Education.................Provides the chance for a Higher paying position





Or you could buy a lottery ticket & hope :D
Semper Fi
Joe
Although as chzonio stated you could go into "Cat juggling" :D

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

How do I afford this hobby?

Easy. Credit Cards. I have 25 or so, and about 4 personal loans. I will buy all the stuff want and will then declare bankruptcy. Just make sure you have a good house and a reliable car, beacause you will not be able to buy one for 7 years. And make sure if you do this to include Discover Cards (stick it to them since they overpopulate everyone's mailbox with junk).


Now kidding aside, if you cannot buy it cash, then don't. Not fun to pay $6000 over the next 12 months on a model that went in on the first flight.

Just my $6000.

David

(I don't personally support the CC/loan idea, but I do like hearing it when somebody sticks it to the banks by doing this)[8D]

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

we are not rich at all... we just have steel nerves. ;)

Enrique

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

Money is secondary

Big C*jones!!!!!! That's Primary!

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

Why ? The banks simply make up for losses like the above by makning extra money from you & I, so the "somebody" above is not sticking it to the banks, he's sticking it to you & I by raising bank fees and lowering the interest rates we get paid on our savings. So, the next time you snigger at it, remember that you are subsidising that somebody's free ride.

The above is no different than how all the insurance fraud isn't taking money out of the insurance companies' pockets, because those companies just increase the cost of insurance to ensure that its the policyholders, and not the ins. co., that collectively pay for the fraud.

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

and anything I buy does NOT get shipped to my house.

Ask Todd or Tam, I have everything shipped to a "friends" house ;)

When she asks about that new shiny jet in the garage, I just say it's Bob's and Im working on it.

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

I'm very fortunate. Athough I am an airplane fanatic, when I fly full scale I get paid for it. Model planes are my passion, however, and I pay what I have to pay in order to fly them. If I have time for fishing, golf, or anything else, that means I have time to fly a model airplane...so that's what I do.

I'm a relative beginner at jets but I've been flying models since 1960 and have competed at everything from pattern to pylon racing. I wouldn't give up ANY of my models...be it a jet, a large scale IMAC plane, or a 3D electric foamie. I even still fly control-line planes!

Though I sometimes have to sacrifice in order to afford something (like a turbine for instance), I do it gladly...because I HAVE to.

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

I never thought I could ever afford a turbine either, but after getting some experience bulding and assembling turbine models for a buddy. I got hooked. sold as much of my gas and glow stuff I could bear to part with and bought a complete ducted fan Hawk, $800, and went for my waiver and got it. Mean while in anticipation started saving, luckily I had a partime job teaching after I retired.
My first jet was a rebult AV8R, one of my buddies that I had built, so the airframe did not cost to much and I had plenty of servos etc, did have to buy the brakes. Sold some more stuff, saved some more, and along came my P60. Realistically you need to budget for $3000 to get in the air with a turbine if you can build the airframe yourself, have unused servos' etc.
Had to sell my helicopter to get my boomerang, since after experiencing turbines, my propellor are planes gathering dust, time to sell some more stuff.
Its addictive, be prepared.
Bob

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

Gordon's got it right. The bottom line is, as with anything, you need to decide what you want to do and how to get there from here. This hobby isn't terribly expensive compared to most, but a jet is significantly more expensive than most sport prop airplanes, glow or electric. But also, like anything else, you work your way into it, moving up when you can.

Cost is relative. I do know some guys who have the coin and some do spend well, but all these guys I know also earned it the old fashioned way. There are also those I know who are hocked to the hilt becasue they just have to have it. You don't have to be rich and you don't have to have the brightest and best, but you can do jets in a cost effective manner if you work at it. My buddy has yet to buy anything new, swaps and horse trades, and has saved significant amounts.

BTW, if you can't afford a crash, on the first flight or even the 500th, then you shouldn't push the throttle forward for takeoff.

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

You don't have to be rich to afford a jet , but be patient and put aside a little money for yourself. It took me a little over a year to buy my jet. First was the Turbine on sale at $2300, a few months later the jet on sale at $800 a few months later servos $400, next wheels/brakes $500, extra bits/pieces $150. I Could not afford to put down a lump sum of $4150. (Plus my wife would have asked if I was crazy) spread out over a year it doesn't look so bad. You have to buy what you think you can afford. Theirs a good article that someone posted called (So You Want to Fly Jets) do a search, Its a good article to read before buying a Jet.

RE: how do you guys afford this hobby?
 

Ronnie,
That is so true.
Many time I have a customers wife call me to place an order. I'm so nervous what will happen next.
If told her the cost of the plane and turbine. I might loose the customer.
My advise to everyone. Never let the wife order anything for you. Even she want to do it for your birthday.
I never lie to any of my customers about what I sell. But many time I had lie to their wife or refuse to answer to them.