Income and aircraft survey

[TexasAviation]

I'm in the process of saving up money for my first airplane, and I know aviation is a hobby that can eat up your entire income (and then some) if you let it. Airplanes are 'spensive!

So that made me wonder ... what percentage of annual income do airplane owners spend on their planes?

I set up an anonymous survey for aircraft owners. It asks three simple questions: What's your annual household income? How much is your aircraft worth? And what do you spend per year on aviation?

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3YQP9M9

It's not scientific by any means. I just want to see how those ratios break down.

I'll be glad to share the results when it's done. I bet the responses will be all over the map, but I'm curious to see how they average out.

 

[Jim Logajan]

MEDIAN
Annual income:
$197,500.00

Aircraft value: $77,500.00
% income: 39.24%

Annual expense: $12,000.00
% income: 6.08%

Seems about right - two earner household with one or both in a professional field earning and average of ~$100k/year each. The $12k/year looks familiar also, based on other surveys I've seen.

See also:
http://equityprivate.typepad.com/ep/2007/05/fairing_up_gene.html

"The median income of a General Aviation aircraft owner's household in the United States is $200,000. Two standard deviations from the mean household income of members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association (there are in excess of 400,000 of them) is $30,000 - $100,000 in household income."

 

[Jim Logajan]

As I said, people on this site are well off.

If anyone thinks the average family salary is 200k, they are indeed smoking the pipe

I don't believe anyone has said that the average family makes that much. Just that the people who claimed to be aircraft owners who answered the survey claimed that much. And past surveys seem to confirm that comfortable income level.

If I did own an airplane it would be sub $25k, since that is as much as I'd care to invest. But then, I don't think my wife and I together ever made over $200k in any one year. If I had been an owner and replied to the survey I'd be among those with a household income currently about half the surveyed median.