air what?

So, G-bot prepared a PPT to influence me about taking my share of the family patrimony and investing in an aircraft that he and his buddies would use for the purposes of learning and trying to earn some money. By them paying for the maintenance and any upgrades that happen, five or eight years later, the aircraft could be sold and I'd be the sole beneficiary.

The total amount comes to around 100,000$ which represents perhaps 4/7ths of what I'd get from the family patrimony.

I may not get 7/7ths of my share all at once; I may only get 0.83% of my patrimony every month for ten years. That doesn't help with the purchase in terms of an up front buy out, but I suppose it could mean that these monthly patrimony amounts could pay a monthly aircraft loan payment.

If this was considered as part of an investment plan, a question becomes how does the value of the aircraft improve over the duration I would be owner?

This is what he currently has in mind, though the specific one for sale at this moment may not still be available at the time the divorce is settled and I get my share.

G-bot is fairly convinced that he and his buddies can make a go of this in terms of sharing the aircraft to allow each of them to gain the hours required for them to work up to a commercial license. And with six seats, and a 1500lb capacity, it could also be used to charter individuals or small families or groups to anywhere they would want to go. As a group they would need to advertise in distant communities to let people know that this young charter flying group are willing to get you to where you need to go. Without a commercial license, they can do this and just charge the cost of the flight with no income for themselves.

Of the five of them, if I recall correctly, G-bot told me that two of them already have twin engine certification. G-bot himself only has a single engine VFR license, so even if we did go ahead with this, G-bot himself wouldn't be able to fly it right away; though, he would have it for him to take the lessons. The other two who do not yet have twin engine certification could also use it for training purposes. Then all five them would use it to gain the hours needed for the commercial license.

In order to protect the aircraft, both from the sun in the summer, and from freezing in the winter, while it is not in active use G-bot is researching into hangars in smaller airports to see how much it would cost to hanger the aircraft so as to preserve it. Also, if its home base airport is a reasonably good one that is easy to access, that would help with their business.

The St-Hubert airport is the one he is looking at first, to see if there is a hangar there that can be within their price range.

What is good about this airport is that it is accessible by public transit, so even being carless, G-bot can get to this airport with relative ease. The only other airport that he could get to with relative ease is YUL which is an international airport whose hangar, landing, takeoff and other fees would likely be exorbitant for a burgeoning company like this one would be.

Another question I ask myself is back when I was 18 years old, the age G-bot is presently, if I had had an idea like this, or this exactly, would I have enlisted my parents to help; would I have gone to a bank to see what options were available? What is different, of course, is at the moment he is wanting to do this coincides with me getting my share of the family patrimony - something that didn't happen when I was 18 years old (my parents are still together).

What is tipping me in the direction of going ahead with this is that the aircraft is an asset; if maintained properly, or perhaps even improved in terms of equipment, the value will likely go up over the time of ownership. I do not know how much or how little it would go up in value as compared to had I invested this money in the stock market, and it is this uncertainty that is staying my hand; though, as I haven't yet the share of family patrimony, that is ultimately the hold back presently.

I do have another thought about this - given the IPCC2018 warning that we really only had 12 years then, 10 years now, to bring CO2 emissions down to near zero, do I want to be promoting air travel so directly and in such a large amount that consumes fossil fuels and emits pollution? This is the tough part - I would really like to help G-bot if this is where his passion is, however, I also want to leave the world in as good a shape as I can for G-bot, C-ling and V-8, so that the next generation does not have as hard a time with the climate crisis as they would have otherwise.

There is lots to think about, but no decision yet to be made.