
Now is a really good time to buy a helicopter - prostoalex
http://qz.com/755787/now-is-a-really-good-time-to-buy-a-helicopter/
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nostrademons
This seems a lot like buying a Mig-21. Yes, you can get them for dirt cheap
(under $50K in the Mig-21's case [1]). But the cost in parts, maintenance,
fuel, and hiring an instructor pilot so you don't kill yourself the first time
you take it up will quickly exceed the initial purchase price. There's a
reason why people are selling them.

[1] [http://www.city-
data.com/forum/automotive/503914-mig-21-ebay...](http://www.city-
data.com/forum/automotive/503914-mig-21-ebay-49-000-buy.html)

~~~
Xunxi
Out of curiosity, what does the average person need a helicopter for? The
expertise and cost is no joke.

Enclosed autogyros and weightshift ultralight airplanes should should suffice
for what its worth. And they are presumeably safer to fly!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoGyro_Calidus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoGyro_Calidus)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OU98We-
mcw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OU98We-mcw)

~~~
geon
If you do need a heli, you are hardly an average person, are you?

And aren't helis mostly used when you specifically need the ability to land on
a building or hover?

~~~
mdorazio
In general, yes, but there's a fairly large market for filming with helis
since you can mount nice camera equipment unrestricted by fixed wing
fuselages, propellers, etc. and take nice, slow shots at low altitude. Of
course, this is being replaced by much cheaper drones. Sightseeing is another
decent size use case, which often doesn't really involve hovering. And
news/traffic reporting usually occupies a few helis in cities where they're
primarily cruising around.

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elihu
> Global rotorcraft production will likely total just 1,050 in 2016, which
> would be the fewest in at least a decade, according to Forecast
> International.

This is surprising to me; I would have expected the number of helicopters made
per year to be a lot higher. (The figure accompanying the quote clarifies that
it's referring to the civilian market; presumably military helicopters are
being made in larger quantities?)

Also, it's counterintuitive that they cite lower fuel costs as a reason for
the decline (since they're popular with oil and gas companies).

~~~
bluedino
There are a lot of old helicopters out there. They're expensive so you can't
just junk them and buy new like a car.

A 1970's helicopter can still be $500,000 US

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
As an aside, this is something that's always bothered me. A good car/truck
should last decades with proper upkeep but somehow manufacturers have talked
us into thinking we need to keep buying new ones instead of repairing the old
ones.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Some people have considered building "life cars" which are vehicles designed
to run forever because all of their parts can be replaced. On the plus side
you only need new tooling when the old tooling starts getting out of
tolerance, on the negative side your car looks the same as it did in the 60s.
So go back and look at cars in the 60's and ask yourself if the asthetic works
for you.

So the next step is car _chassis_ that last forever but the body can be
replaced. Prior to unibody construction this is how a lot of cars were built.
And the 1970's VW beetle chassis was used by lots of people as the starting
point for a fiberglass re-make (look for 'VW kit car' in images and see what I
mean) That fixes the "look" (sort of) but the body work and interior work is
over half the cost of the car. So you don't save too much and do you keep
tooling for the 10 year old bodies?

~~~
antoniuschan99
What about safety?

~~~
ChuckMcM
What about it? Such a car would always be just as safe as the day you bought
it. One would have to sell new cars with the required level of safety
equipment but it doesn't change the value proposition of a car that you can
always get parts for. What are your thoughts about safety?

~~~
notahacker
I presume the user meant that vehicle safety tends to improve over time: a
modern car is substantially safer than a 1960s model can readily be modified
to be, thanks to radical body redesigns as well as innovations like ABS that
_might_ be possible to retrofit. I'm not sure the rate of improvement in
safety has been quite so large since the mid 90s, but certainly wouldn't rule
out significant safety innovations over the next 30 or 40 years that couldn't
be retrofitted to a chassis built this decade.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I presumed the same thing. Safety, like any requirement, cannot be applied
retroactively. It does not invalidate the concept of a product that is
maintainable in its useful state indefinitely.

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X-Istence
Sure wish I had a couple million lying around to go buy a helicopter! :P

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Robinson R22 is < $300k.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_R22](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_R22)

~~~
lwhalen
And at that price, for me, it might as well be a billion dollars :-)

~~~
cpncrunch
Thats new price. You can buy them for under 100k second hand. Have a look on
conttoller.com.

~~~
lwhalen
Half a billion, then. Mang, I'm trying to buy a house right now, $20k is a
far-off and scary number to me where I'm at.

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JoeAltmaier
My brother-in-law (was a Navy Chief) mentioned once that one in six Navy
takeoffs had a mechanical failure of some kind. He always took a boat to shore
when on carrier duty. So maintenance surely varies across the services.

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rbcgerard
Think about anything that might be used on a well site in the Bakken
(generators, light towers, pick up trucks, drill pipe, drilling rigs, yellow
construction equipment etc.) and it's pretty cheap right now...

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kevindeasis
You can get some planes for under $30k too, but there isn't lots who know how
to fix em'

~~~
cpncrunch
What? Any aviation mechanic can work on a the likes of a C150.

~~~
kevindeasis
Our of curiosity how do you find a good aviation mechanic?

~~~
cpncrunch
Ask around. Avoid the big AMOs.

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bitwize
I'm saving up for Airwolf.

------
iofj
Curiouser and curiouser.

Another luxury goods market that's reporting a significant decline. Private
planes are also down a lot, real estate in Manhattan is dropping. SF real
estate not dropping, but not increasing as it used to either. Spending on
luxury goods down a lot. Let's go down the list:

Gold prices up ... check. Lots of money flowing (or attempting to) into
government bonds ... check. Corporate profits down ... check. Corporate
lending up by a LOT ... check. Energy down (demand-side problem) ... check.
Goods shipping down (a lot) ... check. Lending standards tightening ... check
(except for central bank lending). Spending down ... check. Bankruptcies up
... check. Luxury goods markets down ... check. Asset prices generally going
donw ... check. "Sin" stocks rising (alcohol, gambling, ...) ... hmmm ... yes,
sort of ... not yet totally pervasive (although CSH is doing almost
suspiciously well)

We're in a recession ! Also : f*ck, I was looking at changing my job around.

And ... major wtf: stock prices ... all time high. That's weird.

~~~
themartorana
One of the weird things about the stock market is that its success is no
longer in any sort of relationship with economic reality. The economy
continues to hobble around, and economic growth is not only low, it may be
permanently stunted.

But the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq all closed at historic highs today - the
first time all three have on the same day in 17 years. [0] Does the US economy
and consumer confidence (and hell, general health of the middle class) feel at
all like we should be seeing record market highs?

[0]
[http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN10M14R](http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN10M14R)

~~~
zubat
The way I would put it - a delicate framing - is that the market is honest,
not correct. The situation is such that most people think they can stay in a
little longer even as the analysts are pointing to all sorts of warning signs.
There is always theater around the economy in election years, and they might
succeed again in propping things up for the next president to handle.

