Brew

She goes and looks and picks what she wants, I’m not driving it every day so that’s her deal. I still have to negotiate/pay for it, because they sure aren’t letting her sign for it and leave with it. Besides that, it’s not like there is much negotiating going on with a new model, supply chain issues, etc. Plus, I’m not doing a whole of negotiating anyways. When it’s time for a truck or when I bought my kid a car a couple weeks ago, I just call my Ford dealer and say here is what I want. They find it and bring it to me and I sign in 5 minutes in my office. He doesn’t call me and negotiate my fees either, so it all works out.

Having been in a variety of them/Tahoe’s/etc over the years, the interior and look of the new ones is improved over the prior models. The dash and upgraded stereo are overkill and too much most of the time, but they are definitely interesting to screw around with. I wanted the duramax and super cruise which this has neither, but they both would be significant advantages over prior iterations as well. With 50k on the Expedition in 18 months, both would have been handy options but they both were still a ways out on being available. I’m not entirely sure how she ended up on the Cadillac, I thought she was getting a Range Rover or SQ8. Some stupid shit she probably saw on the Internet led to it I’m sure. I prefer the size of it for the number of road trips we take, so whatever.

Waiting on the wheels to come in and be installed. They have 6 sold ones sitting waiting on the wheel shipment to come at some point.

In, let the secret stonking begin.

I need to consolidate down to some core bets this weekend. I’ve gotten spread out through a stack of stuff at this point that looked great 2 weeks ago. PVDG, ALPP, and TRCH still have me well into the green overall, but they have gotten beat up with everything else.

No, I think if I bought one it would have to be the Blackwing. The V is nice, but I’m not really looking for a daily driver. I would keep the truck for that. I’ve been looking at 3rd vehicle options and primarily been focused on restomods and classics, but something like this may better fit.

I sold my position in Fidelity while it was up to go ahead and cut back some, held the position in the Schwab account. It hasn’t updated at all today and I couldn’t sell it if I wanted to it looks like.

Wife bought an Escalade today, so I talked to the sales guys about the Blackwings while there. I’m really thinking hard about the CT5 now. He thinks they will still have open orders, but he doesn’t know timing. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a car, but I am intrigued.

It is a 1996 58. It was owned by a client for 4 years (he moved up to the CJ we are looking at and is now moving up to a Lear), then another client of mine bought it last year and we would be buying in half. The management company has a client that has offered to buy it if we go up to the CJ. I talked with the owner of the management company and it and the CJ have been maintained with an open checkbook and are fully updated and they are very high on both.

Don't cheap out on maintenance or pilots. If you get a jet, get the engines ( and maybe the whole plane) on a maintenance program. Helps defray the costs of overhaul and some of the programs will give you loaner engines so you're not down for 2 weeks. Management company requires all planes they manage to be in the engine maintenance programs, parts program is optional. Pilots are all full time for the management company and seem like a knowledgeable bunch. We met one of the younger ones today to look at the Baron and CJ and he knew what he was talking about. He gave us the rundown on all the other planes in the hangar.

Think we’re going to start with the Baron after a lot of back and forth. The operating costs on the CJ don’t make sense with the distances we’ll be flying. We’ll apparently have access to a CJ and a Lear through the management company when we need more distance at an hourly rate. The Baron has a brand new interior, new paint, upgraded electronics, etc. and my half isn’t too bad. The guy that runs the management company would prefer it over the single engine setups with us having some trips that may run in the dark.

Not a teak fan depending on use, the maintenance on teak that is in contact with water or sits in the sun is more than I want to deal with. If you let it gray, you lose the look of having teak. I think if it was an interior application without direct sun, I would probably reconsider that stance.

Another one I’m in. I think he came out calling it a pump and dump, bunch of people jumped all over him, so he put out the attached tweets tongue in cheek I would guess.

Merger with Metamaterials coming up which moves them past the O&G game, ties to Tesla have been thrown around coming out of that deal, etc. I mentioned it several pages back and got in in the mid $1’s. It was a steady climber up into the mid $4’s through last week and then got the rug pulled out from under it. It is overvalued based on it’s O&G holdings only.

I’m pretty heavy in TRCH. It’s been a kick in the nuts the last week like most things, but there has been a lot of positive information out there on it. It was a lot better in the mid 4’s last week when it was running steady.

Fucking sucks, it wasn’t that long ago when Sunday’s at a major with Tiger were must watch TV for me. There is no one out there that I have to watch on Sunday. I was also rooting for him to take down the record in his second act:

Mine have been reliable other than there is usually some issue Ford has never seen. On the ‘15 it busted the plastic gearing in the front drivers side axle assembly at fairly low mileage. On the ‘17 it busted a hub early and then busted the ring and pinion gear at about 55k. Each one of those was an issue getting fixed because parts were not prevalent. There are also usually recall issues just like right now I’ve been waiting on the front/rear camera replacements for 2 months now on the ‘20. The ‘17 also had the timing chain rattle that I never got fixed, but I did fix it on my wife’s ‘19 Expedition and it’s been fine since.

Don’t know, maybe because of planes under management and cross training with the management company. The CJ1 is also a 5 year currently managed plane that has been completely updated that we would be buying because that owner is moving up to a Lear.

Thanks for the replies. I’m meeting with the other main partner and the management company today so it helps. The extra cost is somewhat offset by the shorter flight times, but the calculus of 1 versus 2 engines has definitely been in the discussion. We had pulled the trigger on a plane 3 years ago and right at the same time we had a guy we know and his family die in a small plane crash, the partner on this plane went down in a field due to catastrophic engine failure, and another client went off a runway and totaled his plane all in a couple of weeks time. We backed out really because our wives just got real uncomfortable with it. With the management program and the engine programs that we would be part of now, the concern is less but the safety factor also is still there. I’m a fairly young guy with two teenage kids, so upping my risk factor substantially to save a few dollars isn’t that important. However, everything I’ve seen on the TBM is that it is about as safe as you can get for a single engine. I think the TBM will serve my needs, but may limit the number of people I fly and where I fly. I’m not sure about sitting in a tight 4 seater for a 700 mile flight. That’s probably more than I’m going to be interested in doing, but they may still be the case with the CJ1.

No real mountains or water, mainly flying around the South. I have offices spread around a 5 hour driving window from my main office and clients all over the country. However, with international airports nearby anything outside of the office range will probably be commercial. I don’t see me making a 700 mile flight to South Florida because of the cost and the fact that I have to send it back while I’m down there. Management company already has the brands mentioned under management, so it cuts our management fee significantly because they don’t have extra training time, research time on issues, etc. The difference between a CJ1 and something else in that class was pretty significant. We also discussed Meridians but the TBM was better from a management standpoint.

Business purchase. I’m in a mid sized city 1.5 hours from two major airports. We have a regional airport where the plane would be hangered about 10 minutes from my house/office. Yes on partners, they are both clients that have been in plane partnerships before. One is in 3-4 right now. Management company has 6 pilots on staff. For the CJ we would pay them a certain amount each month to manage the plane and a daily rate for the pilot. It will not be in a charter pool, we will be the only users.

Damnit, I got hung up when I walked in the office and missed the buys I was going to make.

So, is it time to reload ALPP especially as well as UUU and maybe some more AMY? I looked at the Dow and thought .38% down and thought it wasn’t all that bad, then opened my portfolio and it’s a blood bath.

For those that have small plane backgrounds, what do I need to consider when comparing a Baron, a TBM 700/850, and then moving up to a CJ1 maybe a CJ2. I know the basics like from the Baron to the CJ operating costs are about double, travel time is half with the TBM in the middle. The CJ is going to be more comfortable and safer. However, I’m looking at average trips in the 400 mile range or less for 1-2 people. If we had the range/space, we would use it occasionally but it may also become cost prohibitive. I would have 1 partner on the first 2 and 2 on the CJ so entry costs isn’t significantly different. Last time we met with the management guys and the other partner we pretty well eliminated the Baron, so what’s the break point in trip types where the CJ is a no brainer or is it strictly just justifying the additional dollars for the safety/speed factor? I know zero about private plane types, but I do work for a lot of guys with them so I understand the cost factor well.

Bought a bunch of stick on heat pads Sunday and just rotated them under the styrofoam covers every 12-16 hours all week with a piece of towel wrapped around the heat pad. Had no issues other than spending 5-10 minutes changing them out. I would think just using regular foam covers only really needs daytime sunlight for the brick and foam to heat up then the cover retains that heat overnight. I have one spigot that sticks up out of the ground 3 feet. It froze quickly, but when it thawed yesterday it was fine.