The $427,000 Skylane

June 29, 2009
When I was a low-time pilot with a still-damp private certificate, I sat at an airport in Georgia and listened to the old-timers talk about airplanes. One fellow said the Cessna rep had come through recently with a new Skylane. That Skylane, he said, had a price tag of some $36,000,   Now who, this fellow asked, would pay $36,000 for a Skylane?Another fellow opined that Cessna didn’t care if anyone bought one or not. “Cessna,†he said, “would love to get rid of the Skylane.†Why? Because everyone could remember when the Skylane cost about $15,000. The new models never had such a low price, so Cessna could raise the price and make more money. Well, to tell you the truth, that line of reasoning didn’t make much sense to me then and doesn’t now. As we all know, many people did pay $36,000 and, as inflation rose over the decades and modest improvements were made in the Skylane, many more people paid a lot more for the airplane. Now hear this: The June issue of Flying magazine has a story on a brand-new Turbo Skylane with an “approximate price†(whatever that means) of $427,400! I’m one of those old-timers myself, now, and can remember when a new twin propjet cost less than that! Of course the new Skylane is a lot different airplane now. It included a G1000 system, Synthetic Vision Technology, GFC 700 autopilot and WAAS, all by Garmin. If you measure capability, this airplane is vastly different from the old Skylane I flew for a while back in the early 1970s. I wonder if somewhere, at some airport, old codgers like me are wondering who would buy such an airplane for $427,400. Probably so, I reckon. We’d love to post your comments. Please click on the comment tab at the top.