You can buy a Mig-21 for anywhere from $50-150K:

http://www.controller.com/listingsdetail/aircraft-for-sale/M...

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/airplane-mig-21um....

http://www.globalplanesearch.com/usa/aerobatic/jets/mig/

However, I've heard that hiring a pilot to teach you how to fly it without killing yourself runs about $2000/hour, and without the training, your chance of killing yourself on the first flight is pretty close to 100%.

Yeah, but the problem with any of these old/'affordable' ex-fighter/trainer jets is that when something of any significance breaks, you might as well just walk away from the plane because fixing it will cost more than what you paid for the thing.

Then again, the people that buy 'affordable' fighter jets can probably afford to have them repaired.

Yeah, buy two of them, one for parts, one to drive around town.

Also: affordability stops if you actually want to fly the thing. Most of these jets will typically be ~ $1000/hour to fly just for fuel.

Shit, at that cheap it is almost in "lawn ornament" territory even if it breaks.

Coincidentally there was one parked outside my office window today.

http://i.imgur.com/aBTSR75.jpg

Might that be APA? With the Rockies in the background?

Indeed it is. You from around here?

No. I'm from the Boston area.

But my sister and mother live in Colorado Springs. Of late, I've noticed it's become cheaper and more convenient to fly into DEN and drive down to the Springs, instead of booking a flight right into COS. So, I've become more familiar with Denver as a result.

Where do you work and what do you do? :)

I'm just a software guy building this: https://oil.newfrontsglobal.com/

The office just happens to be right on a flight line. :)

That logo is amazing.

dat logo

Does the L-39 not have an ejection seat standard?

After skimming a few of the reports, at least 2 of the accidents were due to racing or aerobatics. I imagine that carries somewhat of a risk regardless of aircraft.

I've always dreamed of owning an L-39 since that can be had for around $200K http://www.internationaljets.com/jetaircraft.html

I believe that it's not uncommon for the ejection seats in private L-39's to be inop, my guess would be due to the cost to keep them maintained and/or that the consequences of a poorly maintained system ejecting spontaneously or accidentally is worse than just having them disabled. I know that when I had the chance to fly the second seat in one, I had to wear a parachute and was instructed on how to pop the canopy and bail out in an emergency situation.

Here's a picture of the exact L-39 that I got to fly in! https://flic.kr/p/21HC4V

"After skimming a few of the reports, at least 2 of the accidents were due to racing or aerobatics."

Yes, I should have said this explicitly. The risk isn't caused by it being poorly-engineered, but that as an aerobatic fighter jet it will tend to attract risk seekers. So I guess it'd be analogous to, say, crash rates involving sports cars.

"but that as an aerobatic fighter jet it will tend to attract risk seekers"

Not just risk but showing off. In a similar manner most crashes involving home builts / experimentals is low and slow showing off. Its the cessna 172 pilots that croak because of get-home-itis and bad weather and bad navigation and related CFIT.

Its hard to get killed at 8000 ft other than maybe catastrophic disassembly (well, here, where the highest mountain is only 1600 ft...). But seemingly anything happens at 100 feet and you're pretty much dead, unless you're lucky.

Low altitude flight is very much like drunk driving which is safe at least 99.99% of the time if not more, but if anything ever happens oh boy are you in trouble...

See my other post about maintenance/repair costs. And they suck down Jet-A like it's going out of style, from what I remember a 30-minute aerobatic joy ride required about $500 of fuel (and that was 5 years ago when avgas was a lot cheaper per gallon). When you went full throttle you could literally watch the fuel gauge needle slowly drop...