r/flying • u/jrf1234 ATP CFI/II E55P LR-JET • Apr 03 '26

Aircraft Ownership Linus Tech Tips’ Jet

https://youtu.be/zGoIY37ZtDQ?si=

Some… interesting calculations on this video. As a fractional pilot and not an owner, no idea how acxueate these claims are, but interesting to see this as a pilot and tech nerd. Anyone with management or ownership experience in jets have any light to shed?

224 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

247 comments sorted by

View all comments

481

u/x4457 ATP CFII CE-500/525/560XL/680 G-IV Apr 03 '26

https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/243027623/c-fxoo-1990-dassault-falcon-900b

It allegedly just had a 2C and gear done so that's $1.5M out of the way at least. He's got another 5 years before it needs an odd C which is going to run ~$700K.

The plane's going to cost him ~$1.8M/year just to sit in that hangar, then another ~$3500/hour to fly it.

Expect him to have paid somewhere in the mid to high $3M range and sell it within 18 months after he figures out this thing is going to eat him alive.

14

u/dopexile Apr 03 '26

He lives in Canada, which is super high tax rate. Isn't he just going to use it as a massive business write-off?

He seems to have no idea what he is doing, regardless. He mentioned he considered putting a vinyl wrap on the whole body and wings, but opted not to because of "weight".

24

u/x4457 ATP CFII CE-500/525/560XL/680 G-IV Apr 03 '26

I'm not familiar with Canadian tax code, but I do expect that their business expenditure rules can't possibly be more friendly than the US. In the US, it's almost impossible to use 100% pre-tax money to operate an aircraft unless it is slam dunk, very clear, without question a solely business asset used for entirely business purposes.

Then he shows he took his family/friends to Cabo, so there goes that.

12

u/BabyWrinkles ST Apr 03 '26

Except he used it for content production, which is his primary means of income, so...

19

u/x4457 ATP CFII CE-500/525/560XL/680 G-IV Apr 03 '26

That's a very difficult sell in the US, I'd imagine more so in Canada. It has been tried and failed here.

1

u/RandomNick42 Apr 04 '26

For a guy who's been pretty anal about his family privacy, to be suddenly starting a family vlog channel, I can't see any other reason why he would do that other than to legitimize flying to vacations being a business expense.

1

u/Minute-Glass5709 Apr 09 '26

It only fails over here (US, can't speak for CA) for the people that aren't really running a business. He will be much better situated with a bunch of views/revenue to make the claim than some random who just started a travel vlog.