I am in a flying club that owns two, a Cessna 150 and a Cherokee 180. I also say that the only reason to own an airplane is if you have money to set on fire and you wouldn’t miss, which I don’t. There’s really very few reasons to own an airplane outright. We are very fortunate to have purchased both a while ago and they’re both paid off. Airplanes are one of the few things that appreciate in value, so you can have a $100,000 airplane that you paid $10,000 for. The club is very well run, I’m the maintenance officer for the Cherokee. We budget and plan for major expenses. The biggest thing is the engine of course. We’ve overhauled both of the engines within the last few years and have done extensive avionics upgrades, particularly the Cherokee (two G5s, a GTN750 and now a Garmin autopilot). The club has zero debt and you would laugh (or cry) at our rates.
Can you own a plane? Sure. I just don’t know why you would.