| To illustrate what people have said above about the cost of flying your own aeroplane, in the early 80's two friends of mine purchased between them a Piper Tripacer. It was a loveley aeroplane in excellent condition. They decided that keeping it on a public transport C of A and the associated maintenance costs so they could hire it out was not worthwhile, so kept it on a private cat C of A and just flew it themselves. During that time, I "borrowed" the aeroplane and paid them about £35 an hour which at the time was the going rate for a light single (I know, I know). After about three years they decided to sell it. They carefully totted up everything they had spent on the aircraft: purchase cost, maintenance, hangarage, insurance, fuel e.t.c. and deducted what they sold the aircraft for, and the odd sum paid by friends who had "borrowed" it. They then divided this by the number of hours that they had both flown. The answer came out to £125 per hour, when they could have hired one similar for 35 quid. Escalate those costs to today's and you have the probable cost of owning your own!
P.P. |