View Full Version : Cost of owning an airplane
Hi all,
I was wondering, what is the cost of owning an airplane? I'm talking about something the size a Cessna 172-Cessna 182 you'd buy with 3 and fly around 200 hours a year.
What should you calculate? cost of buying, fuel, insurance, engine overhaul, maintenance, yearly inspection and of course fuel (which is getting higher:E)?
Greetings,
wsmempson
2nd Mar 2011, 06:25
This has been done over and over again here, and a quick search will reveal a lot of opinions on this topic. But, IMHO, there are three different issues wrapped up in the same issue of aircraft ownership;
Capital outlay in buying an aircraft
Fixed running costs (parking, fuel, scheduled maintenance, insurance, periodic renewals of paint, interior, avionics and engine)
Contingency funds
If you do a search of this forum, you'll find any number of threads running on the subject of the annual costs of maintaining an aircraft, cost of depreciation, the trade-offs made between owning say a new Piper Arrow and a 30 year old Piper warrior, and LAA aircraft on an LAA permit to fly verses an IFR equipped old technology spam-can on a C of A. Suffice to say that with say, a Piper PA28 flown for 200 hrs P/A based at an airfield around the M25 you can reckon on the following rough figures FOR RUNNING AN AIRCRAFT UNDER EASA IN THE UK (any minute now, someone will pop up and tell you what the running costs are for an aircraft in California...);
Parking £2,000 p/a
Fuel (32 lph @ £1.80pl = £68 x 200) £11,525 p/a
Annual + 2x50hr & 1x150hr check £3,000 p/a
Engine fund (£7.50 p/h x 200) £1,500 p/a
Insurance £1,400 p/a
Total for the year £17,950 p/a
Cost per hour £88.1 p/h
On top of that you will have to have a contingency fund; that is to say that in aviaition, when things go wrong, they tend to be expensive. Even though that 500 hr engine has run like a swiss watch, it may start making metal tomorrow, and need replacing. Your annual inspection might reveal spar corrosion, which will necessitate a replacement wing. A factory A/D may result in all your seatbelts being replaced.
Similarly, we seem to be living in troubled times vis-a-vis legislation. If suddenly an item be comes mandated (like we were all told Mode-s was about to be mandated) you will have to dig into your pocket. If 100LL gets replaced by something different, you may have to overhaul your engine in order to allow it to run on fuel without tetra-ethyl lead. You need to have the ability to write a cheque for £20,000; sod's law says that if you have that ability, the chances are your bluff won't get called - if you don't, it will invariably be the next call you get!
Having said all of that, if you don't actually need that Rockwell/Piper/Cessna/Beechcraft spam-can, and will consider a new generation LAA 2 seater, the picture is entirely different.
Rod will be along in a minute with the figures....!
wsmempson
As you asked, the cost would be about £7000 total at that number of hours.
Rod1
hatzflyer
2nd Mar 2011, 08:08
Note location, LAA not applicable.
Depends on a lot of factors.
For a used c182 I "estimate" a fixed cost of about 10 000/year
and on top of that about 220-250/hour. That's for a private owner
who pays VAT.
Sir Niall Dementia
2nd Mar 2011, 11:02
The first casualty of your figures is likely to be the number of hours you intend to fly a year. You write about buying the aircraft with three others and flying 200 hours pa (average 50 hrs PA each). Very few private owners manage to fly that amount with 25-30 being a more reasonable norm.
Last year I managed 63 hours in my own aeroplane, mainly because she lives in a barn at the end of my garden and I have access whenever I want.
The person on this forum who has most likely done a full analysis is IO540, if he doesn't crop up here shortly try sending him a PM.
SND
My Cessna 172S (2006) was ca. 11.000 last year. Flown 62 hours crosscountry. Biggest cost were Avgas, insurance and ARC.
Insurance was ca. 3600 (130.000 hull value).
The ARC renewal was ca. 2600, reputable German shop, I wanted somebody experienced to look at her. That was the first check after purchase.
Hangar is cheap in the vicinity, roughly 1600/year including landing fees on 1500m asphalt.
The rest to 11k was Avgas, some minor parts like stroboscope, oil and labour.
Miroc
The person on this forum who has most likely done a full analysis is IO540, if he doesn't crop up here shortly try sending him a PM.Sadly I rarely add up all the figures in detail - I just make sure I don't have a problem paying for it :)
I am also sure I have already posted all the figures I could think of, in one of the similar threads. Anyway, I have found an old post of mine...
My direct costs are roughly:
Fuel 42.3 L/hr @ £1.75 = £74/hr (140kt TAS @low level), or
Fuel 35.9 L/hr @ £1.75 = £62/hr (140kt TAS @ FL100-160)
50hr check = £5/hr (I pay an A&P/IA to drive down and help me do it and some extras while we are at it; the main items are £70 for the oil and £15 for the oil filter).
Engine fund = £15/hr (based on a 2000hr overhaul by a top US shop, including £3k shipping by courier; the incremental per-hour saving of flying "on condition" past 2000 hrs is less than £1/hr so I would never do it)
Prop fund = £4/hr (based on a 6 year overhaul)
So fuel is the biggest single thing. It cost me about £400 to fill up after a direct flight from Sardinia (LIEE) in September but there were 3 of us and a ton of junk, and this is not at all unreasonable compared to other forms of transport.
Non-direct costs:
Annual = £3000
Hangarage = £6000
Insurance = £2500 (1000hr+ CPL/IR)
So you are looking at a lot of do$h to fly 150hrs/year, but the marginal hourly cost is less than I can rent a wrecked spamcan for.
I also have a zero-defect approach so if anything goes I immediately order a replacement (from the USA, usually) and get it installed right away. The original is either returned under the exchange price, or I keep it after the repair so I now have a lot of spares on the shelf.
One gets occassionally caught by surpises e.g. the infamous Lyco SB569A (http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/engine-rebuild/index.html) crank swap business, which cost me over £10k. I got it done in the USA.
The above are for a 2002 TB20GT. You can see I spend almost nothing on unscheduled maintenance and this is to be expected on a plane under say 15 years, hangared and regularly flown. If you fly something say 25 years old then the unsched maint costs are likely to be very significant (but you could be lucky). I know a man who ran a syndicated C150 and the Annuals on that were £7000! Every year.
There is the odd bit of avionics but one normally works it via an exchange scheme, or ends up with a spare unit. Avionics can be pricey, and is a major reason for syndicates falling apart.
This is a big tradeoff in aircraft ownership... buy new[ish] and pay up front, or buy old and pay as you go along. The advantage of the former is that you get immeasurable benefits: low downtime, low hassle, greater confidence in doing long trips, etc. In aviation there is the balance of hassle v. enjoyment and if the hassle gets too much most people will pack it in.
maxred
2nd Mar 2011, 14:51
When you actually analyse the figures, the whole thing is finacially nuts. As previous you must use the thing, otherwise, it all ends up pear shaped, your finances, the aeroplane itself etc.
My Bonanza;-
Hangarage 245.00 per month = 2940.00 per annum
Insurance 1350.00 per annum
Maintenance ( this year) - 6500.00
Unexpected 3500.00
I also pay for instructors to give me additional IR training, which is not included here.
I have an upgrade fund, 600.00 per month, for that engine.
Therefore at 11.5 galls per hour, app 67.50 fuel per hour.
I average 80 hours a year in this one, cost roughly per hour, 178.62, plus the fuel. My wife wants a new kitchen:ugh:
That said, I pop out to the airfield, where it waits for me, and is in the condition I left it, and go away for the weekend.
the whole thing is finacially nuts
It is no more "nuts" than 50 other things we do.
Practically everything we do in life is a total financial loss.
The only way to avoid financially-nutty activities is to stay in bed :)
The key to the money side of it is that you need to be able to do the kitchen and pay for the flying :)
As you say there are other costs. I dare not think of the cost of the massive huge hassle of getting the IR. I know the PPL cost me £8500. The actual IR in Arizona was only about £3000 but there was so much hassle around it all.
It's worth every penny :)
The only way to avoid financially-nutty activities is to stay in bed
I thought the most financially-nutty activities of all happened in bed (most of the time):E
Rod1
Mark 1
2nd Mar 2011, 17:12
In my experience, the cost of owning an airplane is about half the cost of owning an aeroplane.
maxred
2nd Mar 2011, 18:45
IO of course it is worth every penny, and I agree, the key to FLYING, is to ensure that the pennies stretch to cover everything.:ok:
You mention the IR, then you have to ensure once you have it that the kit in the aircraft is up to the job, and then you have to fly the hours to ensure competancy and recency, and so it goes on.
As you are aware, what gets my goat is paying for maintenance when of course it does not get done- now thats another thread somewhere - well done:uhoh:
The key to "flying happiness" is to do it at a level at which you can easily afford it, at which your family/etc is happy with it (which is why many men get into GA only after they get divorced - like me) and at which the plane does mostly what you want of it. You also need to have the support personnel sorted; this involves finding maintenance / avionics people who you can trust, and that can take some time. Ownership has quite a learning curve. But it's worth it.
Thanks for the information guys!