Julian,
I suggest you contact John Romain at Duxford. He looks after a couple of Strikemasters and will be able to give you chapter and verse on the running costs.. .I am a member of Seagull, a 14 man syndicate based at Cranfield which operates a Mk3 and a Mk5;I also own a small share in a Vampire T11. have flown 105 hours -(150 sorties) in the past two years, so you can see that the average trip is approximately 40 minutes. The average low-level fuel burn for the 3 at 180 kts is 20lbs per minute. At the same power setting the 5 will be doing 240kts and consuming 25lbs per minute. The thing to bear in mind is that if you open the throttle on the 5 at low level you will be doing 350 kts and burning 55 lbs per minute (31 litres!). Jets are much more fuel-efficient at altitude, however, and the Mk5 will consume a mere 15lbs (8.5 litres) per minute at 25,000 feet for a TAS of 245kts. Happily, coming down hill is even cheaper - with airbrakes out, 200 kts and 70% rpm the 5 will travel 26 miles for a fuel burn of 76 lbs in 6.5 minutes (11.7 lbs per minute).. .Sadly, because these mahines are restricted to day VFR, the opportunities in this country to fly high are fairly limited, so most sorties are relatively low level (where the economy cruise on the 5 is also pretty much the speed limit!). Therefore, work on an average of 25lbs or £4.25 per minute at 30ppl for the 5 or £3.40 for the 3.Add about a third to the Mk5 fuel burn for the Strikemaster and you should be about right.. .Our annual maintenance, hangarage and insurance are approximately £15,000 per aircraft which would be similar for a Strikemaster. So you can see that if I had owned and flown the 5 on my own for the past two years, I would have spent £26,775 on fuel and £30,000 on fixed costs which comes to a grand total of £540 per hour - and that's averaging 52 hours per annum!. .We, however, pay £250 ppm and fuel only on top which means that my flying comes down to a mere £340 pph - but it really is the most fun you can have with your clothes on!. .PS . .shares are available at £10,000 up to a max. of 15 members and the price includes full conversion training. Go on, sell that one to the wife!