The hours to break even for ownership v hiring is not that complex. If you take the running costs of my aircraft and compare it with hiring a 152 from my local club the break even is 22h. That is very kind to the hire option as the 152 is about 1/3 slower. The only expense not included in the above is money spent on upgrades, in this case a mode s transponder, an EFIS and some other bits. Add this in (I have run the aircraft for 8 years) and the break even moves out to 28 hours, but the 152 has none of the advanced functionality so 22 is a better fit. After all the upgrades were entirely optional.
It is true that the above excludes a few things. I have not built in depreciation. The aircraft is worth almost exactly what it cost me to build it but that money will have gone down in value due to inflation. On the other hand I have not had to pay for check rides, minimum hire per day charges etc which would, in my case, add up to a lot of cash.
If we compare LAA ownership with C of A ownership then I have saved around £70,000 over 8 years compared with my old AA5B. This compares with an original business case which predicted £80,000. The defect is entirely down to less hours flown than planed. I have no idea how costs compare in Europe generally, but my French friends seem to run on very similar costs to me under the RSA.
Rod1