How much does your private flying cost you?

[150 Driver]

Yes, Continental. Mine's actually a Rolls Royce but made under licence from Continental, I believe for the Reims model

[Rod1]

I own my own aircraft (UK) and budget £4300 all in for 70h.

Rod1

[Maoraigh1]

£4908 for 71.8 tach hours as a Group of 6 member, in a Jodel DR1050, including monthly, hour, fuel, but not landing fees. Share is now £2200 - I bought for 1600 just over 25 years ago. The Group finances are very good.

[India Four Two]

My last 15 hours averaged out at about $800 per hour, but that's what happens when you mix flights behind 27 litre V-12s (or in front of DH Goblins) with more mundane flights in Yaks, C172s, Warriors and Stearmans.

[sharpend]

£12,000 a year all in for sole ownership of a SA Bulldog. That includes fuel, maintenance, hangarage, valeting, landings, insurance, club fees, doc & pubs. However, with refurbishment, that has climbed to £57,000 last year. Yes really!

But worth it!

[sharpend]

Rod1, I would be interested to see how you get such a low figure. Does that include all that I pay for in my £12,000?

[mikehallam]

Let's see what the LAA/BMAA route costs in southern England on a usual modest 40 hrs p.a.
(Most years lately it's more like 50, especially with last year's good Summer wx, peak 60 hrs.)

Rans S6-116 with 80 hp Rotax flat four 4-stroke engine.
Excluding initial purchase price as likely to remain much the same and hangarage as that is a major variable to add on.

Fuel (MoGas and using the higher last years of £1.30 per litre figures rather than the current dip in cost).
Plus 3rd Party Ins, Inspector's & LAA Permit fees, oil & consumable parts - but no engine sinking fund -

All comes to £30=00 per hour.

Grass strip with locked Hangarage here would double that !

mike hallam

[Rod1]

Insurance £660 (huge reduction from recent years)

Hangarage PA £1000

Maintenance PA £420 (Average over last 8 permits inc paperwork etc)

Fuel 1500 (for 70 hours)

Total 3580

Rest is landing fees, occasional Avgas etc etc.

valeting £0 DIY after every flight

club fees £0 - do not need to be a member so do not count this as an aircraft cost.

doc & pubs £0 all on line.


Rod1

[ChickenHouse]

@Rod: so if I read correct, these are operational costs only and not total costs?

[Rod1]

Operational costs and total costs definitions vary from person to person. My Son is studying Aerospace Eng at Uni. He is paying about £9000 a year for his tuition and spends about 1000h studying. I wanted to learn about aircraft, built one and now maintain it. I consider it a useful learning exercise so do not consider my time as an expense.

The only other costs would be interest on the capital and depreciation. The aircraft is worth roughly what it cost so depreciation is negligible. Interest would be running at about £1k pa.

Rod1

[9 lives]

I just spent four miserable hours on the tractor, clearing the crusty snow off my runway, so that has to factor into the cost of flying. Perhaps it would be better if I paid myself from a hefty landing and parking fee I demanded of myself!

[PENNINE BOY]

PA28 Costs

Out PA28 did 280 hrs last year.

Hangarage £1500
Insurance £2200
Annual £1000
Plugs,Oil etc £500

Fuel.£15120

£72.00 hour.

P.B.

[Curlytips]

PA28 costs

Looks as if maintenance must be under - estimated. With 280 hours you must surely have a 50, 50, 150, 50, and 50 hour check as well as the annual - and at £1000 that looks really cheap too.

[Mark 1]

For an RV-4 hangared at a towered airport in the SF Bay area and 24 hour availability and about 100 hrs/year:

Hangarage (shared) - $4500 p.a.
Insurance - $1000 p.a.
Fuel - $4000 p.a.
Oil/consumables ~ $500

I've also upgraded the propeller, brakes, radio and ignition system and several other non-recurring costs, these are really capital costs, but maybe allow $1000 for ad-hoc stuff.

Annual inspection was free (thanks Harry)

So about $100 per tacho hour avarage.

[PENNINE BOY]

Curly Tips

Maintainance done by myself, 50hr check usually oil and filter and swop plugs around.
Air filter elements around £20 all included in the £500 for oil and bits. Service parts for the PA28 are reasonable.

P.B.

[sharpend]

Here are mine. Obviously a huge difference between a modern LSA on a permit and a vintage Bulldog on a C of A.

Cost per month. Does not include refurbishment costs.

Equipment, Skydemon, Charts & Books 8.67
CAA/DHSL fees incl ARC 5.00
Maintenance 350.00
Fuel 219.76
Insurance 80.51
Hangerage @ EGBT 270.00
landings 10.53
Contingency & misc 50.00
Fatigue meter & calculations 61.75
Valetting 31.83
flying tests 3.13
Club fees & Misc 3.33
Fuel cost/litre 1.70
Fuel consumption/hr 42.01
Hrs flown/month 2.77
Total cost per month 1093.68

[Silvaire1]

I have a couple of planes in a hangar, in the US. Keeping them airworthy, in the hangar, insured and ready to go ends up costing about $1000 US per month, based on experience over 10 years. Then every hour I fly costs the price of fuel above that base. That's as far as I'm interested in analyzing it... Its not a spreadsheet, its what I like to do.

I don't care what number results when you divide the annual total by the number of hours flown, and in fact I've never done it. I don't know how many hours I've flown in the last year either!

[Rod1]

sharpend it is cleared by the LAA under CS-VLA not LSA (there are some important differences from a flying POV). Dyn Aero MCR01.

Rod1

[maxred]

That's as far as I'm interested in analyzing it... Its not a spreadsheet, its what I like to do.

There are so many variables in this game, that it is an academic exercise in many ways. One thing I have found though, that in general, people often way underestimate the true and actual costs.

Reason, as always, particularly in aviation, the truth often hurts

For instance, my Bonanza, 29k per annum, based on 90 hours flying per year. That does not include engine/avionics fund. That is an all in cost.....

[anderow]

There are so many variables in this game, that it is an academic exercise in many ways. One thing I have found though, that in general, people often way underestimate the true and actual costs.

Reason, as always, particularly in aviation, the truth often hurts

For instance, my Bonanza, 29k per annum, based on 90 hours flying per year. That does not include engine/avionics fund. That is an all in cost.....

People also often don't seem to factor in the cost of their time in keeping the aircraft airworthy, eg paperwork, phone calls, late nights at the airfield etc.

I was a little surprised when I looked into the ownership costs of a twinstar; that made my eyes water a little and the formula seems pretty straightforwad to me...as planes get bigger, more complex (or faster), they cost more to run and maintain, exponentially!!! (notwithstanding the increased initial purchase price).