Pitts cost of ownership
 

Hey all, am looking at picking up a Pitts. Anyone have any suggestions for ownership costs etc that I've not budgeted for?

A Pitts like all aircraft.

Professionally maintained c of a machine hangared at a regional airport ~ 10K before you put your fuel in.

A permit machine maintained maintained by you/ friends etc. hangared at a small strip ~ 2.5K before you put the fuel in.

This assumes the aircraft needs nothing, have some spare cash they rarely need nothing!

Would probably help if you tell us what you have budgeted for! then we can give more generalisations and opinions on what you have not!

Have fun :ok:

Luxury....

My professionally maintained Cof A aircraft hangared at a regional airport costs ;

Hangarage £7000pa
Insurance £2600pa
Minimum maintenance costs if nothing goes wrong ( and it always does) £5000

So just under £15000 before we wheel it out of the hangar and put some juice in....:rolleyes:

:ok:My S1c on a PFA permit per anum :- £720 insurance (£15k) hangarage on private strip £600, PFA permit £140, inspector £100. It was a very servicable aircraft and the routine maintainance was minimal, doing it all myself. I imported it from the USA with a 0 houred 0-320 and rebuilt the a/c, so it had new fabric and a known structure. You couldn't get more fun/buck. Go for it.

Try here - post #7
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...r-bristol.html

Our Simple SEP CofA one , own hangar at an airfiled with tarmac runway:

Annual: £1800
Insurance: £1400
50 hr: £300
Own Hangar: £1500 (we sublet half to offset cost)

Total: £5000 pa.

Pitts ? Nah...... get yourself a Christen Eagle - like mine ( which happens to be for sale !!) - more room ,faster, cheaper to run , heater, digital instrumentation , smoke etc.....:ok:

Nicer to look at, easier to land, better for passengers..............

Ahhh, miss ours, should have kept it longer :(

Still, wouldn't have fit into my current strip - 400mtrs.

Christ you guys have it tough over there. Full cover for our S1S is NZ$1900/yr, hangarage $1500/yr. Thats about $500 pounds!

Definately an advantage to have the machine in the experimental category if possible. I spent 18 months flying a couple of 2 place machine on commercial ops and found out just how pricey they are to maintain to the certified standards. We looked at buying an S2A but in the end went for the single hole option - far more potential to improve it as a competitive aeroplane.

cheers,

I think that should be £1500 which is about what it costs for an S1C here.

S1Ts and two holers are more expensive

There are a few for sale here

Aircraft+Equipment-for-sale

ZA

Zulu, I was meaning NZ dollars which for hangarage, equates to around 500 pounds per year for our machine.

regards,

By the way, while this thread is near the top. How many Pitts fans/flyers/owners are there here. Always interesting discussing what everyone is up to whether they have projects, or a commercially run machine, aerobatic competitors or display pilots etc.

m14

Pitts Fans
 

Moi! It is a love affair. Have an S2A currently 2/3rds of the way through a total rebuild - fuselage stripped and repainted, nothing allowed to be bolted to fuse unless it is beautiful!:p

I was flown in an S2a as a very new stude and fell in love with the Pitts - but it has to be open cockpit! Trouble is, I can't afford the £30k+ :{

Maybe not you alone, Kev, but there are lots of Pitts in the UK in syndicates. Get three or four other folks together and you've got yourself a Pitts (like, oh, I dunno, this tidy little number I hear is for sale...with an open cockpit option!)

G-BKVP - Pitts Special S-1D - Aircraft for sale

Pitts2112

Stiknruda, PICS?! :)
Yep I started off in the S2B but ended up poling round in an A for a company doing adventure flights - had a brief go in the S1 and taht is what I am rebuilding with a mate now. Fantastic value for money, we bought it with the specific intention to compete in it.
One of the A's I fly had the open cockpit setup but now has the fully enclosed canopy - the first one I flew, an S2E was open cockpit, great fun, but we have access to a variety of Tiger Moths on the same airfield so fly them when requiring wind in one's hair! Besides, side slipping with no canopy is bloody drafty!

Pitts2112,

That is a neat looking D. A bit unusual with the 360 and fix pitch? All of the single hole machines in NZ have the 320 as far as I know.
Bet that machine must be quick.

regards,

m14

Hey, M14,

Interesting about the S-1 configs down there. Most Ds here have 180hp and fixed pitch. Most of the Cs have 160hp and fixed but it's not until you get to the Ts with 200hp that you get into wobbly props.

This particular one runs exceptionally well, partly because the engine was rebuilt very well and partly because of the 63" pitch MT prop. It seems the MTs are superior in almost every respect, but some are more perfect than others. My prop became the defacto demonstrator model here in the UK for a while. I was considering putting it on with velcro because it had been off and on to other airplanes so many times. One mate put it on his S-1S and added 25 mph to the cruise over the finer pitch Hoffman he was running. When a friend tried to order one exactly like mine, the guy at MT said he couldn't guarantee that because, although they're machined to fine tolerances, they're also hand finished, so each one comes out just that little bit differently. It seems I've got a real gem!

Mine'll cruise at 140 mph at 2500 rpm and will get up to 180 mph straight and level. It carries energy very well because of that and I don't have to manage the engine like I would have to with a finer pitch prop. I don't really need to throttle back on downlines unless I'm vertical for more than 1,000 feet or so. For most maneuvers that means the throttle just doesn't need to be touched. That takes the workload down and increases the pure fun factor by a huge margin.

If you can put an electronic ignition on your rebuild, do it. I added the Lighspeed kit last year and it made a noticeable difference to the running of the engine and the climb performance. Lightspeed claim 15-20% increase in hp and fuel economy, so at these fuel prices, it doesn't take too many hours before it's paid for itself. It was a great mod and I'd highly recommend everyone put one on if they can. It was pretty easy to install, too.

So that's my advice for the rebuild - MT prop and Lightspeed electronic ignition. Oh, and install the upper wing ferry tank but use it as the smoke oil tank. That's been a blast, too!

Pitts2112

I concur that 2112's D is super fast.

I don't agree with using the top tank for smoke - you will eventually get smoke oil inside the wing but outside of the tank - that oil can not be good for the wood/glue/varnish.

If anyone wanted a super fast S1D in Dulux magnolia white with bronze highlights then G-BKVP is the way ahead!

The key to the top tank as smoke oil tank is to not use diesel and be very careful with filling the tank (or so I was reliably informed the many times I asked about this before doing it).

And the color is stunning, thank you very much!

Pitts2112