Cost to Fly a Private Plane

When you buy an airplane, it's because you said "to hell with expediency; to own an airplane is COL. "The cost of ownership of an aircraft can be divided into two groups: fix and per hour. You incur your overheads even if you never take the plane out of the hanger, and they are:

The cost per hour is and will be charged only for the flight of the aircraft: If you want to calculate an estimated price per hour, you must amortise the overhead cost over your flight time, i.e. you must have an estimation of how many flight times per year you want to fly. It is said in colloquial terms that possession becomes a good concept when you fly over 100 hrs per year (although my suspicions are that the character is outdated).

The next item is the real acquisition cost of the aircraft itself. If you buy an aircraft, you buy along with it all its expenses and continued servicing and A/Ds. A few types, and some years, are known to be extremely robust; others are susceptible to much higher levels of service and have longer-term cost.

Suppose you get a Cessna 182. It is a robust, reliable airplane with simple serviceability. There are four seating places and it is located in the lower part of the plane palette described by you (something like a Cessna T210 would be in the upper part). Now you can buy a brilliant new Cessna 182 for about $250,000, but since you are not made of cash, you choose to buy used.

The 1974 was a good year for the Cessna 182 -- I fly a 74er 182P from occasion to occasion, and from what I've been hearing, they're generally robust. So, you'll find a 1974 Cessna 182P for $70,000, for example. Obviously, even if the aircraft is old, you can make it look glossy and new by adding some extravagant new electronics - and after all, a sound kit of electronic instrumentation will help preserve yourself and your investments by making you a more secure and conscious aviator.

So how much does it cost to fly? It does not cover the regular enhancements you would like to make to your glider, such as a repaint from time to time or a new instrument in the dashboard. That means your amortised cost per lesson is $187.10 per noon.

By way of illustration, there is a 1974 Cessna 182 near my place of residence that leases for 177 dollars per hours, petrol included. Typically, the interest rates for an airplane credit would be about 5.9%, although this can fluctuate widely. 9 percent over 20 years on your $90k buy; that's another $7700 per year, which doubles your fix cost.

That makes your actual cost per lesson approximately $264 per noon. These figures do not even contain the probably biggest operating expenses, the Opportunitätskosten. Possession of an aircraft will take a while - you will carry out many of your own installations and preventive maintenance to buy parts etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

to say nothing of the enormous amount of money invested in the amount of individual space necessary to buy the aircraft (visits to the buyer, research, disputes with the woman, etc.). All of these have cost that depends on how much you value your precious little days and what kind of marvelous things you would do otherwise.

Others benefitsNaturally, if we want to incorporate these cost, it is only reasonable to incorporate the non-monetary benefit. Possessing an airplane is more costly, but also more liberating: It is your plane; you can take it with you for a week-long journey or spontaneously choose to fly it without having to review the itinerary.

I' ll let you imagine yourself as "aircraft owner." There are many possibilities between being a member of a flight clubs and having your own plane. Consideration may be given to fractions where you and a small number of your buddies (typically less than 5) start an LLC and own a plane together.

They all contribute to the cost of maintaining the aircraft and contribute an hours fee to fly it. In order to appreciate the cost, take your forecast cost per hours that have been computed above, say $35 per hours for the cost of a flying teacher, and maybe another $1000 to recover the overhead for gear and other things.

Took me $11,000 to get my licence, but I hired my plane. As soon as you have your private life, you will want your piano, and that may take even longer. It cost me $15,000 to get this. ConclusionIf aviation were handy, everyone would own an airplane.