Cost per hour to fly?

[davbert]

The pilot who is only looking to knock around for an hour at at time shooting touch and goes or spend an afternoon in search of a good airport restaraunt will be a solid candidate for a club or as a renter.

The problem with either of these scenarios was mentioned several times. Availability to suit personal schedule and minimum hourly charges are the bane of clubs and renting.  

The cost to avoid schedule conflicts and minimums is the cost of ownership.  It is extremely pleasing to have my stuff plugged in and ready to go as soon as I have the tiedowns undone and the cover stowed.  I could never cost justify the convenience of a taxi-through tie down but it allows me to be off the airport property 10 minutes after shutdown.  How could I possibly justify flying my aircraft anywhere that commercial airline service is available?  Airline travel is cheaper 99% of the time.  

Calculating the cost of the acquisition into the overall budget was also touched on.  The purchase price of an aircraft is pretty much a pay-me-now or pay-me-later scenario.  The cost of an aircraft is based on equipment and maintenance status or history.  The only way one aircraft will be less expensive than a similar competitor is that it is deficient in one or both of those categories.  By the time the cheaper aircraft is brought to the same level of equipment or condition as the more expensive aircraft the owner often finds his overall equipment investment is more than what it would have cost to buy the more expensive aircraft.

The thread is titled "cost per hour to fly?".  Take the total life-cycle costs of the aircraft from acquisition through sale and divide by the hours flown.  It ain't cheap and is not investment grade use of money.

 

 

[aerobat95]

For me its simple....I really chock up the cost of the hangar, insurance, annuals, ect as the cost of having a plane....so for me it cost about 5.50*10.5GPH so roughly a little under 60/hr.  But in all seriousness...it is expensive so if I factor in all the expenses it comes out to roughly 120/hr or so when I factor in expenses like hangar, insurance, annual, fuel, and a engine overhaul allowance....and this is based on roughly 75 hours per year.  I did not factor into the equation upgrades as most of the time they are nice to haves.  Think about the rentals vs what you can find to purchase....typically the rentals are pretty basic....typically.  For me ownership was easy....its something I have always wanted to do....and I wanted to be able to fly my plane to visit family and take trips on my time without having to worry about putting 3 or 4 hours per day like you do with rentals.  Plus it is mine and I know the TLC that I put into my plane.......I feel its safer that way and definatly way more convienent.  Sure its probably more expensive to own then rent but hey you only live once.