killbilly
Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
Those of you who own or have owned airplanes currently or in the past, specifically piston-singles.
I've been toying with the idea of buying an airplane for the purposes of both time-building and be-bopping around for fun on a regular basis - I figure I'd keep it for 200-400 hours or a couple of years, whichever came first.
It appears that you can find a lot of nice taildraggers (Champs, some Citabrias, Stinsons, etc) and C-150s for well under 35K, which keeps the market nice and broad while still being affordable. I know you can get beater 172s that are IFR certified and just fugly at that price point if you're willing to do that, too.
I know that, roughly, you figure your cost of ownership by computing the fixed cost (storage, insurance, loan payment [if there's a note on it]) plus your consumables (fuel, oil, TBO reserve and - optionally - improvement reserve) and then you 'pay yourself' that operating cost per hour for the airplane.
How does one guess at the cost of the annual? What things are common with piston singles that are 'unexpected' items? If you guys have owned something along these lines before, what kind of costs did you face that I'm not thinking about here?
I may be making the case to the wife in the next year or so why I'd like to buy an airplane, and how it should be theoretically cheaper than renting, but I also know you need to fly a certain number of hours per year for that to be true and I want to try and figure this accurately.
Thanks, in advance.
I've been toying with the idea of buying an airplane for the purposes of both time-building and be-bopping around for fun on a regular basis - I figure I'd keep it for 200-400 hours or a couple of years, whichever came first.
It appears that you can find a lot of nice taildraggers (Champs, some Citabrias, Stinsons, etc) and C-150s for well under 35K, which keeps the market nice and broad while still being affordable. I know you can get beater 172s that are IFR certified and just fugly at that price point if you're willing to do that, too.
I know that, roughly, you figure your cost of ownership by computing the fixed cost (storage, insurance, loan payment [if there's a note on it]) plus your consumables (fuel, oil, TBO reserve and - optionally - improvement reserve) and then you 'pay yourself' that operating cost per hour for the airplane.
How does one guess at the cost of the annual? What things are common with piston singles that are 'unexpected' items? If you guys have owned something along these lines before, what kind of costs did you face that I'm not thinking about here?
I may be making the case to the wife in the next year or so why I'd like to buy an airplane, and how it should be theoretically cheaper than renting, but I also know you need to fly a certain number of hours per year for that to be true and I want to try and figure this accurately.
Thanks, in advance.