For those who want to get their private pilits license and purchase their own airplane, I figured people would want to know what about the costs of owning airplane. How much is the the airplane and fuel/oil? How much do mechanical inspections cost? How much does it cost to “tie down” your airplane at a field? How much does insurance cost? Here are some helpful pointers for you regarding these questions.
Fuel costs vary greatly around the country. At my local airport, where I fly, we have two grades of fuel available. Once grade is $4.30 a gallon, the other, 100LL, is $4.70. I have paid well over $5.00 a gallon for aviation fuel in the US. In other countries it is MUCH more.
I buy my oil directly from Shell Oil Company in 55 gallon drums for approximately $5.00 a gallon. The next cheapest is a case of six gallons. The most expensive is in quarts. Up to $5.00 or $6.00 a quart. I always carry a case of oil in my baggage compartment when I go on a trip. It not only holds the cost down, but the oil I use in my airplane is no longer available at most airports. Even Shell only sells it in drums.
Annual inspections and maintenance. Maintenance costs vary a great deal, and depend both on how MUCH maintenance you aircraft needs, and who you have do it. You can go to a fancy dancy shop with floors you can see your face in and everyone in neat uniforms and pay $200 for an oil change. Or you can do it yourself. If you find a shop that is willing to work with you and supervise your work, you can do most of the maintenance on your airplane yourself, with the A&P there to help. Obviously, I charge less for that kind of help than I charge if you want ME to do the work when you are not around. In my shop my usual shop rate if $40.00 an hour.
I charge less than that for some things, and more for others. I don’t make any money on parts, and don’t care whether I get them or you get them. I do charge a markup on parts that I have in stock, because inventory DOES cost money. Inspections are another item. An annual inspection usually takes anywhere from 10 hours to 40 hours, for a GA type aircraft. It depends on the aircraft and its systems. In my shop, you can save yourself a LOT of money if you help on the annual. There are many tasks that have to be done at annual time, that you can do, especially if I am there watching. For example, to do an annual, all fairings, access covers, seats, and cowlings have to be removed and replaced.
That alone is several hours work. You can pay ME $40 an hour to do it, or you can do it yourself, under my supervision. I prefer to have the airplane owner help with the annual. I believe that you have a much better understanding of your airplane and how it works if you take part in the inspections. It is also handy when questions come up. For example, I find a pulley that is airworthy NOW, but it certainly won’t last more than a year or two. Should I replace it now, while we have it open and it is easy, or wait until next year? How good do you want to feel about your airplane? Also, I can often point out ways that you can save yourself money by changing the way you operate your airplane.
Obviously, things like retractable gear increase the cost of the inspection, because the airplane must be jacked up and the gear cycled and clearances and mechanism checked. That addes quite a few hours to every annual inspection. Clearly also, twins have more to inspect than singles. Cost of ownership of an airplane seems to vary with the square of the cruising speed. An airplane that cruises at a comfortable 100 knots, like a Cessna 172 or that general performance category is a good baseline. An airplane that cruises at 200 knots will cost you just about four times as much to keep around! The least expensive airplanes to own are the simple trainers, expecially the older ones that don’t even have an electrical system to worry about. The fewer systems, the lower the cost.
Insurance Costs:
These costs are probably the toughest to swallow. They have been rising rapidly in recent years. For example, my insurance cost for my personal airplane, went from $1300 four years ago to $2800 last year because of changes in the aircraft insurance industry. The small companies have been disappearing, being bought up by a few big ones who have raised the rates. Insurance will generally be less on newer airplanes.
Older airplanes and taildraggers are considerably more expensive to insure, regardless of your experience. For example I have several thousand hours of taildragger time, and over six hundred hours in the particular aircraft I insure. Airplane insurance is funny stuff. Never “underinsure” an airplane. If you insure your airplane for $10,000, that tells the insurance company that $10,000 is the value of that airplane.
If you blow a tire, and go to the insurance company and they find that the salvage value of the airplane if greater than the insured value, they can “total” the airplane and pay you the $10,000 and it is THEIR airplane. You will get the option of buying your own airplane back from the insurance company for its “salvage” value, determined by competitive bids from the various “salvors” who choose to bid. Also make sure that your insured value covers your radios, and the annual increase in value that ALL aircraft have. I don’t remember a time in the last fifty years, when the value of an airplane that was more than a decade old went down.
Hangar and Tiedown:
These expenses really vary a lot. At our airport, an outside tie down is free. A hangar varys from $75 monthly to $125. The hangar costs have risen quite a bit in recent years. I happen to own my own hangar, so I don’t have that problem. You can pay more for a tiedown on the grass some places than you would pay for a fancy hangar where I live. I have seen hangar rents of $500 a month in some locations. Where I live, you can rent a three bedroom house for $500 a month. All I can say that would be meaningful about hangar and tie down costs, is go out to your friendly local airport and ASK!