Do you own a small single engine aircraft? What are the expenses?

Question

Do you own a small single engine aircraft? What are the expenses?

Can you please list them out, and a general approxamation of how much each one costs you on a yearly basis, on average.

Something like this:

Cessna 182:

insurance: $x dollars/year

engine maintenance: $y /year

inspections: $z /year

fuel: $w/year (assuming you fly so many miles)

and so on and so forth?

Thanks!

Answer 1

my dad does insurence 1800 mnth payment 1200 mnth piper cherokee 180 gas 490 gal but go to a small ap and its 400 gal like owning a car

Answer 2

No.

Don't know.

Don't care.

Answer 3

I own a Cessna 172XP, a higher horsepower version of the standard 172.

Insurance will vary based upon your experience and ratings and what your declared hull value is. Just figure on average about $1000/yr.

Engine maintenance is a variable. You can go an entire year with nothing going wrong and then you might have to replace a cylinder, alternator, fuel injector, and so on. Just find out what the overhaul cost is for the engine you are looking at, divide that by the number of hours left before an overhaul is required and that will give you a per hour breakdown on what you should reserve for a major overhaul.

Annual inspections just based on the inspection and their finding nothing wrong can run anywhere from about $700-3000 depending upon where you get it done and other things. I do an owner assisted annual meaning that I take the seats and carpet out, open the inspection covers, tail cone, cowl, etc. I do this not only to save a bunch of money but because I always stay involved when my plane needs maintenance. I trust my mechanic but I like to watch, learn, and see exactly what's being done.

Fuel is what you do with it. The average 182 burns 12-13 gal/hr. Mine 10 gal/hr. You just have to multiply cost per gallon (currently $4.59 at my airport) times the hours you will fly. My plane will cover approx. 125 naut. miles/hr.

That should give you some idea. There of course are tie down/hangar fee, assorted maintenance issues, avionics, etc. To me its all well worth it.