Typical Yearly Maintenance Cost Survey

[Ron Wanttaja]

I'm working on an new edition of my book _Airplane Ownership_. Like I did back
in the first edition, I'm going to be running some surveys in the newsgroup to
gather information to help prospective buyers prepare for ownership.

First question: What is the typical annual maintenance cost for your airplane?

Include the costs of annuals (and 100-hours, if applicable), but leave off
atypical events like major airframe repairs or engine overhauls.

Please include the airplane type and its year of manufacture.

You can either email me at , or post it here if you have
additional details that others may be interested in.

I will post a summary to the newsgroup.

Also, I'm looking to replace some of the "Case Studies" in the book. Basically,
these are in-depth looks at particular owners and their experiences. Anybody
out there in a lease-back situation? There's no money in being a case study,
but you do get a free copy of the book.

Thanks in advance!

Ron Wanttaja

[Doug]

I've run my Aviat Husky for over 2000 hours. The biggest variable is
maintenance. It now breaks down like this:
FIXED COSTS
Hangar 2700 per year
Annual 1000 per year
Insurance 270 per year (liablility only)
TOTAL FIXED per year 3970

HOURLY COSTS
Fuel 9 gph @ 2.55 per gallon 23 per hour
Maintenance 12 per hour
TOTAL per hour 35

So for 100 hours per year it is $75 per hour
for 200 hours per year it is $55
for 500 hours per year it would be $43

I also run floats about 100 hours per year, which I have to pay $1000
to rotate (500 each way) and the floats need mainentance of about $500
per year, so the floats run about an additional $15 per hour.

You say to leave off engine rebuilds, prop rebuilds, avionics and
airframe long term rebuild and depreciation, which are all considerable
expenses, so I did. However if you sell the plane after so many years,
those items will be captured at sale time unless you spend the money to
rebuild the aircraft and then sell it. An exhaustive analysis would
include cost of capital and tax issues as well. All of these items
probably add $20 or more to the hourly costs, and they are real costs,
but most pilots are deferring them or ignoring them.

[Robert M. Gary]

I often have a factory service center do my annual so I usually spend
around $5,000 for the annual. (give or take a grand). Mid year
maintenance is probably around $2,000 including about $400 for the
100hr ADs in year. The plane flys around 120 hrs/year. Insurance is
around $1,600 /yr. Shop rates vary between $70/hr and $100/hr.
Sometimes I will do a non-Mooney service center annual that usually
runs around $2500.
Property taxes are around $550 year (CA)
I burn about 10 gal/hr at between $3.00 and $4.00 per gallon. Tie down
is $720/yr

I figure my costs to be around $85/hr plus $240/month in fixed costs
(allocating the inspection part of the annual to fixed) plus insurance.
However, that includes engine/prop reserve but no avionics reserve.
-Robert M20F 1976

[Robert M. Gary]

I often have a factory service center do my annual so I usually spend
around $5,000 for the annual. (give or take a grand). Mid year
maintenance is probably around $2,000 including about $400 for the
100hr ADs in year. The plane flys around 120 hrs/year. Insurance is
around $1,600 /yr. Shop rates vary between $70/hr and $100/hr.
Sometimes I will do a non-Mooney service center annual that usually
runs around $2500.
Property taxes are around $550 year (CA)
I burn about 10 gal/hr at between $3.00 and $4.00 per gallon. Tie down
is $720/yr

I figure my costs to be around $85/hr plus $240/month in fixed costs
(allocating the inspection part of the annual to fixed) plus insurance.
However, that includes engine/prop reserve but no avionics reserve.
-Robert M20F 1976