Aircraft ownership - Running cost

Hi all,

Just wanted to share / discuss / improve the spreadsheet I have been using to estimate how much my little Savannah cost me per hour, trying to include as much as I can in the running costs.

The spreadsheet is a work in progress.

The aircraft is a 19 reg Savannah VG with a Rotax 912 UL 80HP - Airframe/Engine 570 hours (12 years old).

It is serviced by a LAME every 100 hours.

The first part of the spreadsheet includes the estimate running cost : Service, engine replacement, prop/tires replacement, fuel and other miscellaneous expenses (excluding Insurance and Hangar lease)

Every 100 hours : normal service, around $1,000 : LAME plus parts

Every 500 hours : "in depth" service : $3,000 : LAME plus parts

Every 1000 hours : "more in depth" service : $5,000 : LAME plus parts

This comes out at $16 per hour for servicing the aircraft.

Also included : Engine replacement ($20,000 in 1500 hours), prop replacement ($2000 every 600 hours), tires ($1,500 every 400 hours) and "other extra" ($2,000 every 500 hours).

Fuel consumption 13 litres per hour at $1.40/litre (MoGas 95, Fuel in Darwin is not cheap ...)

(The fuel consumption is not an estimate, this is what I am using at the moment)

I tried to "over estimate" the costs in all areas as I am sure some unexpected expenses will turn up, but I might be completely off, this is my first aircraft and I only bought it 1 year ago.

I did not include the depreciation / cost of buying the aircraft.

I end up with a "non compressible" cost of $59 per hour.

The second part of the spreadsheet includes the costs of the insurance and the cost of leasing the hangar.

Basically the more we fly, the less expensive per hour it is when we include the "static" cost of the hangar/insurance.

At the moment I am doing an average of 150 hours per year, which gives us an estimate of $77 per hour.

The idea is to put $77 aside every time I fly an hour to be ready when the plane need to be serviced.

Happy to get some feed back, discuss and improve the spreadsheet.

Cheers from Darwin,

Xavier

Savannah Running costs.xlsx

Savannah Running costs.xlsx

Savannah Running costs.xlsx

Great spreadsheet and cost break-down! I've done quite a few of these for the flying school over the years and your figures are pretty much in line with what what i've figured out for our ultralights. We factor in a little more maintenance-wise as the aircraft get a bit more usage from a vast variety of people (around $1500 per 100 hours). This allows for all the stupid things like door latches, scuff plates, lights and radio issues that seem to be constantly grounding the aircraft.

It gets very scary when you start factoring in depreciation and interest costs for the initial aircraft purchase. When we do the figures for the GA aircraft we can say with almost absolute certainty they will make it through 10,000 hours of training usage and we'll get our capital outlay back at the end if we buy second-hand. Most LSA's and ultralights though are a stab in the dark. How many hours will a Jabiru/Foxbat/Sportstar actually last in the training environment? Anyone have any real-world feedback? We talking 5,000, 10,000 hours?

i can see a few saving opportunities there already, I have Savannah Vg as well, tyres, at $1500 every 400 hrs is very expensive, i upgraded from the originals which wore out very quickly to Aerotrainer 6.5x6 500 hours later and still 90% tread left. nose wheel still looks new! and propellor, it= might be worth looking into a Bolly prop, unlimited life, no overhaul or replacement needed unless physically damaged by propstrike or similar. i had an old aluminium hub which corroded and damaged the blades, and Bolly replaced the hub, at 700 hrs old, and refurbished the blades for free. the cost of a new Hub and blades would come in a little cheaper than the $2000 quoted every 600 hrs.

Hope you don't mind me pinching this for my Sav. It's just what I need to work out long term costs.

No worries Captain, I posted it for this purpose, let us know is you make any improvement to the spreadsheet.

19 Rego - why pay a LAME to service your aircraft?

19 Rego - why pay a LAME to service your aircraft?

19 Rego - why pay a LAME to service your aircraft?

xespiou - no offence intended to you or the many great LAME's out there.

I applaud your efforts to capture the real cost of your passion.

My conversion from GA to RAA was/is mostly cost driven, so I like to keep my my flying costs as low as possible, consistent with safety.

For some of us, part of the passion of flying is the pleasure in doing as much of the aircraft maintenance as we can. This has the duel benefit of satisfying our obsessive natures and saving cost.

Your LAME cost just gives me a very satisfied grin

Hi skippydiesel,

no offense at all :-)

I would love to have the skills of doing the maintenance myself but unfortunately I don't have those skills.

Even with having a Lame doing the maintenance I find the running cost acceptable, $77 / hour wet (at 3hours per week) including hangar rent and insurance.

Cheers,

Xavier

Work out the cost(s) of running a luxury car. (To bring you back to earth). Drive an old but reliable valueless car and use the extra dough on a plane. Nev

Xavier - Maintaining a simple aircraft, like most found within RAA, is just a matter of being able to read a maintenance manual & follow the directions to the letter (being obsessive here is very important). You will need a few basic tools, nothing fancy or costly. I am sure even in the tropical heat of Darwin you would easily find a helpful like minded flying friend (perhaps your LAME) who would willingly help you over any difficulties. The satisfaction in "doing it yourself" is worth far more than the $$$ saved.

Really nice spreadsheet!

Certainly interesting how you're pretty much putting as much money towards the next engine as you are simply maintaining the current!

Useful spreadsheet - and using it this is the 'cost' of a simple 2 stroke (447) replaced at 300hrs on a flexwing trike with a main airframe cost of new sails at around 500hrs ... this is the hourly cost over life if you use an L2 for the work and do not make/do things yourself.

I can do better than that as I (like many) run a rotax 2 stroke through 2-3 lives before retiring them and the 300hr rebuild is around 2/3 of a short engine (if you can get one) and the sail on the trike IF I make it myself (have own sailloft) is around 1/3rd the cost in materials and of course my maintenance costs are about 1/2 that as its just parts

But you can see that even if you do just about everything yourself its still around $50/hr in cash to keep a little simple plane flying.

And with my trike costing me under $3,000 to build complete (I scrounged, used second hand and reused anything from the scrap bins at the factories I was hanging out in that was not nailed down) it will still costs me more to run every 100hrs than it did to build.

Hi Xavier, Just wondering almost 2 years on have you still got the Sav and has the figures in the link held true?

Hi, 

I think overall it is fairly accurate, I probably was on the higher side regarding maintenance cost and it could be cheaper to maintain, it's hard to say depending on the condition and age of the aircraft.