How Much It Costs To Own An Airplane | My Exact Numbers | Mooney M20C

Hello and welcome back to my time to fly. I am quickly approaching the first year of my ownership. It seems like the right time to talk about the real

costs

associated with owning an

airplane

if there are specific questions I don't ask. Don't reply, leave it in the comments below. I'll try to answer them as best I can if you're new to the channel. Thanks for being here. My goal is to accompany you on my aviation journey, hopefully providing you with a little inspiration. along the way don't forget to hit the subscribe button if you like to see some real life general aviation first let me remind you

exact

ly what I bought it's a 1963

mooney

m20c

powered by a 180 horsepower Lycoming engine and a constant speed propeller.

The famous retractable landing gear system with Johnson bar and manual flaps is IFR compatible, although it is not currently certified. It has a non-Wasp kln 94 gps that we use extensively for VFR flights. There is no working autopilot on the plane, although it flies very straight. It would be hard to spend the money on one. There are about 3,700 total hours on the plane, 840 hours on the engine and about 75 on a new propeller prior to our purchase. The paint is a little thin and so is the interior. It's original but not bad at all. If you're interested in more details on the moonie specifically, I'll link a video in the description below from a ride I did in the spring.

It is also important that you know that the plane is hanging. At a small airport outside of Grand Rapids Michigan, it's clear to me that your geography can have a profound impact on your total cost of ownership. It's also worth noting that I own the plane in a partnership, although that means a lot of the

costs

. We will talk about them being reduced by half. I think it makes sense to talk about the total sum of costs. In this case, if the totals are more than you want to spend, then maybe you should also look for a partner or partner.

Finally, I do not include them. Any costs associated with

airplane

financing, there are so many ways to approach purchasing an airplane that you might even start to guess what your situation might be. I'll do a video detailing some airplane financing options later, whether you're paying cash or financing the airplane. airplane, in my opinion, general aviation airplanes are currently appreciating at a rate that will allow you to get your money back on the airplane when and if you decide to sell it, assuming you approach ownership with the mindset of improving the airplane over time. his property. That's it, without further ado, let's dive into the

numbers

.

I'll start with the fixed costs first being insurance. I know there is a lot of talk about the rising cost of insurance and many factors influence the cost of the premium in our case. of the owners are short time pilots and now have about 25 hours of complex time, none of us are IFR rated, perhaps our saving grace is that the total value of our airplane is quite low, that being said, our insurance premium It is two thousand seventy-four dollars a year. For those of you who are interested, we are insured through Avemco, who I have been quite impressed with.

The next step is renting our hangar, as I mentioned before. We live in a suburb of Grand Rapids Michigan, which fortunately is a fairly low rent area. The airport where our hangar 8 delta 4 is owned and operated by the people of esparta, perhaps the best aspect of our airport is that our airport manager is a great advocate for the pilots and does a great job making decisions that truly benefit the pilots and aircraft owners, so anyway our hangar is nothing special, it's a standard T-hanger that some might call the stacked building houses about 10 airplanes with no dividing walls between the airplanes, there is electricity but no heating and all doors are manual.

You can get a better idea in my video where Took some time to clean the hangar, you can find that in the cart above we still feel blessed to have our plane at 8 delta 4, especially since our hangar only runs on 162 al month, which is 1953 a year, the next set of expenses begins. to combine fixed and variable costs, you probably guessed it: maintenance costs, let me start by saying that we have been very lucky for the first year, we have not had any unexpected maintenance costs. I know I shouldn't even say those words, but hey, it's true in this case I classify the fixed side of living expenses as anything that happens annually.

We all know that our airplanes have to go through an annual period every year and that work has a cost. Surely you can spend more if you want. to make updates at that time or you can skimp and postpone a lot of maintenance, which I certainly don't recommend this year. We had a bit of additional work completed, including some painting on the bottom panels, our total for this year's annual year anyway. It was two thousand five hundred and seventy dollars and six cents, if you are interested you can see an additional breakdown in the video linked above.

Variable maintenance costs are things like oil, headlights, navigation lights, all the little things that fail on you throughout the year. We spent $479 and 74 cents on those extras each year, so our total maintenance expense was just over three thousand dollars. The final category of costs are those that are completely variable, that is, costs caused solely by flying the aircraft. This could include items such as fuel and mooring costs. I'm sure there are more, but those are the only variable costs that come to mind. In our case, our only variable cost was fuel. This year we spent two thousand twenty-five dollars on fuel, of course, I haven't said that. you know how many hours we still fly, so in 2020 the total cost of ownership of our 63

mooney

m20c

was approximately nine thousand one hundred two dollars, in that time we flew 52.3 hours on board, after some simple calculation, we It cost 174 dollars. an hour to fly the money in 2020.

Like I said, the cost was per hour based on tact time, those 52 hours probably would have been 65 or even 70 hours off the speeder that each flight school uses, so based on the hot weather our cost was only around 130 an hour for quick reference at the same airport we can rent a cessna 172 with ifr capability for 140 an hour wet so of course the question of the day is is it worth it? My answer is, of course, it's worth it first. It's pretty rare to find a profitable mooney, and if you did, you'd probably pay more than you could run a 172.

Beyond that, I'd rather share a plane with one other pilot or none at all rather than 10, 20, or even 50 other pilots. Renting this means that when you have good days the plane is

much

more likely to be available and in good condition. I also find a lot of confidence in knowing

exact

ly who has been piloting the plane I will be taking my family on. I'm not suggesting that people are intentionally abusing the rental fleet. I find it hard to believe that the level of care at Reynolds is anywhere near that of a typical owner, which is why, in short, it costs just as

much

money to own your own plane per hour than it does to own one. rent if you could fly about five hours a month or more, anything less than that, you might be better off running, unless the peace of mind of having your own bird is more important on the other side of the equation, if you can.

I can't stand the risk of the inevitable large maintenance expense, maybe it's worth continuing down the rental route anyway. I'm glad I have the moon, it has given me great adventures so far and many more to come. Don't forget to subscribe. If you want to continue those adventures, and as always, I encourage you to find your time to fly.