How much do you spend monthly/annually on flying

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Viper.R6

Filing Flight Plan
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Viper.R6
I'm curious to get some feedback from people about how much each of us spends per month to fly. I'm most interested in hearing from people who own their own plane as well as from people who rent.

I'm currently spending roughly 1,000-1,500 per month to fly( I'm renting plus rate for instructor) 4/5times a month. As it stands right now, I’m working on my PPL and I am trying to figure what I can expect to pay going forward.

Clearly this may not be a cut and dry answer but let's put it this way-- If you just go flying and nothing breaks on the plane, how much do you budget/spend per month to fly? Surely you can throw in fixed costs and the like.
 
$200 month on fuel, occasional quart of oil. $250 month on hangar. $300 yr insurance. $300 annual. $500 miscellaneous. And a lot of hours wrenching on the damn thing. That's the worst part of owning an experimental. It's a lot of work to properly maintain and improve an aircraft. You are never done tweaking it.
 
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182S financed 2/3rds of cost, note= $1,500/mo
Community hangar at FBO= $250/mo
Insurance as student/open pilot clause= $4600/yr or $383/mo
Fuel @ $6.15/gal 12-16hr per month at 15gal/hr (high fudge rate)= $1,300
A couple of quarts of oil per month at $8.00/qt
Figuring avg of 14hr/mo and breaking it down it is costing me roughly $246/hr without engine or maintenance reserve which is why I financed a portion to hold cash reserves for a complete engine swap (not likely but a buffer against an unforeseen catastrophic failure) and some avionics upgrades/basic repairs as expected. This is extrapolated after two weeks of owning the aircraft but based upon prior habits in the school 172’s. Ask me again in a year. ;)
 
I "charge" myself $900/ month for my fixed costs, and $125/ hour dry. I average 12ish hours/ month. Fuel runs about $75 an hour right now. I fly a Piper Lance, so the typical 4 seater will be a fair bit cheaper. I also budget for upgrades and engine replacement, so that adds to my numbers.

The other end of the spectrum is the club cessna I occasional fly. It's $50/ month and $107/ hr wet.

Experimentals can be cheaper yet. There's also a Global 7500 based at my field. So the question is, how much do you want to spend?
 
$205/mo club dues
$170-$210/hr wet depending on which club plane I choose
$300is/yr renters insurance
$200?/yr ForeFlight subscription

I’m averaging 3 hrs per month past 12 months (need to increase that), so roughly $ 420- $460/ mo flying.

easy peasy
 
Cherokee 140/160 fully paid so no payments on it. And please note, all references to $ is in Canadian Dollars.

Fixed cost

Insurance: $2,000 per year
Hangar: $450 per month

Semi variable cost

Annual inspection: $2,000 per year (if I don’t want any upgrades or need any fixes).
Oil changes: $500 per year

Variable cost

Fuel: I average around 100 hours per year. At current fuel prices, that would be $8,000 per year

Upgrades: Can be nothing some years and several thousand dollars in other years

Repairs: Can be nothing some years and several thousand dollars in other years

I don’t do “engine reserve” payments to myself. The engine has less than 500 hours. By the time it’s at TBO, I will have upgraded to my next plane. If an overhaul is necessary before that, no engine reserve payments would have been enough to cover it anyways and I’d have to bite the bullet.

This is all I can think of right now at 3 am. I’ll revisit tomorrow because I’m sure I missed something at this hour.
 
Lndwarrior said:
$200 month on fuel, occasional quart of oil. $250 month on hangar. $300 yr insurance. $300 annual. $500 miscellaneous. And a lot of hours wrenching on the damn thing. That's the worst part of owning an experimental. It's a lot of work to properly maintain and improve an aircraft. You are never done tweaking it.
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$300 yr for insurance??? For an experimental???

You meant $300 mo, right?
 
$300 per month on fuel
$1000 per year on insurance
$2000 - $3000 per year for annual
$45 per month in the warm months for tie-down $345 per month in the winter for community hangar
$800 per year for Garmin subscriptions
$400 per year for the odd avionics firmware upgrade
 
How much do you spend to fly? As much as you can afford and maybe a bit above that. :D

Renting, easy, take how much you can spend per month, divide by hourly rental price and that is how much you can fly. :D

Owning you have fixed and variable costs.

Fixed costs include tiedown/hangar, insurance, annual, payment (if you borrowed). Variable costs include fuel, oil, reserve for engine overhaul. Maintenance sort of falls into both. Some items have inspection/IRAN based on time, others based on wear (hours).

And as to how much you can fly, same as rental, take your annual amount you can fly, deduct all the fixed expenses. Figure your hourly variable. Divide the amount you have to spend minus the fixed expenses by the variable and get the hours you can afford to fly.

Locally, tiedown is $100 per month. Hangar is $550. Insurance depends a lot on your experience and the value and complexity of the airplane. Buy a $250,000 retract, high performance, and even with a lot of hours, your insurance can be $3000-$4000 per year. That should go down as you get more time in type. I have seen reports of people with twins getting bills over $10,000 per year.

Annuals run about $2000 - $4000, plus any required repairs.
 
1969 Cherokee; Monthly - $400 fuel, $100 shade hanger. Annually - $1200 insurance, $2000 annual, $600 subscriptions, $400 oil changes, additional maintenance avg $2000. Upgrades as and when which I refuse to think about (though it shows on my credit card...)
 
Club Archer with 13 members (of which about 3 of us fly much at all)

- $205 - Monthly dues
- $105 / flight hour wet

I budget $1K a month and that gets me about 8 hours a month. Sometimes it's more but in the icy crappy Jan/Feb/Mar less time and I plus it up in other months.
 
Averages out over the past 13 years to about $15,000/year all in for fuel, hangar, insurance, maintenance, etc for a Comanche 250.
 
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This almost sounds like a rent v buy question... so as a renter, I'll provide my perspective. I am a part of 4 clubs/flight schools and have flown 147 hrs so far this year with the following breakdown:
C170 - 16
C172 - 47
C182 - 4
J3 - 20
P28R - 40
P32R - 20

I have access to more aircraft but just haven't flown this year: DA40, S22T, C150, ST75

My average hourly is $228 and includes the following:
- Renters insurance
- Instructor & DPE for Commercial ASEL
- Rental fuel surcharge (i.e. you fuel at a place more expensive than the rental place will reimburse you at)
- FBO fees/hangar - I don't think this number really moved the needle for 2022, but I've paid $200/night at a Class D before
- Club monthly dues ($40/mo total)

Excluding the instructor/DPE I'm probably at $196/hr. This does not yet include ForeFlight which I reload in November ($240) and my upcoming multi instruction.
 
If I thought about it, the medication they'd put me on would cause me to lose my medical. So my rational side and my aviation side have come to an understanding- Don't ask, don't tell.
 
650? Garmin and ForeFlight
1300 insurance
1500 tie down
3000 annual

haven’t gone anywhere and I’m broke lol

12 gph x hrs x $6(?) a gallon plus a a couple $500 fixes per year (tire, door hinge, battery, whatever)

Then there’s the big stuff over 15 years = $75k (engine overhaul, mags, prop, valve spring, etc)
 
$1000 per month for all expenses averaged over the year is reasonable to budget for a small piston single flown 50-75 hours a year assuming no major maintenance issues or avionics upgrades crop up. In other words, not that far off from renting. But owning means you know who's been mistreating your plane. :rolleyes:
 
Viper.R6 said:
I'm curious to get some feedback from people about how much each of us spends per month to fly. I'm most interested in hearing from people who own their own plane as well as from people who rent.

I'm currently spending roughly 1,000-1,500 per month to fly( I'm renting plus rate for instructor) 4/5times a month. As it stands right now, I’m working on my PPL and I am trying to figure what I can expect to pay going forward.
Click to expand...

I haven't done the math in awhile... this may hurt!

Hangar $350/mo
Insurance $104/mo ($1247/yr)
Annual $33.33/mo ($400/yr)
Foreflight $33.33/mo ($400/yr)
I've flown exactly 99 hours since I got my plane 9 months ago, which is about average for me, so 11hrs/mo, 13gph, $6/gal, roughly $858.

Great, now I need to sell my airplane. It see it's costing me way too much! $1378/month! Of course you'd have to buy a plane, so your monthly expense would be way higher if you financed.
 
More than I would admit to. As long as I can afford the gas and a hamburger during my flights I’m ok,I fly over 160 hours a year.
 
Imma guess $20K/yr with occasional, unpleasant larger one-time hits.

{But, my side job (flying) earns more than that, gratefully}
 
Lowflynjack said:
I haven't done the math in awhile... this may hurt!

Hangar $350/mo
Insurance $104/mo ($1247/yr)
Annual $33.33/mo ($400/yr)
Foreflight $33.33/mo ($400/yr)
I've flown exactly 99 hours since I got my plane 9 months ago, which is about average for me, so 11hrs/mo, 13gph, $6/gal, roughly $858.

Great, now I need to sell my airplane. It see it's costing me way too much! $1378/month! Of course you'd have to buy a plane, so your monthly expense would be way higher if you financed.
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But it’s a write off for you. It basically pays for itself. Trust me, I’m a CPA. I can help you justify any purchase.
 
Lndwarrior said:
No. Liability only. If I bend it I can fix it.
Click to expand...

Wanna bet?

In all seriousness. I can "fix" almost everything on my Velocity. But A) key word "almost". i.e. I can't make an engine, spar, or avionics. And B) I can't do it for free. I guess if you have some small, cheap experimental, I could see going bare. Maybe.
 
I recall I figured out my Glider (Tows, Insurance, Maintenance, Hanger (I am squatting for free, and would keep it in my Garage if I didn't have a fee hanger) costs me about $40/hr for about 80hrs/year. So say about $3200/year or $270/ Mo.

The Bellanca Scout I am a partner in flys about 50hrs/year. I recall our annually expenses are about $8500 so about $170/hr, or about $700 per month, but we only Tow with it and only fly about 6 month out of the year.

Brian
 
I've budgeted $7,500 the past few years as a renter and haven't hit it. No time with family obligations /kids sports and work.

Just joined a club. Budgeting the same $7,500 for 2023 would get me 45 hrs in a pretty nice 172 or 35 hrs in a 182.

$170/month fixed fee plus $125/hr 172 w/fuel surcharge. $155/hr for the 182 w/surcharge. Surcharge adjusts monthly based on avg of 100LL from three nearby airports.

I'm hoping with the flying club, greater plane availability and my own keys I'll fly more!
 
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Damn. You made me look. ~ $723/Mo.
 
$6k fixed costs per year - hangar+utilities, insurance, inspections, taxes/fees, databases, Foreflight, typical maintenance.
$50/hr variable costs - fuel (a mainly mogas diet), oil, filters.

So about $11k assuming 100hrs annually, which has been my goal, and I’m on track to hit it this year.

Now, that doesn’t include the engine teardown I had to do a year ago, nor the avionics upgrade, or the planned paint job. We just don’t mention those in polite company. :confused:
 
We spent around $5,000 (plus or minus a thousand or so) all in, including fuel. But, we had an A&P/IA that would allow us to do a lot of the maintenance work with him watching closely (and were in a hangar to make that feasible). And, we were realistic about avionics needed for safe flying and did not feel the need for a glass panel or anything close to it. We had legacy IFR avionics but flew VFR. No database subscription, etc.! So, it depends a LOT on your personality and being honest/realistic about what your “mission” will be. Some folks have or want to travel a lot and use their airplanes to stay off the airlines. If that is you, plan to spend a lot more.
 
Between 12 and 15K annually. Piper Archer, owned in Hangar. Variability is based on unplanned maintenance and hours flown.
 
The real answer.......

ALL of it.
 
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