How much do you spend monthly/annually on flying

I have no idea. All I know is it is a lot and I am starting to really feel it in the pocket book.
 
Wagondriver said:
Don’t know. Doesn’t matter.
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I'm in this category... It's my only hobby, it makes me happy, and my wife loves going with me. If it comes to a point of hurting financially I will regroup and change things. Until then it cost dollars and cents.
 
Texan Pilot said:
$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
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Your math is way wrong
3*$170 = $510+$205 is $715 per month if your average is correct. The numbers get wrose if you average 4hrs

My club is $95 for dues and 172 is $140 wet. My big XC this year was 14 hours in July.
 
Plane is paid for

This year so far right at $20k for 200 hours

if I close on the new plane, I expect that to triple or quadruple.
 
Jim K said:
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?
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Wait…. That’s almost $40k a year???
 
Kritchlow said:
Wait…. That’s almost $40k a year???
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Yikes. I wish you hadn't done that. I'd been successfully avoiding it. That feels like too much, but the math checks out. I do my budget on a monthly basis, so I hadn't thought too much about the annual figure. A few of those hours are in the Cessna, but that doesn't move the needle much. A good portion of that money goes to reserves, so it doesn't actually go "out". I used to use $100/hr dry, but I raised it to try and make up for a huge first annual followed by an unscheduled engine iran.
 
I figured this out recently. I spend about 2k per month all in if I fly 100 hours a year and nothing major breaks. That does not include any debt service.
 
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.

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.
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I'd say plane and CFI rental cost me $1000 to $1300 per month. I waited so long to start flying I feel like saved a lot on aviation, and it's now or never to spend it.
 
Less than I spend on my wife and daughters horses...and we have a SR22 and a Champ. Best way to make aviation seem cheap is buy horses.
 
Just averaged my flying January - July: $650/month.

That includes $65 club dues, $42ish ForeFlight, planes are dry plus avgas, plus Double-I when I did training flights.

You know what, let's just not talk about this.
 
SethV said:
Less than I spend on my wife and daughters horses...and we have a SR22 and a Champ. Best way to make aviation seem cheap is buy horses.
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Or race cars…. At least the cars don’t eat 24/7;)
 
robin ardoin said:
Or race cars…. At least the cars don’t eat 24/7;)
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That is very true.

Although, there are a few classes to race that aren't THAT expensive. I raced SRF and a weekend racing is not that much more than a weekend trip in the plane. :D
 
The original Spec Miata was hard to beat on cost. A bit of a pig...but when everyone else is racing a pig....but fun.
 
robin ardoin said:
The original Spec Miata was hard to beat on cost. A bit of a pig...but when everyone else is racing a pig....but fun.
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True. But in the early days of Spec Miata, the cars were not really spec. I know of several people that were running $25K Spec Miata engines.

For the Gen 2 SRF, an engine rebuild was $4K, and that was for the shop to pull the engine, ship it, rebuild it, dyno tune to spec, ship back, install.
 
Again, you can figure it out.

Price hangar/tiedown. Price insurance. Price loan payment (if you borrow). Annual for a SE fixed gear, figure $2000 plus any work to fix things.

Many of the prices will depend. Hangar/tie down can vary a LOT. Insurance depends on a lot on YOU (your experience) and the plane. Annual goes up the more complicated the plane. The monthly loan costs depends on your credit and the price of the plane you buy.

Compare to how much you can afford to spend.

And then, you need to have a funding for unexpected issues, or you will have a plane you cannot afford to fly. As long as it is not the engine, have $5000 or so available.
 
$100/ month club, Grumman Traveler.
$25/ hr dry. about ~$70-75 / hour with gas.
Hard to beat. Average 50 hours per year after my first kid was born. Likely less this year, a 3 month annual took dump on my flying time. The hardest part is the minimum 45 minute drive to the airport.
 
Terry M - 3CK (Chicago) said:
@SethV accurate to say your household earns 7 figures + annually?
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I wish! My wife is a stay at home mom, and fortunately other than a 4k+ per month horse hobby, she is pretty frugal. No debt on any of the toys also helps free cash flow.
 
Grumman Tiger, no loan.

Hangar $220 per month
Insurance $800 per year
Annual $1000
Fuel $200 per month. (40 hrs per year)
Maintenance $100 per month estimate.
 
I purposely don't keep track. If I really knew the cost I'd probably not fly (or at least not enjoy it as much).
 
If you’re going to force me to tally up my annual expense, please don’t make me do it on 2021 expenses. I had to overhaul engines in both planes then. If I were to tally that along with hangar expense, insurance, annuals and fuel, the shock would probably cause me to sell out and walk away.
 
Flying club. $85/month and about $115/hr. I don't fly nearly as much as I'd like: 20-40 hours per year. So maybe $5-6k all in?
 
kayoh190 said:
Flying club. $85/month and about $115/hr. I don't fly nearly as much as I'd like: 20-40 hours per year. So maybe $5-6k all in?
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Same for me, but this year will be more as I'm going to
1. add AMEL (call it 3-4k)
2. at least restart IR (another 2k in flight plus instruction if i get 10=12 more hours in before Dec 31 and retake my written)
3. maybe buy a plane (then all the numbers are out the window)
 
MIFlyer said:
Same for me, but this year will be more as I'm going to
1. add AMEL (call it 3-4k)
2. at least restart IR (another 2k in flight plus instruction if i get 10=12 more hours in before Dec 31 and retake my written)
3. maybe buy a plane (then all the numbers are out the window)
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I'll buy one day too. I'm enjoying flying about as cheaply as possible, but once we move out of the city I'd love to have something to call my own!

Of course once I do I don't plan on adding up how much it costs! :p
 
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