What is the real total cost of airplane ownership? Part I

charheep said:
Not to derail the thread, but what other hobby could you write a post to a message board and say "I want to buy in and own something basic, entry level, and use it about average over the year, but can only spend $1000 a month"? Seems like any other hobby, fishing, RV'ing, boating, golfing, motorcycling, hiking, etc, you saying you want to join and do the entry level stuff but you only had $1000 a month to spend would get laughs and then thousands of examples how you could probably do that hobby for half that amount.

If I went back to riding Harleys, and wrote on the message board, "looking to finance a Sportster, ride about 10 hours a month, but I have a hard limit of $1000 to spend each month, can I afford it?" people would be laughing that I would even ask that question (

Example-When I bought a brand new Road King , added accessories and financed it after 20% down, monthly payment was under 350, insurance was 60 bucks a month, and fuel was a rounding error. That would leave me with over $500 a month each month for clothes, tshirts, etc. It was a new bike so I just paid for oil changes twice a year and the biggest thing I worried about was a tire replacement at a few hundred. This was for a bike that is twice what an entry Sportster would cost. And this is for new bikes


I would imagine the same type of thing if this post was written on a boating message board. Entry level used boat needed, for going slow and needs to handle 2 people. Maybe some longer trips. Can only spend $1000 a month...

Maybe I am wrong, maybe some hobbies are this expensive, but I don't see it.

Seems like flying is truly becoming a rich mans/womans hobby if a $1000 a month is considered too little discretionary income to become an owner and be able to use the plane. Seems like the consensus here is $1000 a month for owning/financing a plane, and then another $300 to $500 a month if you want to actually use it. Or paying cash and then you could consider yourself lucky if you didn't go over the $12000 a year in maintenance and usage.

I am not knocking the OP, he is upfront with what he is comfortable with, and I am not knocking flying but to most we (me) it seems like we dont get to pick our passions, they pick us.



To get back on the thread, the OP might consider LSA's. Comes with some restrictions, but might be perfect for him.
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I don't really understand your point. flying isn't golf. flying isn't riding harleys. and flying isn't boating. it's expensive (compared to those), the OP has a budget, and other owners have chimed in on their expenses. what's the problem?
 
eman1200 said:
I don't really understand your point. flying isn't golf. flying isn't riding harleys. and flying isn't boating. it's expensive (compared to those), the OP has a budget, and other owners have chimed in on their expenses. what's the problem?
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I was thinking the same thing. None of the other hobbies or activities take you above the ground, through the air, at high speeds...
 
Flying is expensive. It just is. I think it always has been (relatively). Owning an airplane is even more expensive. Even the most "economical" owner (heavy owner-assisted maintenance, part sourcing, etc.) gets slammed with an outrageously expensive part purchase or maintenance event from time to time. You've got to be able to absorb that or you end up making tough choices. There are a lot of airplanes on the market right now (or rotting on tie downs) that are absolute junk. Some of those, no doubt, are junk because the owner couldn't afford to maintain them properly. The same basic issue can arise with people who finance their initial flight training. Once they get the license and start paying back the loans, they can't afford to actually use the license (or even stay current).

There are ways to fly relatively inexpensively; owning, however, isn't one of them.
 
bradg33 said:
Flying is expensive. It just is. I think it always has been (relatively). Owning an airplane is even more expensive. Even the most "economical" owner (heavy owner-assisted maintenance, part sourcing, etc.) gets slammed with an outrageously expensive part purchase or maintenance event from time to time. You've got to be able to absorb that or you end up making tough choices. There are a lot of airplanes on the market right now (or rotting on tie downs) that are absolute junk. Some of those, no doubt, are junk because the owner couldn't afford to maintain them properly. The same basic issue can arise with people who finance their initial flight training. Once they get the license and start paying back the loans, they can't afford to actually use the license (or even stay current).

There are ways to fly relatively inexpensively; owning, however, isn't one of them.
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I think that's what really bothers some owners, you can do everything right then you have some obscure part break and it's $5000 just for the part which is nothing more than a machined piece of aluminum.
 
midcap said:
I think that's what really bothers some owners, you can do everything right then you have some obscure part break and it's $5000 just for the part which is nothing more than a machined piece of aluminum.
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And god help you if that part breaks away from home base...
 
the key to manageable maintenance costs is to stay away from Signature or Encore or any other large turbine like FBOs (think large spensive car dealership). The smaller mom and pop operations will provide the same or better level of service and be much more reasonable. IMHO.
 
In my experience...

qmAWXcb.jpg
 
I think the largest variable is location in these types of analyses. Hangar rent making up such a large portion of the monthly allotment in some areas can skew the numbers. Hangar space in LA isn't the same as hangar space in Podunk, USA. One may be $800/mo, the other will be $100/mo.
 
JCranford said:
$1300 - $1500 a month should get you 8 - 12 hrs of flying a month, but still wont leave you a budget for incidental repairs
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Just out of curiousity, what are you flying? That's an average of $140/hour, which is way higher than any ownership number I've heard.

The math that I've run - based on 10 hours a month flying
Loan $200/month = $20/hour
Insurance $100/month = $10/hour
Gas at $25/hour
$22/hour set aside for maintenance
$11/hour set aside for engine replacement
$100/month tie down = $10/hour

and I get $98/hour at 10 hours a month, right at $1000 budget.

Am I missing something or is this the difference between a Cirrus and an old Cherokee?

Total aside - does anyone make padded airplane covers that would protect against most hail?
 
Save the $1,000 a month for two years as another poster mentioned. Buy a Cheetah and have a very small loan. Low maintenance, good performance. Keep it tied down and have a CorrosionX treatment once a year. It's a nice two person, sometimes 3 person plane. Much more fun to fly than the C or P alternatives, IMO. Once you own a plane, you can always look for a partner later on if the costs or usage aren't making sense for you. Grummans also sell quickly if you need to get out of it.

Here's your plane:

http://www.barnstormers.com/classified_1148259_very+nice+cheetah!.html
 
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bflynn said:
Just out of curiousity, what are you flying? That's an average of $140/hour, which is way higher than any ownership number I've heard.

The math that I've run - based on 10 hours a month flying
Loan $200/month = $20/hour
Insurance $100/month = $10/hour
Gas at $25/hour
$22/hour set aside for maintenance
$11/hour set aside for engine replacement
$100/month tie down = $10/hour

and I get $98/hour at 10 hours a month, right at $1000 budget.

Am I missing something or is this the difference between a Cirrus and an old Cherokee?

Total aside - does anyone make padded airplane covers that would protect against most hail?
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I think your numbers are a little optimistic in a few areas. What airplane are you flying for $25/hr in gas? Even at an optimistic 8 gallons/hr (for a 172), that only allocates ~$3/gallon for gas. Right now, the average price for avgas is $4.70/gallon per AirNav. You can find avgas in the low $3s, but it's not super common.

You're also omitting the cost of an annual, oil changes, etc. The $22/hr for maintenance probably only covers incidental maintenance, and not "scheduled" maintenance. A $200/mo loan payment also doesn't go very far with respect to purchasing power.
 
bflynn said:
Just out of curiousity, what are you flying? That's an average of $140/hour, which is way higher than any ownership number I've heard.

The math that I've run - based on 10 hours a month flying
Loan $200/month = $20/hour
Insurance $100/month = $10/hour
Gas at $25/hour
$22/hour set aside for maintenance
$11/hour set aside for engine replacement
$100/month tie down = $10/hour

and I get $98/hour at 10 hours a month, right at $1000 budget.

Am I missing something or is this the difference between a Cirrus and an old Cherokee?

Total aside - does anyone make padded airplane covers that would protect against most hail?
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that's about $40 cheaper per hour than you can rent a 172M at my field.
 
ownership costs aside, here's my concern with the OP:

"...and I haven't flown since because it has been too expensive. But I thought that maybe by my 50th birthday (which is in 2017), I'd have saved enough to buy my own plane and get back into flying. Aaaanddd…that isn’t going as planned. However, it is starting to look like maybe things will be better financially for me in 2 to 3 more years"

so while I appreciate your advance planning, and I would never try to steer someone out of their dreams of flying/owning/whatever, but you're turning 50. that's like, half @Hank S age (HAHA, sorry hank, picked you totally at random and JK, of course!) and in my mind not really the time to get tied into a big financial responsibility if you're not set up to do so. maybe if you were 20, sure, take a chance and go for it. but at 50 and admittedly not financially ready, my suggestion would be to make sure you're planning for your future before getting into a financial situation you're claiming not to be ready for, or, 'might' be ready for.

just lookin out, not bashing in any way.
 
eman1200 said:
ownership costs aside, here's my concern with the OP:

"...and I haven't flown since because it has been too expensive. But I thought that maybe by my 50th birthday (which is in 2017), I'd have saved enough to buy my own plane and get back into flying. Aaaanddd…that isn’t going as planned. However, it is starting to look like maybe things will be better financially for me in 2 to 3 more years"

so while I appreciate your advance planning, and I would never try to steer someone out of their dreams of flying/owning/whatever, but you're turning 50. that's like, half @Hank S age (HAHA, sorry hank, picked you totally at random and JK, of course!) and in my mind not really the time to get tied into a big financial responsibility if you're not set up to do so. maybe if you were 20, sure, take a chance and go for it. but at 50 and admittedly not financially ready, my suggestion would be to make sure you're planning for your future before getting into a financial situation you're claiming not to be ready for, or, 'might' be ready for.

just lookin out, not bashing in any way.
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that's a good point, but what I see happen with a lot of people (I deal with things like this in my line of work) is that, some people buy their last house in their 30's, do a 15yr mortgage to have it paid off before retirement, and all the while have to raise their kids and contribute to their retirement at work. That doesn't leave much money left for expensive hobbies. Then when the kids leave the nest, the house is paid off and the cars they have will last them a while. They have a lot more spending money.

Around here, it's very easy to have $1000-1500 house note, $800 car note, then tuition for the kiddos another 1000 a month. 3k a month will get you some flying time.
 
Well, I did say it was an older plane. I missed a little on fuel but not much - the last time I paid for gas, I was getting a discounted rate. Still, KHRJ, 15 miles south of me, has gas at $3.59, which if I use 8.5 gph is $30 instead of $25.

And yes, $200 for a loan payment limits you to a purchase price under $30k. You'll have to pay about 5k down and finance the rest on a 15 year loan which comes in around $200 depending on the interest rate - AOPA told me between $180 and $220. I'm not omitting the cost of an oil change, I'm not doing one except once a year. The airplane is only getting 120 hours a year on it and I'm not renting it out so I'm legally and mechanically OK changing the oil less often. If I need to change the oil once, it's not an enormous expense for me to do it. The oil with the magic airplane dust sprinkled in it runs about $7/quart and an o-320 needs 7 of those. The filter can wait for the annual because despite knowing how to do it, I hate lockwire.

I'll confess that I'm not super up on maintenance costs or annual costs. Most of my flying has been done in a large club where members did most of the maintenance, overseen by A&P members. But $2500/year seems like a reasonable amount for a simple airplane. I might be wrong.

I don't think I'm far off and if I needed to I could even downgrade that to a smaller 2 seater and be far under $100/hour.

Cheaper than renting? I hope so. Current rate for a 172S at WCFC at KTTA is $109. There's no profit baked into that, so it's low.
 
bflynn said:
I'm not omitting the cost of an oil change, I'm not doing one except once a year. The airplane is only getting 120 hours a year on it and I'm not renting it out so I'm legally and mechanically OK changing the oil less often. If I need to change the oil once, it's not an enormous expense for me to do it. The oil with the magic airplane dust sprinkled in it runs about $7/quart and an o-320 needs 7 of those. The filter can wait for the annual because despite knowing how to do it, I hate lockwire.
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It's a little nit-picky, but these are the kinds of "shortcuts" that get taken when someone buys an airplane they can't afford to properly maintain. Changing oil once a year, every 120 hours you say, is far out-of-line with what's considered best practice. 50 hours is usually considered the upper limit, and lots of people change at 25 hours. Oil is important, and it's (relatively) cheap. Not a place to skimp. And running a $15 filter for 120 hours? That's just not a good idea.
 
When I've sold my previous aircraft, I've had many callers where their first question is, "What is the fuel burn?" This was always a red flag to me because of all my expenses on the small planes I've owned, fuel costs were the smallest of my costs, and also the one I can control the most. As long as your not looking at really big engines, or twins, I wouldn't worry about fuel costs...at least not while fuel is under $8 a gallon or so.
And if your budget is so tight that fuel burn IS a concern, then I say that plane ownership is not for you.
 
You have misunderstood me, probably because I didn't state it well. I am changing the oil once a year at a cost of about $50. The oil will also get changed at the annual for a total of twice a year. If I have to do it once a year then it's not a significant cost and in terms of cost per hour, comes out to pennies (ok, about 40 pennies) per hour. I really don't have time to quibble about 50 or 60 hours, 4 or 6 months and whether someone who doesn't change their oil "often enough" for your taste is taking shortcuts and is a bad owner. If it's really a shortcut then I will pay for it in increased maintenance costs as my engine wears out faster. But I don't think that will happen. I'm more worried about the airplane only flying 10 hours a month than I am about changing the oil 10 hours or 2 months later than the recommendation from the manufacturer.
 
start a gofundme account and get other people to pay for your flying.




I KID, I KID. kind of.
 
eman1200 said:
ownership costs aside, here's my concern with the OP:

"...and I haven't flown since because it has been too expensive. But I thought that maybe by my 50th birthday (which is in 2017), I'd have saved enough to buy my own plane and get back into flying. Aaaanddd…that isn’t going as planned. However, it is starting to look like maybe things will be better financially for me in 2 to 3 more years"

so while I appreciate your advance planning, and I would never try to steer someone out of their dreams of flying/owning/whatever, but you're turning 50. that's like, half @Hank S age (HAHA, sorry hank, picked you totally at random and JK, of course!) and in my mind not really the time to get tied into a big financial responsibility if you're not set up to do so. maybe if you were 20, sure, take a chance and go for it. but at 50 and admittedly not financially ready, my suggestion would be to make sure you're planning for your future before getting into a financial situation you're claiming not to be ready for, or, 'might' be ready for.

just lookin out, not bashing in any way.
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This is where LIGHT SPORT comes into play...

Fun flying and the occasional burger/shopping run in an airplane that is more modern, cheaper to maintain, and cheaper to fly. Simple to get in and out of the small or grass strips for Fly-ins and meetups.

Acquisition costs are higher, but that is falling as more come to the market. There are some decent 2000's Light sports are out there for less than some people are asking for 50 yr old 172's. ($38-49k). When they are up cheap, they only stay on the market a couple of days.

Something like a 100hp Tecnam Eaglet can carry two American adults and fuel at 105-115 kts for 4.5-7 gals of auto gas per hour. Auto brake pads, auto spark plugs, and the simpler Rotax engines. What's not to like?

If simply fun-flying is the goal, there are decent Challengers or small experimentals out there for 10-15 grand, or less. I looked really hard at a Smith Biplane before deciding on the Sundowner. In two years, after the retirement move, I may look at them again.

Again, like everything else, it depends on what your mission is. It's not a Mooney, and it won't do what a Mooney does.
 
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Honestly, as much as I don't like partners, I would look into a partnership of some type. $1000 per month is a lot of money, but not a lot of aviation money.;)
It adds up quickly, Tie down $50, Insurance $50-75, charts/subscriptions $25-50, unscheduled maintenance $50, scheduled maintenance $100 so that's $300 per month and we haven't made a payment or put a drop of gas in it.
I am not saying it's not doable, but if the budget is tight a couple mechanical issues might sour you on aviation. :eek:
 
midcap said:
I think that's what really bothers some owners, you can do everything right then you have some obscure part break and it's $5000 just for the part which is nothing more than a machined piece of aluminum.
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I had a low fuel pressure sensor/switch go bad on my 425, I told the shop to order a replacement. It is about the size of a silver dollar only cubed with 2 wires sticking out. It senses when the fuel pressure drops and activates the low fuel pressure light as well as the aux fuel pump. Cessna wanted $6000.00 for it!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek:
Luckily my shop found a "serviceable" used part for $250 and I had installed yesterday! :D
 
bradg33 said:
It's a little nit-picky, but these are the kinds of "shortcuts" that get taken when someone buys an airplane they can't afford to properly maintain. Changing oil once a year, every 120 hours you say, is far out-of-line with what's considered best practice. 50 hours is usually considered the upper limit, and lots of people change at 25 hours. Oil is important, and it's (relatively) cheap. Not a place to skimp. And running a $15 filter for 120 hours? That's just not a good idea.
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Running oil this long, even with a decent filter is really stupid. Oil change is the cheapest best way to preserve any engine especially an air cooled engine! every 30 hours with a filter. 120 hours is really absurd.
 
N747JB said:
I had a low fuel pressure sensor/switch go bad on my 425, I told the shop to order a replacement. It is about the size of a silver dollar only cubed with 2 wires sticking out. It senses when the fuel pressure drops and activates the low fuel pressure light as well as the aux fuel pump. Cessna wanted $6000.00 for it!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek:
Luckily my shop found a "serviceable" used part for $250 and I had installed yesterday! :D
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That's what I mean.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I think the largest variable is location in these types of analyses. Hangar rent making up such a large portion of the monthly allotment in some areas can skew the numbers. Hangar space in LA isn't the same as hangar space in Podunk, USA. One may be $800/mo, the other will be $100/mo.
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Exactly! Hangar space here in the Tampa Bay area is $600\mo Now you can get space in the "Boonies" but driving back and forth will eat up that price savings.
 
I figure fuel burn of 15 gl per hour at 4$ for now. So 60$ per hour. Change oil every 30 hrs for say 150$. So about 8 oil changes per year 1200$. Gas is about 14500$. Hangers 2. Nebraska and Florida. 950$ per month for about 11500$. Insurance is about 3200$ and annual is about same. 3200$ Total of 34000$. Holy crap! Wish I would never have added that up!
 
bflynn said:
Just out of curiousity, what are you flying? That's an average of $140/hour, which is way higher than any ownership number I've heard.

The math that I've run - based on 10 hours a month flying
Loan $200/month = $20/hour
Insurance $100/month = $10/hour
Gas at $25/hour
$22/hour set aside for maintenance
$11/hour set aside for engine replacement
$100/month tie down = $10/hour

and I get $98/hour at 10 hours a month, right at $1000 budget.

Am I missing something or is this the difference between a Cirrus and an old Cherokee?

Total aside - does anyone make padded airplane covers that would protect against most hail?
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I think some other people answered some of the questions. Somewhere it was mentioned a loan payment of $500 or so, plus your gas is light as was mentioned. As to your question of me, I fly a 182 and use 11.5 gph at cruise, which is about $43 / hr on gas. I wouldnt use a tie-down in Texas and hangers are running $300 / mo. So just the fixed costs are 500 (loan) + 300 (hanger) + 100 (ins) = 900 already and he hasnt flown an hour yet.
 
Theboys said:
I figure fuel burn of 15 gl per hour at 4$ for now. So 60$ per hour. Change oil every 30 hrs for say 150$. So about 8 oil changes per year 1200$. Gas is about 14500$. Hangers 2. Nebraska and Florida. 950$ per month for about 11500$. Insurance is about 3200$ and annual is about same. 3200$ Total of 34000$. Holy crap! Wish I would never have added that up!
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First rule of ownership, NEVER ad up the costs!! :eek::D:D I think I am about to add a third hangar! A local guy just bought one in Destin and wants a hangar mate, if it's reasonable, I'm in! :)
 
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With 1,000 a month I would just rent. Some of the rental prices here in the Tampa Bay area has really gone down. You can rent a 172 and or a Piper Archer for 125/Hr wet You can rent a lower end 172 for $99 wet. That is 8-10 Hours a month flying WITH Fuel and no obligations. and you can fly a different airplane every time too because some of the flight schools are honoring the same prices. Why get married to one airplane when you can sleep, (I mean) fly a different plane every time? It will make you a better Pilot overall!
 
If you can afford airplane ownership you should be doing one of the following:

1. Paying more taxes
2. Distributing your wealth amongst those who are less fortunate




Just kidding ;p just like to stir the pot around here.
 
How about using it for a tax deductible purpose as well?
 
I currently co-own a Cherokee 140 with my Dad. We bought it for $17k last November. I flew it home. It was mechanically sound, and
seemed to be pretty well taken care of. But it was ugly, and only had one nav/com. It now has new paint, "new" (to it) radios, and fresh annual.
We have in it just under what it would sell for. Mabe about $20-25k. I bought it because it was flown regularly, ~500 since major OH, New glass,
new mags, reman carb, skytec starter, and light weight alternator, mogas STC, and myriad expensive things already done that I didn't need to do.
Cost to own: No debt service, insurance $560/year, Annual inspection ~$500/yr, tiedown 480/year, (hangar if I can get one $4200/year)
Fuel cost 32/hr, Then just a rough "guesstimate" of $14/hr toward overhaul, about $6/hr for oil change, and tires, and mabe another $1k in the bank for minor "gotchas".
 
FloridaPilot said:
Exactly! Hangar space here in the Tampa Bay area is $600\mo Now you can get space in the "Boonies" but driving back and forth will eat up that price savings.
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We're throwing around the idea of moving to the Tampa MSA in a couple of years depending on where the airline job hunt takes me. I can tell you I'll happily tie down the Arrow over spending that kind of cash on a hangar. I'm not gonna let artificially high storage costs keep me out of flying. If people think tying down is blasphemy, they can gofund my hangar costs.

Btw what airports are you referring to when you say the boonies? I'd be interested in living somewhat close-ish to the airport since I'll probably be using the airplane for commuting to my military job.
 
I just started looking at Sport Cruisers. Very capable aircraft. Low maintenance, takes auto gas, burns 4-5 gph, and has a cruise just behind that of a 172. When looking at aircraft, some of the higher priced models may outweigh the lower maintenance expenses. So many things to consider, that's for sure.

As much as I want a 4 place, most 4 place budget 'friendly' planes won't carry four people....especially with full tanks. So for me, that is the most difficult decision when making a purchase. Therefore I'm looking at a very fun, capable and low maintenance two place, such as the sport cruiser.
 
If you fly a 172 at 85mph you can burn 6gph, about 30% power. Keep it on the ramp. Liability only insurance. Do your own maintenance. If you are lucky, nothing goes wrong. Just battery, tires, brakes and lights. Maybe an avionic now and then (just have a radio, transponder and handheld gps). Fly VFR only. Skyvector for charts. Should be able to keep the costs below 75 an hour running it that way. And its easy to sell if you can no longer afford it.
 
Depending on where the airplane is based I think $12000 per year for sole ownership of a 4 cylinder fixed gear airplane flown 100 hrs/yr is feasible. Location is important because hangar/tiedown fees could consume over half of that $1000/mo budget. A decent but slow (100-120mph) airplane can be had for less than $25k. Put $5k down and finance the $20k for something like $150/mo. Insurance would be another $75-100/mo. Add $100/mo for a typical annual on a simple airplane, and $25/mo for miscellaneous fixed costs like annual registration, transponder checks, EFB and other data subscriptions etc. That's $350-375 for all fixed costs except the hangar/tiedown which could add anywhere from $25 to $500/month.

If you scrimp and get an outside tiedown for $50/mo at a small rural airport you'd have close to $60/hr to cover fuel, engine reserves, and wear items. Fuel consumption ought to be around 6gph and your low HP 4 banger will probably run on auto fuel @ $12-14/hr when you fuel at home. I'd figure on paying at least 2x that for trips requiring fuel from FBOs on xc trips so if you buy 20% of your fuel away from home the average hourly fuel bill would be around $16. A decent OH will cost $20-25k and if you're lucky that would last 2000hrs so you should add $13/hr for that. Things like tires, ELT and starting batteries, oil changes, air filters, and unscheduled maint. ought to be covered by another $10/hr.

Total hourly cost (excluding fixed cost) = $40. That leaves $20/hr or $2000/yr for unanticipated events. Alternatively you could another $5000 to the purchase price if you're willing to cut things that close (probably a bad idea) or get something that burns more fuel.
 
Holy crap, some of you guys spend a lot of money to fly.

I won't tell you what I paid for a five year old RV-12 with less than 170 hours on it; let's just say ot was well below average. I was OK with a plane that is mechanically sound but has an substandard paint job. It's not a speed demon but will walk right on past a 172 while burning around five gallons per hour of 92 octane premium from the corner gas station. 120 knots TAS in cruise, a little more if you push it, on less than six GPH. I pay 1200 a year for insurance, because I have very little time logged. My hangar is 160 a month. In May I did the five year condition inspection, which was unusually expensive because it includes replacing all the hoses and the fuel pump. I probably spent close to $2K total on it, but next year will be a couple hundred bucks at most.

Oil changes are 100 hour expenses... 3 liters of oil and a filter for about 50 bucks total. I use Avare (free) to back up my Garmin 496, and built a Stratux for ADS-B in. Eventually I'll replace that witn a $1200 Navworx box for full 2020 compliant ADS-B in and out. But, no data subscriotion costs and no XM bill. Even if I switch to something else, I'll spend less on nav data than what Garmin wants.

I spent about $750 total with travel, meals and lodging to take the weekend LSA inspection class, so now I can do my own condition inspections - and everything else, other than transponder and pitot static tests. At the rate I'm going, tne engine will be worn out about the same time I am.

So... pretty cheap flying, as flying goes. And that's for a very sporty little plane (I routinely see over 1000 fpm climb after takeoff) with a modern engine and instruments, AoA, autopilot and all that stuff you wish you could get in a 30 year old Cessna/Piper/Beech for, say, under $50K.

Only two seats, though.
 
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