True costs of a light twin...

(Captain Wubba) wrote in message . com...
Hello. I'd like to get a better understanding of the true costs of
various light twins from people who have direct experience with them.
I've seen a bunch of opinions about how expensive twins are on here
from many different people ranging from 'not much more than comparable
single' to 'more costly that purchasing Western Europe'.

Before I bought my single-engine plane (a 1963 Beech Musketeer), I had
heard a similar range of numbers for this kind of plane. Several
people said since it was so old, it would cost $90 an hour when you
factored in maintenence. It didn't....it ended up costing about $47
per hour over almost 2 years, and that includes replacing a fair
number of parts (Carb, mag, brakes, tires, hoses, spinner...). The guy
who owns an even older Cessna 170 on the field near my tiedown says
the age of his plane has never caused him any problems at all, and
it's been cheaper than the much newer 172 a friend of his has. So I'm
not convinced yet about the old saw about older airplanes costing you
an arm and a leg in maintenence...it just hasn't been my experience
yet. I have a friend who owns an Apache and flys it about 200 hours a
year...he doesn't keep good records, but he guestimates it costs him
about $75 an hour. He said his maintenence bills over the last 10
years (he's owned it since 1985) have been very reasonable. But others
on here have said that they don't think it's possible to operate a
light twin for under $100 an hour. So what is the verdict? Does anyone
out there have some hard numbers that they could share? I'd like to
buy a reasonable older light twin (Apache, Twin Commanche, Travel Air,
Aztec). I'd really be interested in hearing from people who have
owned and operated these planes and who really know what they cost
over the long run.

Thanks,

Cap


last year we spent 10,500 on insurance and maintenace on our 310.
it flew about 140 hours, making that about 75/hr plus fuel. we
usually cruise at ~55%, which burns 21 gph, so add another 55/hr
for fuel. so that's about 130/hr. everybody says that it costs
200/hr to fly a 310, and you can get to that figure if you add
in "opportunity costs" and a bunch of extra stuff. (realistically,
you should add about 20-30/hr for overhaul, but we have really
low time engines and figure that we'll trade up before we get
to o/h).

now the first year we had it, we flew 1.5 hours, then the right
gear collapsed -- mechanical problem. we sort of had it under-
insured, elected to fix it anyway, and paid about 15k out of
pocket. however, that did include o/h of the right engine,
which was past tbo and we knew we were going to have to do
anyway. but if you divide 15k by 1.5, the first year it costs
us ~10k/hr plus fuel :-)

g_a