cost of ownership

Richard Kaplan wrote:

Do you fly more than 100 hours per year in your airplane?

I flew 144 hours last year, most of it cross-country. A typical
cross-country flight for me is 250-500 miles, within my non-stop range (with
reserves), usually cruising between 7,000 and 10,000 ft to stay above the
turbulence.

If I needed to make longer trips frequently, I'd probably look at a faster
plane, but I have an awful lot to fly to within 500 miles (all of the Great
Lakes cities as far west as Sault Ste. Marie, New York, Philadephia, Boston,
Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, etc.), and 126 ktas is quite fast enough for
that range. The plane is particularly useful for short business trips that
would be a major pain on the airlines, though the majority of my flying is
personal rather than business-related.

If so, you are an
exception. How many pilots here fly a C172-class airplane over 100 hours
per year?

On the Usenet groups, probably an awful lot do, but we might not be
representative of 172/Cherokee/Musketeer owners in general.

Again, as I think you mentioned earlier and others have mentioned as well,
the trick to ownership is to make sure that the *plane* flies, say, 100
hours/year, not necessarily that the pilot does. Two 50 hour/year pilots
will get just as much economy out of ownership as one 100 hour/year pilot.


All the best,


David