Fuel Prices and their Effect on Your Flying

On 30 Apr 2006 19:55:07 -0700, "M" wrote:


From 172 to 133 is really quite a jump. However in the same class as
172 you can get a Grumman AA5/5A. My 75 AA5 can easily do 127 KTAS on
9GPH, or 115 KTAS on 7GPH. On local flights I power back and do 98
KTAS on 5.9GPH. Last week I had a 420nm trip burning 27.58gal autogas.

The maintenance and the insurance costs are be very comparable to a
172.

There are too many "it all depends" to give that as a blanket
statement.

Total time for each pilot, time in high performance/complex/retract,
hours flown per year in recent years, hours in last 90 days,
instrument rating, any claims, and the hours required to be checked
out in make and model vary widely between companies.

The Bo is reliable, but parts for one add a new meaning to the word
"expensive". For example each of those little stamped aluminum hinges
on a gear door (2 per door) is over $500. The doors them selves run
close to that and there are two doors. Last I heard the nose strut
was over $7,000 and climbing.

Using my old Deb for example, my total operating costs (all fixed and
variable combined) are currently running around $115 per hour, or
between 10 and $12K per year. Insurance is now around $1300 give or
take a tad and hangar rent is now $135/Mo. That has historically been
less than several of the single owner 172s on the field. A few years
ago when I was flying more hours I was running about $78/hr and those
172s were running around $100 to $125, BUT they were not flying as
many hours as I was.

So, yes you might operate a Bo for even less than a 172, but any major
work will put the operating costs right up there. The Bo is fast and
slipery and can be very unforgiving for those who do not stay
proficient (rather than current)


Bob Noel wrote:
In article , Doug Vetter wrote:

Would you mind talking some sense into my partner? We have a perfect
opportunity to buy a F33 from a friend in the next hangar over.

If it's cheap enough I could use another one:-))

Good Luck,

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Pristine aircraft, casual sale (so no tax liability here in NJ), just
needs some avionics work. It does 178KTAS on ~15GPH, while we burn
11GPH in the 172/180HP doing 115KTAS on a good day. Ugh. My kingdom
for a little common sense.

However, what would the difference in maintenance costs be between the
172 and the F33, and insurance...?