Patrick Dont forget your noise certificate. Eh
I believe (hunch) that airlines have a deal with Eurocontrol that hey dont pay anywhere near those fees to use the system. Just like with Jet A its assumed it is a commercial operation so the Taxes are much less.
As a yardstick you can use easyJet (exclusively European ops) – 400ish million EUR / year in route charges.
I don’t think EC give discounts but the formula scales such that their costs are far lower per kg than mine.
I have a calculator on a public google spreadsheet if anyone is interested.
When I was based out of Fairoaks there were at least three Barons based there, so these are not quite as rare as you suggest (in those parts of Europe where avgas is readily available). They didn’t fly a ton but they were there and well maintained, with two in the main hangar, owners paying a lot for them to be stored there. Fairoaks seems a bit short to me for a Baron but the convenience of proximity to west London may outweigh that consideration. But, to be fair, I was flying a ton and a good percentage of the aircraft at Fairoaks don’t seem to fly a lot. Most of what seemed to fly a lot were the pc-12s, king airs on charter ops, flight school planes, the helicopters, a few of the cirri and a few other random singles like mine (I was the only da40 there). There were lots of twins based at Cannes as well, presumably the sea and mountain crossings, plus the long french runways available to GA play a factor.
The DA42 still doesn’t look good to me but I can see the appeal of both burning jet-a and being sub-2000kg. I don’t have the experience of ownership but I do now have over 25 hours of flying various models of DA42. In my personal calculation the purchase and maintenance costs on the DA42 with an acceptable engine are Too high relative to the alternatives, the useful load and seating is insufficient and the engine related systems are insufficiently robust and difficult to maintain due to their complexity, limited field support, and time limited life components – but we all have our own formula.
I’d say the turboed cirrus (despite burning avgas), the cessna 400 (same) or a TBM700 have moved up my rankings if considered exclusively for ops from a European base. Single vs twin argument definitely shifts against the twin for Europe due to higher avgas prices and also the benefits of being able to get into and out of shorter and rougher strips. Ocean and terrain crossing safety through redundancy remains in favor of the twin, in my opinion. Weather and turbulence capability also in favor of the twin, for me.
Considering my mission capability and my purchase price in my BE58, I can absorb one heck of a lot of higher opex costs before I would start regretting my decision. I’m not sure if I will run the BE58 in Europe long enough for the higher opex to exceed outweigh the other benefits of my plane. If bringing it into Europe were going to cost me the 19% VAT, I probably wouldn’t be doing it… But with it being part of a household move, I’m probably going to do it.
[edited typos and clarified some points]
What’s the deal with noise certificates?
Jason, I’d be interested to see your spreadsheet.
What’s the deal with noise certificates?
That’s long story and a complicated matter. Difficult to cut short, but I will try.
First of all, the problem essentially only exists in Germany and Switzerland.
In these two countries, you pay landing fees (for propeller driven aircraft) not only based on MTOW, but also based on noise level (in proportion to the MTOW obviously).
So, your fees will depend on whether you have a noise certificate for your particular aircraft SN and what it says. Based on this, most airfields and airports have different landing fee tiers. The difference between the “best” and the “worst” can be outrageous. The airfields have been forced to do this by the anti-noise crowd.
In Germany mostly, the matter is even more complex. If you don’t have a noise certificate, not only will you pay outrageous landing fees. You will also be subject to severe operating restrictions. At many airfields you will not be allowed to operate on weekends and in the early morning and in the late evening.
So always have a noise certificate if you intend to fly to Germany. It is not of utmost importance what it says; you just need to have one in order to escape from the most severe restrictions.
Jason, that jetprop you fly really does jump up the rankings when considering European ops…
Boscomantico,
Thx.
I’ve lately been dealing with the noise police at Santa Monica, which may be the most restrictive in the US, so this sounds familiar…
Is there a procedure for gaining a noise certificate for a s/n which doesn’t have one, like our US produced aircraft?
