Of course, it depends a bit (mostly on your maintenance and your hangarage costs), but 2000€ per month is a bit too low for 100 hours a year in a proper touring aircraft. That translates to 240€ per hour. It’s generally hard to operate a C172 at these costs nowadays. Tourers are more like 300-400 Euros an hour if flown 100 hours a year. But again, it will depend on the specific aircraft, your maintenance approach, and the hangarage mostly. Fuel and insurance are much less variable.
By the way, 100 hours is rather quite a lot if you are not flying for business.
Since the advent of ANR headsets, cockpit noise levels have become less critical. Anyway, older Mooneys tend to be a bit noisy IME.
On “how critical is IFR”: that is always hard to say. What I would say IS critical, if you are going to take longer cross-countries in Europe, is that you do get some form of instrument flying skill / “qualification”. This is to make you more confident in going in less than perfect weather, and more confident in going “on top” (which is the only way to travel comfortably). It does not necessarily mean you have to get a full IR and file IFR (as there quite a few things involved with that). But you should know how to solve things if you do have to cross a deck of clouds and not get anxious as soon as the weather no longer is CAVOK.
Thanks !
Regarding the noise, I got the Bose A30 for my training and was surprised at how loud the cockpit was. Maybe because of the “shitty” club plane and the fact that most or it was done at 3000ft.
Regarding the maintenance, I am not sure if in Europe you can be “hand on” and supervised like North America. I was hoping it is possible as I can do a lot and enjoy it.
Hangar cost is about 1800 a year….
Wingover wrote:
Hangar cost is about 1800 a year
It’s the second time in a week in this forum I need to figure how to get such cheap hangar costs! I must be doing something wrong as around our place anything less than twice that amount is a bargain!
I second all that @Bosco said…IFR trips are so much less hassle than VFR and once you plan to travel with some objective rather than only the pleasure of flying (ie getting there, moving, vacation or something) it doubles your chances of success. I admit IFR vs VFR eats a significant chunk of the acquisition budget, though.
Having said that a lot of people around here seem very successful in VFR long-x-country flying in EU, exploiting to the full airspace classifications, broad experience, mission focus… but that is more art than science so very much an individual-dependant thing.
IFR is more reliable and, for me, easier to plan for. Another very important factor is your pax: the “artistic” kind of flying lends itself to a lot more turbulence, and in my experience this is the major hassle factor to non-pilot pax leading to long-term issues, and buying the right aircraft tends to be a long-term thing.
Also, if you plan to fly 100 hrs/year, mostly on specific missions, fuel costs will be 40-60% of your budget.
Therefore you need to figure MPG for your aircraft of choice. To use your examples, a Cherokee Six will use at least 60% more fuel than an M20J on the same trip: that is a huge difference.
Antonio, what do you mean by “pax”?
Wingover wrote:
Regarding the maintenance, I am not sure if in Europe you can be “hand on” and supervised like North America. I was hoping it is possible as I can do a lot and enjoy it.
It is possible, but finding a freelance maintenance guy to inspect your work and sign it off is not as easy as in N.America. I am willing to do it and have both B1 (airframe/powerplant) and B2 (avionics) qualifications, but I am in Czechia, which is probably too far from Portugal to come on a routine basis but OK to do it once a year or so. I am also getting an airworthiness review authorisation soon (to issue an airworthiness review certificate after doing an annual).
Wingover wrote:
Antonio, what do you mean by “pax”?
I think @Antonio means one of them:
Could be the last one… man I do love riddles 
Wingover wrote:
what do you mean by “pax”?
In your case
my wife but have the opportunity to take 1 or 2 more people
If you’re worried about noise take a close look at a Piper Comanche from C series. Never flown a quieter cabin without pressurisation.
And yes, VFR cross country needs a lot of experience ..
@UdoR one of my favourite types, but the tiger nacelle C is quite rare, not sure how many are still around and active? Perhaps around 100, with only a handful in Europe?
