You are very funny Peter. I don't think there is anybody spending more money and time on a piston 4 seater than you!
Ha. He never spends any time flight planning either. Just turns up at the airport and goes.
Whoa! And I always believed it was only us, simple-minded simple-flying microlighters, who could do this!
There are no "VFR tourers" as such, unless you could the more capable homebuilts such as RVs in that.
My Auster would like to disagree with that statement quite strongly. Also the Cessna 140 I owned in the United States (a VFR-only aircraft which got flown coast to coast in 2002, if that doesn't count as touring I don't know what does!)
You are very funny Peter. I don't think there is anybody spending more money and time on a piston 4 seater than you! Whether it's avionics or engine really doesn't matter, both are important parts of the aircraft.
I have spent money on avionics upgrades, though mostly sensible stuff, avoiding "eye candy" which does nothing new.
But I have spent nothing like somebody putting in a Garmin 500, or a GTN650+GTN750.
The engine crank swap was expensive, at $14k, but had I left it past 2009 it would have become something like $40k, as indeed some TB20GT owners (who wanted to ignore the issue) have found out...
I have paid out insignificant amounts on both scheduled and unscheduled ("suprise") maintenance, over the 11 years I've had the TB20 from new... apart from the KFC225 autopilot.
There were many avionics issues which were done under the 2 years warranty. I think my plane was built out of a pile of used avionics, returned by customers with intermittent faults, which Socata "recertified" and put back on the shelf (in accordance with standard avionics industry practice).
I always believed it was only us, simple-minded simple-flying microlighters, who could do this!
With organisation, it's not hard.
Let me ask you more directly:
I have time to fly about 150 hours per year and about EUR 15k annually to make it happen (so EUR 100 / h). This budget should cover fixed costs and reserves, as well as fuel, but not landing fees.
With your experience, do you think flying under IFR is possible?
From my research, the cheapest way to do extensive air touring (except using airline tickets ;-)) seems to be:
(1) Use a TMG such as the Valentin Taifun
Pros:
Cons:
(2) Use a LSA such as the Dyn'Aero MCR 01.
Pros:
Cons:
(3) Use cheap such as Van's or Dyn'Aero MCR 4s
Pros:
Cons:
Am I on the right track with these thoughts? What are the main points to pay attention to for flying on a low budget? (Although I wouldn't call EUR 15k exactly a low budget.)
No, €100/h will not get you anywhere near an IFR aircraft in Europe. And 15k€/year is very little, a medium size technical problem can cost that much. Of course you can be lucky with maintenance but is that what budgets should be based on?
€15k is too small a budget for 150hrs/year unless it is done in a low cost type which then needs very good weather conditions.
But it doesn't need to be far bigger than that, unless you buy an old dog. There is a significant tradeoff between capital expenditure and high maintenance.
I am sure we have had a thread here on operating costs but my TB20, at say FL100, is burning about 40 litres/hr which is €88/hr. The other per-hour costs like the engine fund bring it to over €100/hr but not hugely so.
An RV cannot do legal IFR, under N-reg or any other, in European airspace.
100 EUR/h is possible to cover the variable cost if you fly a Diamond DA40. I currently get billed 95EUR/h for an IFR DA40 (The PH-FLD). It is a group shared aircraft.
It burns about 19 liter JET-A1 fuel per hour. Avoid the versions with the 1.7 Thielert engine, they have a bad reputation.
The newer ones with the Centurion 2.0 engine are fine though.
Since it has a turbo diesel engine, it is a much better IFR tourer then a non-turbo aircraft, like a PA28 or a C172. I flew to Venice LIPZ last weekend and it climbed to FL180 still doing 500ft/m.
JET-A1 fuel is a lot cheaper then AVgas and it is available everywhere...
No, €100/h will not get you anywhere near an IFR aircraft in Europe.
I bill myself £100 per hour for our Commander, and this is IFR certified and a good tourer. There are three of us that use the aeroplane and we also bill ourselves £100 per month standing charge.
The £100 per hr covers fuel and then about £20 left over. We don't make any allowance for the engine which is only ~200 hrs SMOH but based on 100 hrs per year then there is £2000 left over. This covers the annual more or less.
The £3600 standing charge covers insurance (about £1600 pa) and then leaves a buffer of about £2000 pa for extras (GPS updates or whatever) or to supplement the annual when additional bits arise.
We paid for the hangar up front on a 6 year lease for about £9000. There are no home landing fees or anything.
I used to rent my then-new TB20GT out at £80/hr plus VAT, and this made a nice profit. This was 2002-2006.
I stopped the rental because I had extreme problems finding customers who I could trust to not do something stupid.
Fuel has probably almost doubled since then but I don't think IFR aircraft operation necessarily costs that much more than €100/hr. Much depends on the history of the plane and how badly it has been neglected in its life. If you get a €15k Annual of which €12k is stuff which somebody should have done but didn't do............
