WilliamF wrote:
Two people I know who do this, one used a PA-31-310 and the other a B58P. Both are absolute tanks, able to handle very rough conditions. The Navajo can deal with the grass and almost anything you can throw at it. The 58P can easily do FL220 which is great for getting up and over stuff.
@WilliamF, that would be 2T+, therefore even more expensive in terms of variable cost…
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your feedback. It is great.
I am afraid that the operating and maintenance costs for a turbo aircraft or Baron 58 will be too expensive for us. We are looking for something around 450/€ per hour including everything even the price depreciation. It is why we were thinking about SR22 or DA42.
For now, we have car drivers that deliver our orders in less than 24h for 1-4k€, depending the destination. We would like to deliver these orders by air when it is possible. Our customers will be ok to pay a bit more if they can save some hours but we would like to keep a reasonable price. It is why unfortunately; we are not looking for a PC12 or TBM ☹
The dispatch level is not an issue if we are able to know if the aircraft will be fit to fly 24h in advance. If the aircraft is not available, we can easily take cars as we do today.
However, it could be problematic if we are doing the way in leg but we are not able to fly the way back due to technical or weather issues.
You don’t say what you are delivering and the weight and volume thereof. If the stuff is anything bigger than small parcels, I would seriously consider a C206/207 (or even a C182). These things are neither very fast nor very sexy, but they are rock solid platforms that can haul a lot of stuff and are able to get in and out of small / short fields.
You really don’t want to start loading boxes into an SR22 and the DA42 payload isn’t the greatest.
172driver wrote:
You don’t say what you are delivering and the weight and volume thereof
Mostly small crates. It can fit on the back seats without big problem. If it is too big ==> we took the car/truck.
I’m not very confident to fly SEP aircraft in IFR with low ceiling. It is why we are thinking about the SR22 chute ou twin engine.
I admire the will to try this with GA but I think you need to be careful with what kind of work you will do with the aircraft.
When you are describing the mission here it almost seems as you are entering a very gray area when it comes to requiring an AOC or not. I would think twice before going down that road.
Also 450 euros/hr will probably not cover all costs for an SR22 or a DA42. Maybe for a 206 or similar.
Fly310 wrote:
you are entering a very gray area when it comes to requiring an AOC or not.
Yes it is something that we have to figure out. I am not willing to fly it is considered not legal.
It is why for now it is just an idea. Just want to have some feedback because I could be very fun to have this opportunity :)
thanks
Fly310 wrote:
When you are describing the mission here it almost seems as you are entering a very gray area when it comes to requiring an AOC or not. I would think twice before going down that road.
I’m not up to speed on EASA regs (I’m sure @Airborne_Again will be along shortly), but in FAAland I can’t see an issue. It’s the company plane, flown by company CPLs transporting company cargo and personnel. Funnily enough, this is actually a type of scenario you get asked during the oral portion of the FAA commercial checkride. Just give the DGAC a call. I had some dealings with them years ago and they were surprisingly helpful.
AircraftLog wrote:
I’m not very confident to fly SEP aircraft in IFR with low ceiling. It is why we are thinking about the SR22 chute ou twin engine.
I would be perfectly happy to fly in crap wx with a C206, there’s a reason they are mainly used for air taxi and cargo. But hey, each to his own. In this case, you’re looking at a twin and I’ll say it again – have a look at a Partenavia. Can be fully deiced and IIRC (I have a few hours in them, but a long time ago) has a pretty decent payload. Also, being high wing, easy to load. Seriously: if you plan on doing this day in, day out you don’t want to have to clamber up on a Cirrus wing and try to get the boxes in the back too often.
No issue having a company to go and see clients & do business, it’s operated under NCO with no AOC as long as you are travelling with company personnel or taking non paying pax, for use in commercial deliveries, check if it’s commercial operation and get quote from insurance first on aircraft and what is delivered, but probably cheaper than the quotes for commercial drones but 10% is not unheard of
AircraftLog wrote:
I’m not very confident to fly SEP aircraft in IFR with low ceiling. It is why we are thinking about the SR22 chute ou twin engine
Something that can help you accept that risk is all aircraft I am aware of are flown the same way with engine failure bellow 200ft agl on every takeoff (from gliders, pistons, chutes, twins), still people will recklessly takeoff from places with no landing options ahead in chute & twins, note that celling above 200ft is irrelevant to this discussion you are not using any of it anyway 
Fly310 wrote:
Also 450 euros/hr will probably not cover all costs for an SR22 or a DA42. Maybe for a 206 or similar.
@Fly310, if you are talking about variable cost, then why not?
Conklin & de Decker showed much lower price, less than half of it.
If you are talking about the fixed costs, upgrade costs, pilot training costs etc, then it depends! :)
But if we are talking about 300 hrs (mentioned by OP in the first post), then:
200EUR/hr – variable cost
250EUR/hr * 300 = 75000EUR/year for fixed costs?
Even if it is 250/hr variable costs, then 200/hr*300hr=60K. Quite a lot…
As long as whoever owns the plane pays to fly somewhere instead of being paid by others to transport people and/or goods it’s not commercial air transport.
Depending on what you want to transport, check Part NCO for dangerous goods provisions.
My opinion concerning dispatch rate is if you want to do scheduled flights IFR you will soon run into flights in IMC and for that I would go for a 42NG-VI with FIKI + WX Radar or something pressurized, ideally a turbine but you already ruled that out. An older MEP with boots and radar will do the job too (local company here used a B58 to deliver time critical cancer meds for many years).
