Did I leave anything out?
Depreciation of the airframe? OK Peter, I will let you get away with the interest, but not with both the interest and the depreciation ;) Ahh, I hear you think, aircraft don't use their value over time?
Minor items like avionics database subscriptions? What about a repaint at some point in time?
You have been lucky in your unscheduled maintenance, of maybe the good way of maintaining the lane has helped, but things will eventually break, and maybe something like 5-10 £ per hour would be a prudent estimate. Think of some blown tire that you may experience. Bird strike? Other insured damages that you may not wish to claim because of a deductible? Light bulbs. Engine not reaching its TBO..
OK Peter, I will let you get away with the interest, but not with both the interest and the depreciation ;) Ahh, I hear you think, aircraft don't use their value over time?
True 
But I would say the same thing as I said for the interest on capital. Virtually everything we buy in our lives depreciates to either zero, or what you can flog it for on Ebay, almost immediately. Cars are atrocious. But one would be looking at about 4-5k/year for a TB20GT.
avionics database subscriptions?
I update only the KLN94 which is today $410 for the full 13 cycles.
If I had the latest eye candy then I might be looking at, ahem, about €2000/year for Jepp approach and airport plates, and that's one of the reasons I don't have the latest eye candy. This decrepit 1990s stuff does all that's needed for European IFR
Well, until the unelected Politburo in Brussels determines that enroute PRNAV is required to make the air in Europe sufficient for flight... then it will be some 5-figure amount.
What about a repaint at some point in time?
I can see me doing that at the 20 year point, which would make it... not sure? I have not seen make really good paint jobs. The only "superb" one I saw was on a Citation which was just done by a firm I was at, at Doncaster airport. But even a £15k paint job would be £750/year.
I know people repaint earlier than 20 years, but a plane should not corrode badly enough to actually need that, and cosmetic touch-ups can be done as required to keep corrosion away, with an epoxy primer, with a brush.
If you look close up at my plane, you will see loads of little spots which have been touched up, but it's not worth £15k to me to fix those.
You have been lucky in your unscheduled maintenance, of maybe the good way of maintaining the lane has helped,
I think regular lubing helps a lot.
but things will eventually break, and maybe something like 5-10 £ per hour would be a prudent estimate. Think of some blown tire that you may experience. Bird strike? Other insured damages that you may not wish to claim because of a deductible? Light bulbs. Engine not reaching its TBO..
True. But these are not huge relative to the fuel cost. A decent quality tyre is about £100 and yes I have changed those.
If the engine makes just say 1500hrs that's worth only a few £ per hour extra; again not significant. Most non-turbo engines, operated correctly and frequently, do make TBO.
Most turbo engines don't make TBO no matter how operated, so on a TB21 the engine fund would be a lot bigger - not least because an overhaul on the TIO-540 is vastly more expensive (close to 2x I think).
Fuel is the biggest thing...
Don't forget the unexpected costs, the black swans. One day you're going to be hit by something you never expected and it is going to cost just a tad less than writing off the airplane. It could be an AD like the Lycoming crankshaft. In my case it could be the pivots of the retractable gear at $20k each or a corroded wing spar or a crack somewhere.
I meticulously record all expenses for my aircraft, down to the last cent. However, if I had a budget and one of these black swans meant that I couldn't afford the repair, I wouldn't own an airplane.
100% agree on Peter's comments wrt to lubing. The fixed price for an annual for my aircraft which is comparable to Peter's in complexity is significantly lower but if I start asking about grease, I get the very same comments. The airplane's been in the same shop for over 20 years and I am planning to take it to another shop for the next, just to get a different set of eyes/hands (which is going to bite me the day I need something urgently from the homebase shop...).
Don't forget the unexpected costs, the black swans. One day you're going to be hit by something you never expected and it is going to cost just a tad less than writing off the airplane. It could be an AD like the Lycoming crankshaft. In my case it could be the pivots of the retractable gear at $20k each or a corroded wing spar or a crack somewhere.
That's true, but what it comes down to is that "in the SE piston game" you need to be capable of writing a cheque for about £20k at any time.
Obviously you hope to not have to, but if you can't and you get a "suprise" then you might have to sell the plane, or if it is worth less than 20k (which is true for much of the common GA types) then scrap it.
If you have a turbine up front, you need to be capable of writing a cheque for £200k.
I don't look at the numbers. It's depressing.
My airplane uses 70-80l /hour. At 160 ktas, that's 530€ for a three hours in the air. Then add 46€ for each landing, 70€ to be allowed to stay over night (at least in Norway and Sweden) and you get the picture.
I hope that other European countries will follow Denmark and France where the government is abanding lots of fees.
Norway will for sure not. They are too busy pissing up the EASA back.
When I last flew in Norway ca 10 years ago, there was an annual fee (ca 16,000NOK IIRC) which covered all government airfields (except Gardermoen)....do they still do that?
Yes they do. However the charge depend on the weight of the aircraft and highly favor the UL category.
My airplane is below 2000Kg and my annual fee is 30 000 NOK (ca 4000€). And it does not give you all the airports. Only the one that belongs to Government (ca 46).
Maybe it's not so bad compared to other countries but I still think it is on the high side. And it's only for the landing (actually the departure). If you want to stay for more than two hours, you have to pay for that too.
I don't look at the numbers. It's depressing.
That's the biggest truth than can be said on topic.
I don't look at the numbers. It's depressing.
The thing to do is to structure one's flying so that one gets value for money out of it.
If I had to fly every day, I would probably hate it soon enough.
One needs to make an effort to go to a sufficient number of interesting places.
I think one reason why nearly all PPL holders chuck it in before the 1st renewal (2 years after getting the PPL) is because they got fed up with the £100 Bembridge burger run, they were never taught to go anywhere further, and the flight training environment is too sterile and unwelcoming of experienced pilots (especially owner-pilots) to expose people to interesting opportunities.
I used to think that the only airfield / airports worth flying to were the nice licensed ones on the chart. However, there are (certainly in the South of the UK) loads of small unlicensed airfields, most with at least 600m runway that are fabulous and often have some interesting aircraft for you to have a look at. I am sure I have visited about 50 places now, and most are within an hours radius. One I went to recently (East Kirkby) literaly is just a square field - no runway markers or anything, and it has a Lancaster you can visit. There's lots to keep you interested in, and you dont have to go too far to find it I dont think.
