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So the wife, bless her heart, has been pushing me to go finish my multi commercial and MEI so we can buy a twin instead of never finding anything we like in the single market. I have been trying to tell her I don't think we can afford a twin. However, she rightly pointed out that I do not have any hard numbers to back this up. I have a decade a numbers on operating 172s, T41s, Arrows, and a Dakota but nothing on a twin.
So please help me convince her its a bad idea, or convince me its a good idea lol. We would consider a Seneca II/III - prob in the 200k range. Here are my "guestimates" on what it would cost to own/operate.
TLDR; I believe it will cost about $240/hr to operate, and $12k/yr to own. Affordable...but I worry about ~90k in engines coming due. Hourly cost is one thing when you can put away money to pay for that engine...tough to do with a midtime engine that likely wont make TBO and lets face it havingly mostly flown NA planes th odds of a costly mistake are high. That is the sum of my argument - while we can afford the upfront cost and operating costs over timee we cannot afford the TWO big engines and the insurance I feel is likely to be above 4k for me. I only have 400 hours of retract time and no Seneca time (my multi time is less than 10 hours right now). Though if we do go this route I would finish my MEI with prob 30 hours in a Seneca I.
So please help me convince her its a bad idea, or convince me its a good idea lol. We would consider a Seneca II/III - prob in the 200k range. Here are my "guestimates" on what it would cost to own/operate.
TLDR; I believe it will cost about $240/hr to operate, and $12k/yr to own. Affordable...but I worry about ~90k in engines coming due. Hourly cost is one thing when you can put away money to pay for that engine...tough to do with a midtime engine that likely wont make TBO and lets face it havingly mostly flown NA planes th odds of a costly mistake are high. That is the sum of my argument - while we can afford the upfront cost and operating costs over timee we cannot afford the TWO big engines and the insurance I feel is likely to be above 4k for me. I only have 400 hours of retract time and no Seneca time (my multi time is less than 10 hours right now). Though if we do go this route I would finish my MEI with prob 30 hours in a Seneca I.
| Initial Investment | |
| Aircraft Cost | $200,000.00 |
| Sales Tax @ 7% | $14,000.00 |
| Start-Up Expenses | $30,000.00 |
| Total Initial Expenses | $44,000.00 |
| Fixed Operating Expenses | ||||
| Insurance | $4,500.00 | Dollars | ||
| Tie Down - Monthly | $100.00 | Dollars | ||
| Annual Inspection | $4,500.00 | Dollars | ||
| GPS Subscriptions - Monthly | $55.00 | Dollars | ||
| Misc. Expenses | $1,360.00 | Dollars | ||
| Direct Operation Expenses | ||||
| Gallon per hour | 24.00 | GPH | ||
| Current $ per Gallon | $6.00 | $/Gallon | ||
| Oil Quart/ Hour | 1.60 | Qt/Hour | ||
| Current $ per Quart | $8.00 | $/Quart | ||
| Engine TBO | 1800 | Hours | ||
| Engine Overhaul Expense (both engines + props at same time) | $90,000.00 | Dollars | ||
| Maintenance Fund (Prop + Incidental Incl Parts + Misc) | $30.00 | Dollars |
