Originally Posted by
Yoda2
First of all... Do you truly understand the actual/real costs associated with owning and properly operating that high performance twin?
I'm gonna guess "no".
In my previous job, I budgeted $250/hr for a 7 year old Cirrus SR22 in direct operating cost, which included fuel/oil and an allowance for engine/prop overhaul, other parts and labor.
Then add debt service into the mix, which obviously varies depending on total borrowed, length of loan and interest rate.
Finally, fixed expenses (hangar, insurance, databases, cleaning, etc) were above that and amortized on our annual projected utilization. The higher the utilization, the lower the per-hour fixed expense number is.
That all came to a nice round hourly number total...which could easily be blown out of the water by an unexpected maintenance need, say a blown cylinder. If you needed an engine completely rebuilt, you're looking at possibly $30k or more after labor.
And that's on a fairly new airframe! When you start looking at cabin class aircraft, maintenance costs go WAY up as they are older and more complex...and when you consider a twin, you've got double the financial exposure in engines, props and fuel.
In my opinion, flying "for fun" involves something with a tailwheel or a basic four-place airplane where you can take your spouse and two kids on a pleasure flight or short trip. Flying for transportation no longer makes it "fun" and institutes new expenses a couple orders of magnitude higher than the $200 hamburger.