Why I fly
So with my IFR rating obtained, I am starting to look a little more closely at how I fly, when, and why. Of course, I enjoy the challenge of flying, even on the severe-clear days - I enjoy working toward becoming a more professional airman.
But seeing the same sights on each flight starts to get a little old for me after a few dozen hours of airtime, so my primary goal - long term - is to be able to use general aviation for travel and to fly at least 3-4 hours of practice (and photo) time a month (non-travel).
I do include the occasional $100 hamburger trip in the travel category, but those trips typically take about 3 hours to pull off. What I am more interested in being able to do is take weekend long trips.
With the flight school I rent from, this essentially means I have to buy my own plane (or part of one) - they just don't have enough planes to rent for one to be (economically) taken on a multi-day trip. So I started looking into buying a 1/6 fraction of the SR-22 I recently went up in.
I knew it was on the market and it is a plane I would really enjoy to make use of. Being new to the process of owning an airplane, the owner of the SR-22 filled me in on some of the cost categories.
The primary ones were:
However, the fixed costs are very, very far from negligible, even when buying a fraction of a plane. And the big one in that category, for me at least? Insurance. Yikes. The insurance would be about 50% of the yearly costs for using an SR-22, for someone like me. This is because you really don't get much of a break on the insurance costs until you pass 500 or so flight hours. Being instrument rated helps, but even with that and 500 hours the SR-22 (in particular) is still a relatively expensive airplane to insure, or so I've read. I was surprised by that since the plane has fixed gear, a parachute, tons of other safety systems, and a simplified power control (no direct prop pitch control). Apparently they have not had a great accident record in the insurer's eyes, though my non-expert browsing of records doesn't show a particularly bad record.
Anyway, it turns out that the SR-22 I was looking into is being completely sold, no longer on a fractional basis, so that one is out of the budget range at this point. I'll just have to drool over stories like this until I can afford one for myself, if ever. :)
Time to look into other purchase options in the meantime.
But seeing the same sights on each flight starts to get a little old for me after a few dozen hours of airtime, so my primary goal - long term - is to be able to use general aviation for travel and to fly at least 3-4 hours of practice (and photo) time a month (non-travel).
I do include the occasional $100 hamburger trip in the travel category, but those trips typically take about 3 hours to pull off. What I am more interested in being able to do is take weekend long trips.
With the flight school I rent from, this essentially means I have to buy my own plane (or part of one) - they just don't have enough planes to rent for one to be (economically) taken on a multi-day trip. So I started looking into buying a 1/6 fraction of the SR-22 I recently went up in.
I knew it was on the market and it is a plane I would really enjoy to make use of. Being new to the process of owning an airplane, the owner of the SR-22 filled me in on some of the cost categories.
The primary ones were:
- Fixed Costs:
- Any loan payments there may be on the aircraft purchase
- Hangar Fees
- Insurance
- Taxes
- Maintenance
- Charts and database subscriptions
- Hourly Costs:
- Fuel
- Engine Reserve (goes toward future overhauls)
However, the fixed costs are very, very far from negligible, even when buying a fraction of a plane. And the big one in that category, for me at least? Insurance. Yikes. The insurance would be about 50% of the yearly costs for using an SR-22, for someone like me. This is because you really don't get much of a break on the insurance costs until you pass 500 or so flight hours. Being instrument rated helps, but even with that and 500 hours the SR-22 (in particular) is still a relatively expensive airplane to insure, or so I've read. I was surprised by that since the plane has fixed gear, a parachute, tons of other safety systems, and a simplified power control (no direct prop pitch control). Apparently they have not had a great accident record in the insurer's eyes, though my non-expert browsing of records doesn't show a particularly bad record.
Anyway, it turns out that the SR-22 I was looking into is being completely sold, no longer on a fractional basis, so that one is out of the budget range at this point. I'll just have to drool over stories like this until I can afford one for myself, if ever. :)
Time to look into other purchase options in the meantime.
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