From: Martin Spott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > David Megginson wrote: >> Fuel costs don't help, obviously, but they're a relatively small percentage >> of the cost of operating a plane (i.e. doubling the fuel cost might increase >> the >> cost of flying by 25%). Is maintenance more expensive? Is it taxation >> and government fees? Obviously, the money's not going into the equipment >> they rent you. > > Maintenance _is_ expensive, because aircraft used for commercial > training (not in a flight club) need to have commercial maintenance. > Another part is fuel cost, because we're supposed to pay twice as much > in Europe compared to North America. > And - last but not least - the owner of an aircraft probably needs to > pay the rates to his bank .... you need some sort of amortization. > > > At the Ottawa Flying Club, the 150's that most people train in do not have > > DME, [...] > > The 150 that I fly most of the time doesn't even have an artificial > horizon :-)
For the San Diego rental market, where a non-modern non-upgraded IFR C172 (eg 160 hp, N series, dual NAV/COM, ILS/DME) rents for about $1/minute, that cost splits into four equal $0.25/minute components for the following: * Fuel (including fuel taxes), which is about $1/gal more than car fuel; * Insurance (minimum hull and third party liability); * Maintenance (airframe, engine and avionics only), includes owner repairs; * Overhead (parking, washing, administration, etc, etc). You're welcome to draw your own conclusions from those numbers. If the facility's accident rate, or the airport accident rate, is equal to or greater than the national average, the insurance cost basically doubles. Note that depreciation is not listed, since older C172s do not lose value, and there is no allowance in those numbers for any profit for the owner. _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
