What's are the cheapest airplanes to keep!? from acquirement to maintenance.
Can the word "cheap" even be part of a sentence that also has the word "airplane"?
This should be an interesting thread though, so thanks for starting it.
-John
Assuming you don't mean ultralights, something with only one or two seats, a small engine, no gyros and no electrical system would fit the bill for "cheapest". Low operational cost, too, and if it meets Light Sport limitations, it would be cheaper for the pilot to qualify to operate it.What's are the cheapest airplanes to keep!? from acquirement to maintenance.
T-craft. The most expensive part will be the hangar. Or a Kitfox and you can fold the wings to keep the hangar rent down.
I couldn't imagine either would be more than 12k-20k to acquire and cost more than 4k/year for hangar, insurance, fuel and maintenance. (Assuming you don't hangar it in SF or NY city)
What if he wants to fly it, instead of just keeping it?Lear 24.
Nice. Yea I was looking at some taildragger to fly around the pattern.
Weren't you in the process of building a Lancair 360 or some other experimental a year ago? Wouldn't that be by definition the cheapest to keep?
You're looking for something with:So a Cessna 150 or 172 would certainly be in the ballpark, and they're fairly common and easy to find.
- Fixed gear. Less to go wrong here, and annuals will cost ~ $1,000 less because you don't need to swing the gear. Figure another $1,000 per year savings on insurance as well.
- A fixed pitch prop. This is a $10,000 rebuild you won't need to worry about.
- Something reasonably fuel efficient.
- Something that can burn auto fuel, if ethanol-free is available where you live. (Here is a list of approved airframes, though some only need a piece of paper to be legal, while others require modifications.)
- A plane with reasonable production numbers, so you can get replacement parts when needed.
T-craft. The most expensive part will be the hangar. Or a Kitfox and you can fold the wings to keep the hangar rent down.
I couldn't imagine either would be more than 12k-20k to acquire and cost more than 4k/year for hangar, insurance, fuel and maintenance. (Assuming you don't hangar it in SF or NY city)
What if he wants to fly it, instead of just keeping it?
If your mechanic is charging $1000 to swing the gear at annual, you need to find a new one. He's charging about $500 per hour. On similar, sub $50k airframes you'd have to be really low time for an insurance price delta of $1000 per year.
I tripled my hull value going from a Cherokee to a Bonanza, I about 200 hours total time with zero retract time and zero hp time and my insurance went up $800 per year.
You're looking for something with:
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- Fixed gear.
- A fixed pitch prop.
- Something reasonably fuel efficient.
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- Something that can burn auto fuel, if ethanol-free is available where you live.
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- A plane with reasonable production numbers