Cost of ownership

jmpoplin

jmpoplin

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I am in the market for an early 80's Turbo Piper Saratoga R. I have researched specs, buying price, etc but actualy ownership costs don't get a lot of review as they are the "bad" subject in flying. Can anyone give a rough yearly cost of ownership for this type of aircraft?

I am a commercial, instrument rated single/multi engine land pilot with about 1,700 flight hours. It will be my first aircraft owned and want to make sure I don't buy it just to turn around in 2 yrs because I can't afford it.

Thank you!
Jeff
 
This is an often discussed topic. It will vary widely, depending on how much you fly, whether you hangar, how good your "luck" with respect to maintenance items is. A decent starting point rule of thumb is to quadruple the cost of gas. Fly more, and it's less, fly less, and it's more. But that's a decent starting point.

Another issue people often neglect to consider is WHY you fly. If you fly for recreation, be sure to include the cost of the rental cars, restaurants, hotels, tourist spot admission tickets, and other things that will come into play whenever you fly somewhere. My first airplane, I seriously underestimated that. My wife always wanted to fly to the beach for the weekend and stay at oceanfront hotels. It added up fast!

You sure you want that airplane? Can you say "cooling issues"? Can you say "early top overhaul"?
 
I keep yearly folders with all my aircraft expenses so I can tell you in 2008 I owned a 1978 Turbo Lance (essentially the same plane as you're thinking about). My annual with no issues cost $1670. The two-year IFR altimeter/transponder inspection was $450. I spent another $160 doing two oil changes myself with oil analysis. The personal property tax was $1504 in Charleston County. My insurance was $2012 for 125K Hull and $1M Liability (this will very greatly depending on your experience, I would consider this the minimum you'd pay as I had many hours time-in-type). I spent another $150 on O2 for the built-in tank and ~$400 on other misc stuff. My hangar is roughly $425/month but that varies widely and ramp tie-down is much cheaper.

All told I figure 2008 was a very good year fixed expense wise and the total of ~$6400 (no hangar) should be considered a minimum baseline.
 
Based in the mountains, or flying over them frequently? If not, I would choose the normally aspirated version.

Price is the major reason... Factoryengines.com lists an overhaul/rebuild price of $30 - 35k for the normally aspirated version. $43-60k for the turbo'd version.

Speedwise, I have poked around enough flightaware logs to believe the typical speed difference is less than 10 kts. ~150 cruise vs ~160.
 
Baron - I take it you don't currently own the Lance? What were your impressions of the 6-seat hauler overall?

Nathan - is the cost for a Bonanza engine overhaul roughly the same?
 
jmpoplin said:
Baron - I take it you don't currently own the Lance? What were your impressions of the 6-seat hauler overall?

Nathan - is the cost for a Bonanza engine overhaul roughly the same?
Click to expand...
I have owned two different straight tail non turbo Lances. One had club seats, the other had straight seating. I bought the first one because I needed to haul a big load at decent speeds across moderate distances. I was very happy with its utility. I bought a second one a few years after I sold the first one. A Citabria and a Pitts were in between. They are very capable airplanes. They are not terribly interesting to fly. Handling is nothing to write home about. Piper's quality is what it is.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the Lance's bang for the buck.
 
Since we've had useful replies and the humour has started:

The cost will be twice what you think it should be and you'll only fix half of what you really need to...
 
jmpoplin said:
Baron - I take it you don't currently own the Lance? What were your impressions of the 6-seat hauler overall?

Nathan - is the cost for a Bonanza engine overhaul roughly the same?
Click to expand...

The Turbo Lance was a good stable IFR airplane with the glide range of a brick (1.2M/1000). I don't think I would have gone with the Turbo if I did it again; I live in Charleston which is flat country. Above 8K' the Turbo Lance cruised 165K all day at ~18 GPH. I rarely flew it higher then 14K' feet as my passengers didn't like O2. You could do better on fuel running LOP, but I never put in the GAMI injectors.

I frequently hauled three or four adults, baggage plus myself with no problems on weight and balance. I have loaded it up with six adults; no baggage, for a few short 1-hour flights. My primary load was my two kids and their two friends plus wife. Take out the seats and you can put some crazy stuff in the back. I hauled a dirt bike, outdoor love seat, outboard boat motor, and many other things. Once my kids became young adults I didn't have the load capacity anymore so I moved up to the Baron 58. The Lance had about 1250lbs of payload while the Baron has 1525lbs.

Even with the Turbo I didn't have many major maintenance issues; other then a new prop due to a hub AD. I replaced the interior myself using the Airtex kit. It came out pretty nice. I saw another post about Piper fit/finish and consider that comment accurate; you'd never confuse a Piper for a Beechcraft but you're not paying for it either.

The old Century IV autopilot was pretty much a POS. If I had kept the plane it would have been replaced with a S-TEC 30.
 
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