Diamond Star owners

flyingcheesehead

flyingcheesehead

Taxi to Parking
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
28,184
Location
UQACY, WI
Display Name
iMooniac
Home Airfield
KUES/KMKE
Hello,

I would like to hear from anyone who owns a DA40 regarding your costs. Our club is considering purchasing one, and I want to get as many samples as possible to come up with a fairly accurate estimate of the ongoing operating costs. E-mail me at shook (at) culverad dotcom.

Thanks,
 
woodstock said:
Kent, did you get any info sent to you privately, I'd be curious... thanks.
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Not from here... I ended up joining the Diamond Aircraft Pilots/Owners Organization and asked in the forums there. Unfortunately it appears that they have a timeout, so the thread no longer exists.

Here's a few things I came up with while doing my research:

* Avemco will insure a DA40 for a 30-member club at $250,000 hull value for $8256 per year. You'll do much better than this as an individual.
* I went with $25/hr for maintenance. This is about what we spend on our 1970's Archers, and my plan was to take the probable surplus and put it into savings until we had a $10,000 "just in case" mx fund, then put the rest into repayment.
* Fuel, again, will be similar to the Archers at about 10 gal/hr. Total variable operating expenses came out to $71.50/hr at $3.25/gal (that's what our fuel surcharge is based on.)

Add the other fixed expenses (hangar is the biggest) and adjust for whatever your local fuel price is ($4.25/gal would give you $81.50/hr) and you'll have a pretty conservative estimate (ie overestimate) of what it'll cost.

It's kind of hard not to think about buying one after you've flown one, isn't it? :yes:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Add the other fixed expenses (hangar is the biggest)
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Make sure the DA40 can actually fit in the hangar you rent/buy. With its long wings some T-hangars are too small. FYI.
 
Anthony said:
Make sure the DA40 can actually fit in the hangar you rent/buy. With its long wings some T-hangars are too small. FYI.
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so true! the one I'm looking at is outside though...
 
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