An owner name Brian that posts on his blog added the following numbers to reflect his cost of owning a Cessna 182.
I love numbers and number crunching, so this interested me. He went to a good amount of effort to record his expenses for readers to learn from. I presume since it was published on a public blog, he will not mind it being repeated here. Others may find it valuable for comparison. It is dated 2008, so things will have gone up some.

Sunday, September 7, 2008
Cessna 182 Operating Expenses
There are more costs for operating an airplane than the fuel it burns and the original purchase price. When I was thinking of owning, I saw some breakouts that helped. I thought I would share how my expense have been going for the 4 years I have owned the plane. If you are considering renting vs owning you might also want to look at my past blog entries on renting and owning.

Repair Costs at Annual and Other Times

Many repair costs appear at annual inspection and at other times. See my other post about my latest annual inspection. I fly about 120 hours a year and this probably influences how much repair typically happens. My plane is a 1974 C182P. Age might make some difference, but I have heard of new planes with similar expenses.

Here is a list of different repairs and improvements I have done:

1/11/05 prop control: $204
Known needed to be fixed at purchase of plane.
1/17/05 labor prop control, cylinder head probe: $406
5/13/05 Filter adapter: $437
6/7/05 annual + nose strut+ cowl flap hinges + carb heat+filter adapter install: $2701
8/15/05 cylinder fix: $1158
11/18/05: vor indicator fix: $65
2/13/06: EI UBG-16 engine analyzer: $1465
3/29/06: new muffler, exhaust: $3363
3/29/06: EI install $900
7/5/06: annual + tires +brakes+aileron rod+ mixture cable: $2445
vernier mixture cable improvement portion was: $271
12/14/06: pitot-static, vor indicator fix: $422
5/11/07: attitude indicator $1097
6/19/07: GNS430 Waas upgrade $2001
8/14/07: annual + cylinder + engine mounts + baffling + fairing fix = $4224
cylinder portion was about $928
11/16/07: short in instrument lighting (found in EI install): $401
9/5/08: annual + cylinder + carb box + spin bulkhead + mags = $3800
cylinder portion was about $900

In order to come up with a yearly budget, I will consider that some of these items are from the first years of owning (such as the exhaust fixing and prop control). I will also not include the cylinder fixing in the normal plan, but it should be considered as possible. The annual inspection is around $1200/ year as well.

This totals to about $3272/year including the inspection. For simplicity, we will say $1200 is for the inspection and $2000/year is for general maintenance.

Also keep in mind a budget for upgrades. I ended up spending $5038 total for 4 years upgrades plus fixing a short in the EI install. These were relatively small upgrades. Interior, Paint, and many avionics upgrades are much much more.

Keeping costs in control is very important. If you are not careful, I could see maintenance costs doubling. I recommend taking Mike Busch's Savvy Aviator Seminar and joining the Cessna Pilots Association or a club for your type of plane and ask lots of questions. The more you are involved with understanding the maintenance, the better.

Overhaul Costs

Planning for a potential engine overhaul is something you should do and it is a major expense. As Mike Busch indicates in his Savvy Aviator Seminar, I would recommend using TBO as a guideline, but not a requirement.

But how much does an engine overhaul cost? I am still trying to figure this out. One spot to look is Aviation Consumer. They have an article onverhauling shops. There are a number of things that I think are left out from the costs listed there such as overhauling the prop and governor and the removal and reinstallation of the engine. But it is a starting place.

So for purposes of this analysis, I will use engine overhaul of $24,000 engine + $2400 R&R. Prop overhaul of $2500 prop + $2000 governor. Both of these to be budgeted for 1500 hours.

Yearly Fixed Costs


•Annual Inspection: $1200
•Repairs during annual and other times: $2000 (sometimes a cylinder fix for $900)
•Hangar: $290 * 12 months (some hangars are much more expensive)
•Insurance: $1277
•Loan or the cost of money in the plane?
•Improvements in Avionics, Interior, and Paint?
•Total = $7777
•If you fly 120 hours a year and do not add for a loan, $64.80 / hour
Hourly Costs


•~13 Gph at maybe $5.50 = $71.50/hour
•Oil change every 40 hours = $75 oil+filter + $22 oil analysis + do labor myself = $2.43/hour
•Engine overhaul budget every 1500 hours: $24,000 engine + $2400 R&R = $17.60/hour
•Prop overhaul budget every 1500 hours: $2500 prop + $2000 governor = $3/hour
•Total = $94.53 / hour
Combined Fixed + Hourly Costs


•For 120 hours / year is: $159.33 / hour.
•For 50 hours / year is: $250.07 / hour
Compared to Renting


At our field, there is a Cessna 182 for rent for $155 / hour. It is not as nice as ours and is not hangared which can be nice on cold days. Having the plane available when you want is worth something that is hard to count. The $159.33 / hour cost also does not account for a loan or the money you have paid for the plane. If you are not flying 120 hours per year, the rental looks better and better.

Summary

Hopefully this helps for anybody thinking about owning. If you have a different experience, please feel free to share.

/Brian

WOW! I am curious to everyone else's experience. Is this normal? That is crazy! This severely deflates my desire to own my own plane, not because I dont want to, but that this is almost prohibitive costs unless one owns a business that they can recoup the cost!

Yikes! There are a lot of ways to keep those costs down. Do your own work at annual time and in between, if needed, A&P supervised of course. Do your own oil changes, too. Mogas gas is a big cost saver. $17 per hour for overhaul??? I suppose if someone wants to spend those kinds of dollars they can and there are lots of people willing to help them do it. I prefer to keep mine down and can think of a lot of ways to do so.

Yes, some people pay more than that for a hangar, some pay less, too. I realize costs can be different depending on where you live, however I've always found ways to keep costs reasonable so I have money to fly. I don't doubt that fellows snapshot of costs, it just doesn't have to be that expensive unless they let it... My $0.02 worth.

Ok, here's the deal. Go buy a new motorhome. Use it five years then sell it. Work out the cost per year and tell me what you get.

Or, father a 15 year old daughter. Amortize that baby. Yea man. Now yer talkin' big time.

EB

Having an engineering background I sometimes crunch numbers. Not on airplane cost. I have two modes of decision making on purchases: 1) impulsive and 2) spreadsheet. I've learned to suppress 2) when it comes to owning airplanes.

I chalk up the extra costs along the way to experience, for example, if I ever buy another 180 (have no plans ever to sell the one I have) I'll know a bit more what to look for. But do I regret buying the 180? Hell no.

I don't add up what I've spent either, no more useful than adding up what I lost or might have made in the stock market.

Sounds like he bought a run down plane and hired a parts changer to work on it. Airplanes are epensive but some of those costs are over the top, I hope the purchase price was good.

I had a wise old guy tell me a long time ago ....." if you fly it, float it or F+%# it, it is ALWAYS cheaper to rent it"......

In the very clinical sense, I suspect he was completely correct. This C-182 is my fourth airplane I have owned and I have loved them all for different reasons but I have never been able to justify any of them on a "per hour basis" when compared to renting. I have rented a bunch of different airplanes and been a member of some "flying clubs" to help offset the cost. But that experience has always left me a bit short of the enjoyment and freedom I ascertain from ownership.

The cost of ownership of my current C-182 could never be justified but I make sacrificies in other areas of my life to afford general aviation. I have owned this C-182 for two years now and I have had very few problems with it and no regrets whatsoever.

You can't put a price on FUN! If your worried about the cost of flying walk away. It is stupid expensive for full size planes with big engines. Now you can do it on the cheap but not in a 182.

G'Day

OregonMaule wrote:You can't put a price on FUN! If your worried about the cost of flying walk away.

Spreadsheets teach us the cost of everything... The value of nothing!

All a matter of priorities. Flying, and airplanes, have cost me a lot over the decades. Not just money, but in family, relationships, and careers, because flying almost always came first.

Regrets? Yeah, there's a few... But experiences, places, and people making it all worth while?

Hell Yes!

Gump

When I bought my airplane almost 9 years ago, I thought I'd keep track of all the expenses in some detail--after all, what's Excel for? I expected to get something close to 1100 hours out of the 2000 hour TBO Lycoming, the airframe was in excellent shape, and mostly I expected to spend money on upgrades, like updating the awful panel and avionics. So I quickly spent a few thou in that direction.

But within 15 hours, the engine threw a rod, I landed in a field, and keeping track of expenses seemed like an exercise in futility from then on. Since the airplane was going to be down for awhile for the new engine, I had a bunch of upgrades done to the airframe, so by the time I was back into the air again, my $54K purchase price had risen to $85K. Over the years, I've added this or that, to the extent that it takes a full typewritten page to list all of the changes and upgrades--and I have only a vague idea of what all that has cost.

Could I ever justify ownership economically? Hardly. I fly at average of 62 hours per year, sometimes more, sometimes a little less, but that's been the average for the last several years. No doubt I could rent a bunch cheaper than what my average expense has been for the last 9 years. But it wouldn't be my airplane, I'd have no control over when it's flown, where it's flown, who flies it, what equipment is in it, and I wouldn't be able to enjoy it on my schedule or in my way. If I had a partner, I could halve my expenses, but I've been there, done that, and really don't want to do it again, for the same reasons that I'd rather not rent.

Yeah, flying is expensive, and airplane ownership is even more expensive. But is it worth it? Absolutely!

Cary

sometimes when the weather's bad and or I can't fly for one reason or another or after work I end up at my hangar... I pop open a beer, sit down in my old recliner or on the sofa,(My hangar is my man cave) and I just look at that old Maule and think about all the places it's taken me, the fine folks I've met, some I haven't met in person yet ,and the fun times I've had... makes all that expense worth it ...you don't always have to fly it to enjoy it...

I gotta say guys, this little cut and paste generated some good comments. I am enjoying them this fine Sunday morning... since my old 182 has no prop. When the OH shop returns it, I will go out and spend some money instead of just reading about it. But, for now, I like seeing all the reasons to have your own instead of renting a beater.
PS ---> I am a bit of a wimp. Do my own oil changes and maintenance... but wear rubber gloves when doing so. So there.

My 1969 182:
$800/annual
$980/insurance
$3000/hangar....$250/month
$250/oil changes
$50/avionics certification

100hrs/year

jim

I know a middle-aged guy who's been averaging 25hrs a month (ish) for many many years now, and although I wouldn't mention it to him directly, I figure he's spent over a quarter million dollars on Avgas in his lifetime (so far), and he looks like he means to go on.... And that is before you get to insurance, maintenance, upgrades, etc. He's not a wealthy man, just a really hard worker who loves flying above all other pastimes.

Unless you want to talk yourself into never flying recreationally, I don't think it pays to focus on the expense. No pun intended.
You could look at it this way:
Fixed costs $150/hr,
Running costs $80/hr,
Being as 'free' as a bird - Priceless...?? Or is that copyright infringement.....

Sounds about right. Also don't forget the $6800 unexpected repairs not even at annual. Even though I am selling my plane after only 40 hrs of flying it, I am figuring it is running me about $190 per hour with fuel. My insurance is only $700 and less than my car for a year and my tie down is $28 per month. No justifying a plane for financial. Find the right club/etc and one can fly for less than owning unless you fly a ton.

That said, I look forward to a Rans S7 or something similar in the coming years while renting a new 182 or Cirrus to go places.