by Colin » Sun Sep 30, 2018 7:43 pm
I have a running tally that makes no sense, like a lot of accounting in aviation. Some of our costs went up, since I am now parking it in three places (KSMO, KFHR, KOWD), for instance. And I cross the country more often. The BIG costs will be gearboxes and engine replacements and although I put those in the spreadsheet when they HAPPEN, I don't do the proper thing and include some per-hour reserve for them
For me it looks like it is less expensive to run the DA42. I don't have 2017 in there yet, but it was more hours and no big hits. 2018 has a *huge* hit of replacing both gearboxes and fuel pumps, but I am also flying the wings off the place, so I'm hoping it spreads out nicely. I need to figure out where the DA40/DA42 cut was and show the average hourly cost of both planes.
(In the accounting all I really care about is "can we afford this?" At some point the answer might be no and I'll sell the plane. Maybe I'll get myself a cub to fool around in when that happens. Until then, this is a great thing. We have to go from Cambridge, MA down to Williamsburg, VA on Wednesday morning, then up to DC, then back to NYC. All for speaking engagements for my wife. I cringe when I think of what that would look like if we were driving or traveling commercially. As it is, it looks like one long flight down to Virginia and then just some nice, short hops. No TSA, no standing in lines with the bags, no dealing with customer service reps who aren't paid enough... so pleasant.)
I have a running tally that makes no sense, like a lot of accounting in aviation. Some of our costs went up, since I am now parking it in three places (KSMO, KFHR, KOWD), for instance. And I cross the country more often. The BIG costs will be gearboxes and engine replacements and although I put those in the spreadsheet when they HAPPEN, I don't do the proper thing and include some per-hour reserve for them
[attachment=0]costs.png[/attachment]
For me it looks like it is less expensive to run the DA42. I don't have 2017 in there yet, but it was more hours and no big hits. 2018 has a *huge* hit of replacing both gearboxes and fuel pumps, but I am also flying the wings off the place, so I'm hoping it spreads out nicely. I need to figure out where the DA40/DA42 cut was and show the average hourly cost of both planes.
(In the accounting all I really care about is "can we afford this?" At some point the answer might be no and I'll sell the plane. Maybe I'll get myself a cub to fool around in when that happens. Until then, this is a great thing. We have to go from Cambridge, MA down to Williamsburg, VA on Wednesday morning, then up to DC, then back to NYC. All for speaking engagements for my wife. I cringe when I think of what that would look like if we were driving or traveling commercially. As it is, it looks like one long flight down to Virginia and then just some nice, short hops. No TSA, no standing in lines with the bags, no dealing with customer service reps who aren't paid enough... so pleasant.)