This thread has drifted pretty far, but I'll join in!neema wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:04 am Just so folks are eyes wide open on Austro powered, twin Diamond ownership: our average maintenance bills have been over $30,000 per year for 6 years and 1300 hours of ownership.
I've also been flying a King Air 350 lately. Last couple years of maintenance haven't cost much more than our 42. Around $40k per year.
A Diamond buys you a very simple, easy plane to fly. The maintenance is eye-watering, for what the plane is.
$180K / 1300hrs works out to about $140/hr for maintenance or $70/hr/engine. My DA40NG has cost me $62/hr for 515hrs and that's before I pay for a massive amount of work related to 10 weeks AOG last year, or my annual next month. $70/hr seems like it will be pretty easy to reach. It's about twice what I had forecast in 2018 when I placed the order.
But to put it in perspective, boat owners never calculate cost / hr. Calculating the cost / hr would just be self abuse and take the fun out of it. And airplanes hold their value much better than boats!
I think we all do this because we like flying the planes, rationalized with some convenience factor, not because they are a great investment.