operational cost for a da40

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mdieter
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Operational cost for a DA40

Post by mdieter »

I decided to look at my costs, probably more for my sake than you all :). But here are our costs for a 2009 DA40 XLS in NY state. Oil changes, misc fees, licenses, and permits are not included. Cost for the plane is not included. Annual inspection cost is an average that has normal repairs like tires, brakes, batteries etc that come up during an annual included as well as an IFR certification every other year. Annual inspection is probably closer to "Annual Maintenance". Hangar is at KROC (medium sized class C airport). The rent is higher end for this region. Insurance is for two medium time private instrument pilots.

MONTHLY
Hangar Rent ----- $419.06
XM Subscription --- $55.00
Total Monthly ---- $474.06

YEARLY
Annual Insp ---- $2,590.36
G1000 Charts --- $1,122.00
AOPA Insurance - $1,834.00
Monthly * 12 ---- $5,688.72
Total Annual --- $11,235.08
Mark
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carym
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by carym »

Robert,
The costs of ownership in the "states" varies widely. My insurance is just over 1% of hull (so it costs me about $4000/yr), my hangar is $550/mo ($6600/yr), and while in Minnesota registration was close to 1% of purchase price (around $5000/yr). If you fly 100 hrs/year that is already over $150/hour. If you add the cost of annual, engine, avionics, etc you will see that the expense in the US can be quite similar to that in Belgium !?! I don't want to even think about what the cost would be if I owned a DA42-VI (registration and insurance alone in MN would be nearly $20,000/yr).
Cary
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S35 (1964 V-tail Bonanza)
Alaska adventure: http://mariashflying.tumblr.com
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Jean
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by Jean »

Are there annual licensing costs as well? (In my state, I have to pay ~$50 per year for a state sticker).
No, but I forgot 1K€/Y for Trust fee for US registration abroad and 400€/y for Jeppesen navdata :(
I guess there is less competition than in US and maintenance costs are high. We also chose a good shop as close as possible from our home but not cheap. We had some unscheduled repairs that boosted our mechanic budget: ruder cables replacement (when it was mandatory), electric fuel pump, passenger door hinges replacement, propeller governor overhaul, mixture cable replacement for instance. A non event annual is more like 2K. The first gallon of AVGAS costs us between 8 and 10€, depending on the airport.
Yes, thats very expensive, that why I share the plane with a fellow aviator, it cuts fix costs by 2.
The cost for a car is variable, depending on the model. My car (a Volvo V60 Hybrid Plugin) will cost something like 5K€ per year for taxes, insurance and maintenance, but my wife's car which is a small Renault Clio costs around 2K€ /Y.
40.446, G1000, KAP 140, Hartzell Metal
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Marc_CYBW
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by Marc_CYBW »

I don't know about Belgium, but to keep my cars going in Calgary in Canada: 2006 Audi A4 Avant Quattro manual (250,000 K) and 1999 Miata (90,000k) about $2,000 in insurance plus maintenance -- $3,000 for the Audi and $200 for the Miata :-) But it's a very nice Audi and the Miata is so much fun! And just try to find a manual transmission replacement for the Audi <sigh> when it's time.
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Marc_CYBW
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by Marc_CYBW »

Back to the DA40 - no annual registration costs at all. Even our Transport Canada paperwork is free and no landing fees. But avgas is $1.83 (Cdn) / litre at CYBW ( quite a bit less at smaller airports that don't charge large rent to FBOs).
Antoine
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by Antoine »

Jean, sorry to add to you pain - you missed the yearly fee for the trust!

Here my costs: (USD = CHF these days)
DA40 2007, 150 Hobbs hours/ year

Insurance: CHF 5000. (Hull value 200'000)
Hangar: CHF 6000 (yes 6000) :(
Inspections: CHF 5000 (one annual plus one 50 hour)
Trust: CHF 1500 (N-reg in Europe)
Avionics, unforeseen costs etc... CHF 2'000

So fixed costs amount to CHF 18500.
Add Fuel at CHF 2.35 per liter (roughly CHF 9 per gallon), oil and landing fees.
I budget CHF 30'000 per year with a provision for engine / prop overhaul. That's 200/hour IF I do 150 hours.
Depreciation: 18500 CHF per year since purchase (includes an exchange rate hit of 20%)
With depreciation, the number is 323 CHF/hour (again IF I make it to 150 hours/year).

Actual cost is higher than this budget - I added a new alternator, LED anticollision lights, you get the picture.

In french we say "quand on aime on ne compte pas". I'll let you Google translate this for a good laugh.
I am absolutely amazed at how much cheaper it is to operate the same plane elsewhere...
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Gearle
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by Gearle »

I don't know how old all of you are, but as an ATP captain friend said to me before I bought my 2003 DA40 in 6/15 " how old are you? do you know how old you will be before your plane has 2000 hours on it?! you may not even be the person that has to do an overhaul. A typical recreational pilot if they put 100 hours on it a year will have to fly 10 years to get a thousand hours. That is on average two hours every week for year.
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Rich
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by Rich »

Something not really discussed is the extreme variability one encounters in aircraft maintenance. You can merrily hum along at a couple of grand each year and suddenly you find you've had to ante up $10,000 or more for stuff that's failed. In the 13 years I've owned the my plane I've mostly been in this mode, but with 3 distinct years of $6K, $12K and $20K that popped up.

Buying used also introduces another factor. Despite pre-buy inspections or whatever, you should start out with $10-$20K ready operating capital to deal with stuff that may pop up unexpectedly. This is not unique to Diamonds. Here are examples:

A friend of mine, who rented my Star for years (until I moved down here to Oregon) purchased a 2003 pretty much identical to mine. The plane was delivered to him (from a Nevada dealer) at Hillsboro, OR summer of '14. As he flew the plane to his home base of Paine Field in Everett, WA he found that the 530W simply didn't function. Further testing showed that it was temperature-related. Worked OK in cool temperatures, but in hot weather it flaked out entirely. A call to the dealer (Las Vegas, remember, in the summer) resulted in the dealer denying any knowledge of this problem. After getting this problem fixed by Garmin ($1200, if I recall correctly), a month or two later his MT prop had a blade in which moisture had gotten into the wooden core and the prop needed to be overhauled/repaired. I'm guessing > $5K.

Again, this is NOT Diamond-specific. As we speak, there's a turbo-210 sitting at Prineville where a newly overhauled engine failed at 7 hours (oil pump failed, spitting metal throughout the engine) and required a removal-and-ship-it-off for re-overhaul. By the time the engine came back where it could be reinstalled the plane was out of annual. The mechanic discovered there was no airworthiness certificate or aircraft registration in the airplane, it had a number of unapproved instruments installed, and it had an Electroair installation such that engine oil could not be changed without removal of same. Those were just the deficiencies he knew about at time and shared with me.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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rwtucker
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by rwtucker »

Well said Rich. Even though I'm getting by with enviable minimums on my DA40 right now, I'm saving for the gotcha that will occur.

The year after I purchased my 4,500 hour TTSN PA28-201T, I had to replace one barrel, both mags, overhaul and balance the prop, replace all hoses, replace NG & MLG shock seals and one piston, re-engineer the ELT mount, and a bunch more stuff bringing the total into the $15-20K range. This is all to an aircraft purchased from a retired engineer who was meticulous about fixing and documenting everything and delivered a disk full of spreadsheets and a box of paperwork with the aircraft. I can only imagine what it might be like purchasing and aircraft from someone not so attentive. (I'm not sure I would.) I know there are some good deals out there on used aircraft but not all of them are bargains, irrespective of the price.
Tommy
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Re: operational cost for a da40

Post by Tommy »

Plain and simple, things break, new or old. Pre-buy or no pre-buy. Meticulously maintained or not.
Expect it. It's part of plane ownership. There is no free ride. Get over it.
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