Many pilots only consider expenses that immediately come out of their pockets as direct costs to flying. But the real operating cost for an airplane includes more than fuel and oil.
Your magnetos are limited to 400 hours before IRAN. Spark plug life is about 350 hours. Your starter has a finite number of cranks before failure. You cannot fly without wearing down brakes and tires. In accounting terms, we categorized these expenses as variable direct costs.
We have reviewed many of the variable direct costs for flying Cirrus airplanes in past weblog posts.
The Real Hourly Operating Cost For Cirrus SR22
Here’s a summary that estimates the hourly operating cost for Cirrus SR22 airplanes. Your cost experience may vary.
Hourly Cost Comparison SR22NA Normally Aspirated & Cirrus SR22TN Turbo
| Description | SR22 | SR22T Turbo |
| Fuel | 76.80 | 81.60 |
| Oil | 6.37 | 6.37 |
| Variable Direct Cost | 42.00 | 42.00 |
| Variable Indirect: Pre-TBO | 4.00 | 8.00 |
| Variable Indirect Cost: TBO | 28.35 | 35.35 |
| Total Variable Cost Per Hour | 157.72 | 173.32 |
In a shared ownership, you’ll want to match variable expense with each member’s hourly usage, but fixed expenses should be shared equally between members regardless of hours flown.
If your hourly rate is correct, then members should not receive a bill after the Annual or during the year for maintenance related to variable cost items. Your hourly fees should be enough to cover all those costs.
During future posts we’ll look at variable indirect and fixed costs for operating Cirrus airplanes.
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