Aircraft Cost of Ownership

Planning for Cost of Ownership Expenses

Planning in advance for all of these costs helps alleviate the impact on your bank account when it comes time to pay for them. It's fairly easy to plan for the fixed costs, because that number is known ahead of time every month. However, the variable costs take a bit more planning and calculating.

Ask any aircraft owner, and he will tell you what it costs per hour just to operate his own plane. This is the Variable Cost". They aren't just talking about fuel and oil purchased "at the time of flight", but all of the other costs that come later. This "hourly operating cost" is usually determined by adding up all of the known expenses that will occur at given times, and dividing that sum by the number of hours it takes to reach that point.

Here's an example "cost of ownership" for a brand new, single engine piston plane, such as a Cessna 172: multiply the average cost (found in the tables below) of the 100hr inspection by 14 (the number of inspections you will complete), and then add the engine replacement cost at the 1500th hour. Divide that by the 1500 hours you will fly it, and you will get the "cost per hour" for that first engine.

- Example: $2,198 x 14 = $30,772 + $22,000 = $52,772 / 1500 = $35.18/hr

You can see that is "costs" the owner about $35 each hour to fly the plane that he owns. A smart owner will "rent his own plane" by setting aside $35 for every flight hour in a separate maintenance account.

You'll also need to calculate how much fuel your plane will use per hour of flight and add the fuel expenses onto this figure. However, fuel money is spent at the point of purchase and does not need to be set aside for later.

Did your aircraft sustain hail damage during the last storm? Do you want better avionics packages? Those cost money, too. As you can see, owning an aircraft can be an expensive proposition.

In FSE there are 5 types of aircraft expenses other than fuel:

• Monthly Ownership Fee

• Periodic Random Maintenance 

• 100 Hour Inspection

• Engine Replacement

• Avionics Upgrades (see: Owning an Aircraft)

Monthly Ownership Fees

There are many fixed costs that aircraft owners pay regardless of whether the aircraft is being used or not - things such as insurance, tie down fees, registration fees, ongoing subscriptions to navigation data, chart renewals, etc.  In FSE, these things are not paid for individually. This is also not an all-inclusive list nor are they ala carte options. Some aircraft models have other fixed costs, while some remote bush pilots would not necessarily have tie down fees or subscribe to navigation data. 

Instead, FSE simulates all of these costs in a very simple, singular monthly fee. It is somewhat up to the aircraft owner to "role play" what each of the line item costs are covering in his or her Monthly Ownership Fee.

Determining and Locking-in the Monthly Fee. Since the Monthly Ownership Fee is just a simple fee in FSE, it is tied directly to the aircraft's buy-back value - the fee is computed at 1% of the buy-back value.  Each individual aircraft in FSE has a different buyback value that can fluctuate up and down as the aircraft is used, inspections are conducted, etc. This means that any aircraft on one day may have a different buyback value the next day.  However, one of the purposes of knowing your aircraft's Fixed Costs is to enable you to plan ahead for those costs.  This would not be doable - or, at least, not easy - if the Monthly Ownership Fee was constantly fluctuating day by day or hour by hour.  

To aid in determining your monthly bill, the aircraft's Monthly Ownership Fee is "locked in" at the beginning of the month matching whatever the current buyback value is at that time. This fee will be due at the end of the month. This allows you all month to adjust your savings, if needed, to cover the monthly cost of ownership for all of your Fixed Costs.  The upcoming fee for the end of each month is displayed on the aircraft page. This cycle repeats every month, so the fee that is displayed will frequently not match what the fee that was most recently paid. 

Paying the Current Fee

By default, all aircraft fess are on auto-pay. At the end of the month, an hour or two before midnight UTC, the Monthly Ownership Fee will be automatically deducted from your cash account by the FSE System.  

Debt and Confiscation

Failure to have enough cash in your cash account to cover this fee at the time of collection will result in the aircraft being grounded and your aircraft being in debt. Once your aircraft is in debt, the system will no longer attempt to collect monthly fees, even if enough cash is available in your cash account. The auto-pay is terminated until the aircraft owner manually pays off all accumulated debt, at which point auto-pay will resume. The system will, instead, add the fee amount to your debt each month at the next collection time.  36 consecutive months of non-payment will result in the aircraft being confiscated by the FSE System.

Paying off Debt Fees

 An aircraft must be manually removed from debt by the owner. This is done from the Edit Aircraft screen.  From the list of aircraft in your "Aircraft" page, click "Edit" from the Action Drop Down menu at the far right column.

Leased Aircraft Fee Responsibility

The actual aircraft owner is responsible for the Monthly Ownership Fee.  The fee will be debited from the cash account of the lessor.  If the aircraft goes into debt, the lessee has no options but to wait on the lessee to pay the fees.

Note: A debt cannot be paid if an aircraft is leased to another player or to a group (even if the aircraft owner and the group owner are the same account).  If the aircraft is leased, the actual aircraft owner must "pull back the lease", then pay the accumulated debt following the instructions above.  If the owner desires to continue leasing the aircraft, the aircraft may be leased back out at this time.

Maintenance Costs

There are three types of maintenance in FSE that should be planned for over the life of an aircraft.  You should attempt to project these fees and divide them over the projected life of the aircraft in order to determine the hourly operating cost of your aircraft.  Those three types of maintenance are:

• 100 Hour Inspections

• Engine Replacements

• Random Maintenance

In addition to the "average base cost" of the 100hr check listed in the table below, you can expect to see additional costs based on the avionics that are installed and the condition of the engine (see engine damage, below).

Here is an example of what you might see in your 100hr inspection report:

Engine Damage. Piston engines can suffer damage from being operated with an air-fuel mixture that is too rich (too much fuel) or too lean (not enough fuel).  Running an engine too rich can result in carbon deposits being built-up inside the cylinders and in the exhaust system.  Running too lean and the engine can get too hot.  If the simulator aircraft reflects either of these properties, then that data is sent back to FSE at the end of every flight.  During the 100hr inspection, this damage (if any is present) is cleared up and an additional charge is added for that service. 

In the inspection report sample above, you can see the mechanic's remark under the Engine Information section, "The engine looks clean".  This is what the report will show if the aircraft has been flown with proper mixture control.  However, with improper mixture control, you may see something in the “Engine Information” section that looks like this:

NOTE: Although (technically) Turbo-prop and Jet engines cannot be ran "lean" or "rich", the FSE code does not recognize non-piston aircraft.  Non-piston aircraft are added to FSE, but the end-flight code may still send data from the simulator to the FSE database that looks like "engine damage".  FSE will store this "engine damage" information in the database and the 100hr inspection report may indicate comments on "cylinders", "compression", and "carbon deposits"; none of which (technically) would exist on this type of engine. 

Engine Replacement (TBO)

Every 1,500 or 2,000 hours (depending on engine type), the owner will be responsible for a newly refurbished engine - or two, or three, or four! These numbers refer to hours on the engine, which might become different from hours on the aircraft.  All engines on an FSE Multi-Engine Aircraft must be replaced at the same time. 

This milestone maintenance event is mandatory and will prevent commercial service of the aircraft if the milestone is missed.  This milestone is measured "from the last event", so replacing engines early the first time does not grant extra hours the second time.  

The term TBO (Time Between Overhaul) is frequently used interchangeably with "Engine Replacement", so you may see things like, "The TBO for this aircraft is 2000 hours". 

FSE tracks Aircraft Total Time and Engine Total Time as two separate numbers.  The first engine(s) on a factory new aircraft will have the same number of hours as the aircraft itself; however, once the first TBO is performed, these numbers will no longer match - the Engine Total Time will be reset to zero, but the Aircraft Total Time will continue increasing.

Maintenance Cost Projection Charts

In order for aircraft owners to project their "cost of ownership", the table below provides the average cost for a 100hr inspection on the first engine or set of engines - that is, a brand new aircraft from hour zero until it's first TBO.  There is no 15th 100hr inspection cost for piston engine aircraft, and there is no 20th 100hr inspection for turbine engine aircraft, because that is included in the TBO - i.e. you do not need to do a separate 100-hour inspection at 1500 hours AND an engine replacement; the aircraft will be inspected along with replacing the engine.  

The average cost for a 100hr inspection on the second engine (or set of engines) is roughly double that of the inspection costs for the 1st engine.  The average 100hr cost for the third engine (or set of engines) is roughly triple that of the 1st engine.

Get a quote! In addition to the "rough estimate" projection chart below, you can also get a direct quote for maintenance at any FBO which includes a Maintenance Facility.  If your aircraft is currently at an airport with such an FBO, access the Aircraft Maintenance Menu by going to your Aircraft page and selecting "Maintenance" from the Action Menu at the far right of the column.  You see a list of all available maintenance actions that can be performed. The prices quoted are all-inclusive, including any markup fees at that FBO, and include the replacement of all engines which your airplane is equipped with.

View the history! You can also attempt to get a feel for what each inspection might cost by looking at the maintenance log of the aircraft and reviewing each historical inspection report.  Just remember that each pilots' flying techniques and each FBO's markup fee will skew the cost of each inspection. 

The average 100hr costs in the above table is the average cost over the lifespan of the first engine. The first 100hr will be cheaper than this estimate, and the 14th (or 19th) 100hr will be more expensive.  Each subsequent inspection will be more expensive than the last.  But all 14 (or 19) inspections **should** average out to roughly what this chart predicts.

After replacing an engine at TBO, the cost of the next 100hr inspection will decrease somewhat, but not back to that of a 0-hr aircraft because the airframe now has thousands of hours on it, which adds to the cost of the 100 hour inspection. This same decrease in inspection costs will occur after replacing this second engine with a third engine, and so on. However, you can expect that the "average cost" of a 100hr inspection will be roughly double for the second engine, triple (the cost of the 1st engine) for the third engine, and so on.

Random Maintenance

In addition to the regular required maintenance, you will occasionally have unexpected expenses. These maintenance requirements have nothing to do with how the plane is flown, so improper engine management or excessively hard landings will NOT cause a random maintenance issue to occur. These events are intended to represent external sources of damage such as hail stones, wind damage, forklift impacts, "hangar rash", etc. 

This feature is completely random and you may go months without seeing it only to have it appear on the same plane twice in a short period of time.

If your plane is "down for maintenance", you will see a "wrench and screwdriver" icon next to the Aircraft Registration Number in your aircraft list or on the aircraft page.  Additionally, you will see this message on your “my-flight” page if you have rented the aircraft (including "renting" your own air:

System Buyback

The system's Buyback Price is NOT considered to be the "actual value of the aircraft"; rather, this is the "panic button" - when you cannot negotiate a private sale, and/or you need to liquidate your assets for cash quickly, the System Buyback is an option available to you. It should be the "last resort" option. Although you can negotiate private sales with other players for whatever price you agree upon, the FSE system's Buyback Price is considered to be the "lowest possible value" for an aircraft, and this is the value that declines with an aircraft's age (in terms of airframe and engine hours).

You can see the system's Buyback Price for your aircraft at any time by looking at the "Edit" screen.  The system Buyback Price declines with each flight hour on both the airframe and the engines, and ranges from a highest-possible value of 60% of base price to a lowest-possible value of 25% of base price.  

The Buyback Price starts at 60% of base price when there are zero hours on the airframe (and, therefore, zero hours on the engines), plus the base price of any installed avionics (see: Owning an Aircraft for a list of avionics base prices).   Each hour on the airframe (up to 10,000 hours) AND each hour on the engine contributes to a lower buy-back price.  This means that replacing the engines will raise the buyback price.  The "salvage" value - the absolute lowest that a buyback price will ever fall to - is 25% of base price plus avionics.

For example, let's look at a brand new Cessna 152.  There are zero hours on the airframe and the engine.  According to the list of Aircraft Configurations on the FSE Game World website, the "base price" for a Cessna 152 is $18,600.   If you find one of these for sale and purchase it, but then you immediately regret your decision, you can sell it back to the system for $11,160, which is 60% of the base price (assuming it was not flown at all).  Since there are no avionics installed in a Cessna 152 by default, there is no added value for avionics.  

But if you love the plane and you fly it for several years, eventually amassing 10,000 hours on the airframe, and there are currently 1400 hours on this engine, then you will most likely only be offered the "salvage value" of $4,650, which is 25% of the base price.  If, over the course of those years, you've equipped your beloved Cessna 152 with all available avionics options, the system's Buyback Price will be roughly $78,000  (25% + avionics).