Am I ready to own?

[Gabor Revesz]

Hello All,

I am in Toronto, Ontario, so every $ is Canadian.

Currently I rent Cessna 172s for 150$/hour (including everything
even taxes and fuel). My budget allows me to spend 7200$/year. This
translates to less than 50 hours/year flight.

Can I afford an Odyssey WITHOUT exceeding this budget even
temporarily yet flying at least 50 hours/year (preferrably more)?

I guess cost components include not only the plane and having it
built (I live in a condo, no place to build it myself) but parking,
insurance, maintenance and fuel. These all should fit into the 7200
$/year budget. Is there any other substantial cost component?

Thank you very much for your advice, sharing your experience and
knowledge!

Gabor

[Jim C]

Hi Gabor,

Welcome aboard - Flying the Odyssey (side by side 2 seater)
operationally will cost you a lot less and you would at least be able
to double your hours I would think. The big question for you would
be the initial cost to buy it. I lived in Toronto for about 3 years
about 4 years ago. YOu will also need to look at where you will keep
the plane and how much that costs on top of your flying. I use to
fly out of Buttonville (I think that is the name of the airport) -
it's up around Markham. There is another field in Markham as well to
the east of buttonville, I think it may have closed or is very little
used, but it was a nice little strip and the folks were friendly.
There is a field up in Barrie that has ultralights at it that is a
lot cheaper than Buttonville called Springwater, not too far off of
Lake Simcoe. There is a private UL grass strip a little closer near
Bradford as well. Now I would check all three out (not Buttonville -
its too costly and I feel they rip people off there a little) to see
what they have available and what the costs are to tiedown. Then
subtract 12 months worth from your $7200. If you get the HKS engine
figure about 2.6 gal per hour (I forgot how many litres that was),
and double it for fuel & maintenance, then divide that into whats
remaining for number of hours available. That will give you a rough
idea. If you go with a Rotax 503 figure 3.5 gph and with a Rotax 582
figure at about 4.5 gph. All these gph #'s should be on the high
side. This will give you a very "rough" estimate of what you can
expect.

Jim C

[Jim C]

Hi Gabor,

I noticed you were also over on the Challenger list as well. If you
are thinking about a Challenger go up to Barrie and see Bryan
Quickmeyer. He flys out of the Springwater airpark I mentioned
below. I started off with a Challenger II I bought from Bryan. He
is pretty good people. The Gull is a much better flyer, but the
Challenger is mucho cheaper - also there is a lot of support for the
Challenger up there and with all the lakes up there it does well on
floats. I don't know about the Gull on floats since I never looked
into it. Both do well on skiis. I think if you can afford it you'd
be happier with the Gull, but the Challenger is also pretty versatile.

Jim C