I get this question asked at least weekly from people that have obviously never owned their own airplane, and to those ones my advice would be to own your own aircraft if at all possible! There is just no feeling like it on earth, and so let's get into the costs involved and recognize that some do it cheaper, and some do it more expensively. I was a "some do it cheaper" type, and we will discuss that some; but to get the entire "skinny" on the subject, purchase a copy of my new Book: "Those Mooney Airplanes" because you will learn how to enjoy Champagne on a Beer Budget!

The "FINAL" MONTHLY COST of owning your own airplane is a fleeting if not frightening number because you have to take into consideration all that owning an airplane can save you.

1.  ACQUISITION COST: If you purchase a new or even a newer airplane, you can expect a healthy loss when you sell the airplane. If you purchase a pre-owned or "used" airplane that has fully depreciated in the aviation marketplace, then you can expect to at least break even on the original purchase price or even make a profit. I have personally owned 4 airplanes. The first one was when I was young back in the 1970's. I purchased a Piper Cherokee 140 for $6500.00. When avgas rose to over 70 cents per gallon, I sold her for $6300.00. Not bad.. I bought my first Mooney in 1989, an M20E; and I paid $16,800.00 for her. After fixing her up a bit "zephroized; (a customer coined fraise) I sold her for $35,000.00 less than two years later. I then bought a Mooney 201 for $40,000.00 in 1990 and sold it 5 years later for $$78,000.00. Having to "step down" due to a divorce; I bought a 1968 M20F for $42,000.00 and flew it for just under 2 years. I sold that plane for $58,500.00. So as you can see, I actually made money on the appreciation of each Mooney I have owned personally. This has to be taken into account of your acquisition cost, and if you buy Mooney especially; they have traditionally increased in value with time under a somewhat normal economy. (As of this date, you can save up to 20% on your purchase once the economy recovers from the 2009 recession). So what you sell your bird for once you sell; you may make a profit as I have done with my personal Mooney's, and that gets deducted from the final costs of ownership.

2. IF YOU ARE OR ABOUT TO BE A LICENSED PILOT: You are no doubt already bitten by the Flying Bug. To us aviator types, it is our Cocaine Fix and We have to fly! So, armed with that obvious; we need to consider that we either have to RENT or OWN! IT IS NOT FAIR to compare our costs of renting with our costs of ownership because if we own, we will obviously fly more than if we rent and you can believe that! However, in the interest of fairness; let's say we rent a comparable airplane that it either COMPLEX or HIGH PERFORMANCE in nature (or will our yen to fly make us rent a Cesspool 172 for $90.00 per hour and up as you can see in the table to the right from one eastern flight school. (rates may vary geographically). But to be absolutely fair; we need to fly our rentals the same hours we fly our owned bird; so figure $9,000.00 per year for the Cessna 172 (which goes at least 30-40 knots slower than most Mooney's for instance and carries less weight. There is a guy in New York that has a turbo Mooney for rent at $125.00 per hour "dry" which means you pay for fuel. Fuel burn in that model is below 13 GPH, so at $3.50 per gallon; figure another $45.50 per hour totaling $170.50 per hour X 100 hours or: $17,500.00 per year. Many renters do not realize that they are not fully covered by the rentee's insurance, so all are encouraged to purchase Renters Insurance which obviously adds to the cost of renting, so keep that in mind as well. So in the real world; for those who rent instead of buying will get sick to their stomach knowing how much renting can cost; they fly less than when owner flown. Be sure to figure that into your calculations as well. For those that rent; once paid for you throw the receipts away much as those who rent a home do. For most home-owners, the second largest investment is in the family car and you know how they depreciate with time, but if you own an airplane, that will often become the second largest investment, but it will be like most homes in normal economies; you get back what you paid for it and often more!

3. TRAVEL: If you have somewhere to go like most of us; you normally have a choice between driving your boring car mile after mile at whatever cost that runs, or taking an airliner. How much do you spend annually on airliner tickets? If you're like me; not including aviation business commercial flying, I spend around $5,000.00 per year traveling on airlines visiting relatives and vacations, etc. That has to be taken into account because if you're like most capable pilots, you'd always prefer flying your own airplane than paying for Jet A and an airliner seat so those expenditures should be accounted for against ownership. What about any emergency trips you have to take such as Gramma's funeral? If you are a family of four for instance; figure those family get-together trips your family has to take with purchasing airline tickets for all four people!

4. WHY WOULD I PURCHASE A MOONEY as opposed to a more affordable fixed gear lower dollar airplane? The Mooney is the most efficient airplane in its class and operating costs are actually much lower than most other aircraft in its class and even those below the COMPLEX or HIGH PERFORMANCE class. Why? Because if you have a given trip to fly say 800-1,000 miles; you get there so much quicker in the Mooney and at about the same fuel burn as a 172 give or take a gallon per hour on most Mooney models with the Lycoming 4 banger engine, but in the 172 it would take you over 8 hours to fly 1,000 miles whereby the average Mooney would take just over 5 hours to fly the Mooney over the same distance. You save around 3 hours for the same trip, or about 69 gallons in a 172 at 8 GPH, or about 45 gallons in a typical Mooney for a savings of 24 gallons of fuel for a cost savings of around $84.00 not to mention your time. BUT WHAT OTHER SAVINGS does that translate to? It translates to a saving of around 3 hours of airframe/engine/avionics/your sore butt/wear and tear per 1,000 hours or every 5 hours you travel in your Mooney. I'm too lazy to do the math on that one, but you get my drift. At around 20 miles per gallon in a straight line as opposed to most twisted highways when you drive; there is substantial savings to be accounted for here, especially if you wisely choose Mooney for your travel and recreational needs. DID YOU KNOW that if you throttle back most Mooney's to Cessna 172 speeds, you will burn only around 5.5 GPH of fuel in which you save 2.5 GPS over the 172 or about $8.75 per hour flown at $3.50 per hour fuel cost. Lycoming equipped Mooney's have a power setting of about 19.5 squared that will normally yield about 120 MPH or that of the average Cessna 172 or equivalent. You should also take into account that most Mooney's increase in value over time a higher percentage of most other airplanes in its class. They also cost less to insure than other airplanes in their class and somewhat in line with many fixed gear airplanes due to low incidents of inadvertent gear up landings. Why? Because you've got to lower that Mooney gear to get that airplane to slow down; at least the one's that don't have speed brakes installed.

5. BUSINESS FLYING: Back in the 1970's in my career with Paramount Pictures; I needed to travel to many Key Cities from my Branch and often running a Branch entailed two major cities i.e. Kansas City/St. Louis; Chicago/Milwaukee; Denver/Salt Lake, etc. I would have to drive to the relatively close cities, but I would fly commercially to the more distant cities I need to travel to, and my home office Branch Accounting Manager didn't care if I went by car, airliner, or private plane rental, he agreed to allow me travel expense equal to the least expensive way of getting there which often tallied the same amount or even less than the cost of renting a Cherokee.  For those who own their own company with the need to travel, PRIVATE FLYING always wins hands down including time saved and in business; TIME IS MONEY! For now; Business Flying is still a legal deduction.

6. MORE AFFORDABLE AIRCRAFT OWNERSHIP WITH A PARTNER: If you think that you just can't quite justify ownership; have you considered a partner? Your fixed costs will be cut in half, but you need to keep in mind that an aircraft owner/partner is like a marriage. Pick a good marriage mate and you're in great shape; but if you pick a bad one; your life can and will be made miserable. That's the closest analogy that I can come up with. KNOW YOUR PARTNER! Learn who he or she is as a person. Are they relatively easy going or as picky as your Aunt Matilda? Do they have enough money and stability in life so as not to eventually default on the agreement? Are their flying habits flexible enough and do you both feel the same way about maintenance and eventual upgrades? Even if your potential partner is a bit more picky with usage, you can always make up some kind of "firm but flexible" schedule agreeable to the both of you.

7. IS LEASEBACK A GOOD OPTION FOR OWNERS? Not usually in a higher performing airplane. Renters seldom treat the airplane as they would their own; kind of like car rentals; who cares, right? Most people that I know of that have leased back their airplanes get used to getting handed back their keys to the plane, but now it's at or near TBO, not well cared for, and you don't have that much to show for it after all is said and done.

8. MULTI PARTNERSHIPS: I have seen this work successfully as well as not so successfully. The more partners you may have, the more problems you may be exposing yourself to. Like if you were the folks on the hit TV series "Big Love" and you were married to say four wives; well, you'd better be one heck of a leader or a glutton for punishment. It's hard enough to get two people to agree on the decisions you'll need to make as an aircraft owner let alone four partners.

9. BUT MY BUDGET ONLY ALLOWS ME TO PURCHASE THE MODEL I WANT IF I BUY ONE WITH A LOT OF TIME SINCE MAJOR OVERHAUL OF THE ENGINE: It's true that the engine time helps dictate the value of an airplane, so the more engine time, the cheaper the acquisition of the model of airplane that I want, but I can't afford to buy that plane while within the next three to five years I have to overhaul the engine. This is a difficult one because so many things have to be taken into consideration. Examples are:

a. What type of overhaul was given the last time the engine was rebuilt? Was it an overhaul to Factory New Tolerances, or was it a basic "Dip and Ship" overhaul that is done to legal "Service Limits" only?

b. How has the previous owner flown and operated the engine? Did he have a habit to shock cool it? Not maintain it to acceptable standards? Run it on the ground because he didn't fly it much?

c. Am I fairly sure that this engine WILL make it to TBO and perhaps even beyond no matter the time on it? Sometimes it makes sense to buy an airplane with higher time on the engine; WHY? Because of the unknowns about that current engine so once you have it overhauled; you know what you've got and hopefully how to properly maintain and operate that engine. So if you pay close to Blue Book for an airplane, the deduction for engine time is at a higher hourly rate deduction that the well-shopping owner can have it re-done for. For instance; there are places to overhaul a Lycoming engine such as the factory that can cost around $25,000.00 time all is said and done; or you can find a shop such as I know of in Texas that overhauls those engines to Factory New Tolerances for $10,000.00 or less including R&R plus the larger accessories such as mags, starter, fuel system, etc. However, IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT! By that I mean that you may find that the mags were already overhauled in recent times as was the fuel system, so why do it again until needed? If all accessories are actually needed, then take that into account for cost of overhaul. These are things that YOU CAN CONTROL. So, at times it makes sense to buy an airplane with a higher time engine because coupled with the increase in book value vs. actual cost may make more sense than buying one with a "fresher" engine. (These are some of the things I advise my Mooneyland Customers), and things that can make the difference between ownership and not and you need to consider that the average owner who flies his airplane 100 hours per year, will take about 20 years to reach TBO on a fresh engine, and keep in mind that many properly maintained and operated engines can far exceed TBO; especially the O-360 180 HP Lycoming as found in the Mooney A, B, C, and G models. Many of those engines go up to 4,000 hours at flight schools. The IO-360 as found in the faster E, F, and J model Mooney's should not exceed TBO + 15-20% and only if engine health is assured beyond the 2,000 hour "suggested" TBO. Keep in mind that if either engine exceeds 2,000 hours, the oil pump should be changed which is far less the cost of the added time over and above TBO that you save. I know, the numbers can boggle the mind, but they are all relevant. and should be considered overall in the "ACTUAL" cost of ownership.

10. PAY CASH OR FINANCE? That's a toughie. Obviously if you can't get the bux together for the model of your choice, you pretty much have to finance at least part of it, and those loan costs (less the interest deduction) can and will add to the cost of ownership. If you own a company and register the airplane in your company name, then much of the cost to acquire and operate are deductable and depreciable, so many actually benefit from financing the bird. The downside is that if circumstances dictate that you don't get to fly for a time, you know your bird is sitting there having a sizable monthly mortgage payment like owning a second home that you barely use and it really becomes a liability, so you're more inclined to sell your airplane as a result, and that takes you back to square one. For most of us, you are more likely to have an enjoyable aircraft ownership experience if you have paid cash for your bird and don't have payments to add to your monthly nut.

11. YOUR MECHANIC! There are many knowledgeable, competent and honest mechanics out there.  If you value your wallet, you will do research in finding that mechanic. If you lazy out on this issue, then you get what you deserve! Our "Mooneylander's" get our help in locating an honest and reasonably priced mechanic because we ask our other "Mooneylander's" in your sector; who they use and of what opinion they are of that particular mechanic. More often than I care to realize is the fact that a money-driven mechanic can drive you out of aviation, so choose wisely in that department and realize that when you have an honest and knowledgeable mechanic working for you, you will have a safe airplane and because of the nature of the Mooney airframe plus a cheap to maintain Lycoming four banger for instance, your maintenance should not be all that much comparatively. Remember what I always say; that the more familiar you are with your airplane in and out, and if you're not lazy and fairly good with tools, you can really begin to save money in your ownership. Equip yourself with as much information about your airplane as you can. A great start is ordering Mooneyland's Service/Parts/Maintenance manuals as well as the New Book from Mooneyland:

 You need THIS and THIS (Package price available) and THIS . Sure it's a commercial, but the product of these commercials can train you to be the BEST PILOT that you can be because mechanically informed pilots make the safer pilots, plus the maintenance money you can save is no less than appreciable and the above items can and will save you gazillions over years of ownership.

12. IF YOU ARE LIKE MOST AIRCRAFT OWNERS......You don't have unlimited funds. So in order to afford your own airplane, some "sacrifices" are perhaps in order. Are most sacrifices worth it? You bet your ever-loving Flying Butt they are! Do you want to own your own "PERSONAL AIRLINER", your MAGIC CARPET to destinations you could only dream of doing on a given weekend or vacation? WHAT DO YOU DRIVE? Are you about to get a new car or SUV? DON'T! Costs of a new vehicle today can be more of a percentage of an airplane's acquisition cost than nearly ever before. Likewise car maintenance can be as expensive as or even exceed that of your airplane! Case and Point: My Lincoln had a short as it turns out in the brake light system; but that short took out the cruise control, the servo on the brake pedal that is used to put the car in gear, as well as my tail lights. I didn't have the time to trouble-shoot the problem and I needed the car so I put my baby, a low mileage and near new looking (1997 Lincoln Mark VIII) in the shop at the dealership. $525.00 later, I had learned that the problem was a shorted wire in the tail lamps which took out several fuses and a circuit breaker. Easy fix? You bet! Charge? $525.00 as reward for my laziness. The cost to repair that once trouble-shot would have been around $5.00! Get my drift? It is really up to you as to your ownership expenditures, and we're always here to help out our Mooneylander's in that department. We respectfully suggest that you keep to an absolute minimum how often you change your personal automobile as well as the type vehicle that you get. I'd rather drive some relatively cheap but reliable jalopy and own an airplane than to have the latest BMW or the like; wouldn't you? If not, then you don't want to own an airplane badly enough so my advice to you is to do some soul-searching on that issue. Are you a golfer, drag racer, boater, or Country Club membership type and there isn't enough money left to own an airplane? Well, you decide what is more important to you. To me, it will always be aviation!

13. DISADVANTAGES OF OWNING YOUR OWN AIRPLANE:

a. Cost.

b. Another thing to worry about affording.

c. You don't use it enough to justify ownership.

d. You won't maintain it due to money or time.

14. ADVANTAGES OF OWNING YOUR OWN AIRPLANE:

a. The Utility.

b. PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP (You won't know the feeling until you do!)

c. Sex Appeal. A reason to own; more than you know!

d. No more airliner hassles which are more prevalent with time.

e. You're not as likely to be the subject of some hijacker's wish to GIVE YOUR ALL FOR THEIR CAUSE, or at least you don't have to give that a thought.

f. You are more apt to take more trips, even on weekends that are otherwise unattainable without an airplane.

g. Becoming a better pilot because you get used to flying your own airplane instead of those you rent that are flown by who knows who and what he did to the bird on the last flight, plus you will eventually be able to locate something on your instrument panel without first seeing it.

h. No one searches you or your passengers.

i. You can beat most airline flights time-wise where your destination is 1,000 miles or less, and if you carry passengers, it is way much cheaper flying your own airplane.

j. Personal Goal achievement.

k. Absolute Convenience.

l. The ability to take her out of the hanger at 5:00 a.m. just to watch the sunrise at altitude.

m. The FUN of it!

n. The LOVE of it!

           The absolute LOVE;                The FUN!                                        The PRIDE!                 

15. THE UNDERSTANDING of knowing that you only go-round ONCE in life and if aviation is your passion and love as it is mine, then you do what you can to realize the REAL DREAM of owning your own personal AIRLINER.

16. ARE THERE WAYS to help pay for the operation of your own airplane? Sure there are and for those who are RESOURCEFUL ENOUGH; you'll think of ways to make owning an airplane more logically affordable such as Aerial Photography for instance. For those of our Mooneylander's that have stated their concern whether they can keep affording their airplane or not, I have successfully suggested that they can pick up some relatively easy money to help pay the bills. Most people have a half way decent camera and equipped with the proper zoom lens can often fly in their spare time taking aerial shots of some larger and newer homes, businesses and manufacturing plants, and things that look great from the sky. Using your map or GPS you can pinpoint the object; develop or download the photograph, blow it up; frame it with frames from the Dollar Store; knock on the subject's door and do a sales presentation of the object say; $250.00, and you will be surprised as to how many people would buy that aerial photo of their pride and joy home or business. You can even advertise locally for same. The cost to produce the photo is low, you get to fly your own bird, and make money while you're doing it without needing any kind of special personal or aircraft licensing to do so. Another way is to share your flight when traveling. There are websites such as and others.

17. ARE TIMES OF LOUSY ECONOMIES a wise time to purchase an airplane? You betcha! Right now you can buy an average airplane for about 20% less than in good economical times so figure it this way: You buy now at the reduced rate and then later realize the addition of added value once the economy recovers, or don't save the 20%. A no brainer; although it takes good sized CAJONIES to do that as I did when I needed a newer and larger RV. I bought a newer (2005) 37' luxury classed Fifth Wheel Trailer with 4 slide-outs that in usual times would cost over $35,000.00. Buying it in this current economy the unit only cost me $14,000 or: LESS THAN HALF the normal going rate! No one ever got rich by playing it safe, so armed with the right information or having someone like Mooneyland in your corner, you'll get the best deal available considering all, and save money all the while owning as most of our Mooneylander's often do. That is not to suggest that on your own you can't save in all areas of flight, but for me, I'd rather have a proven expert in my non-areas of expertise who can support and advise my idea of owning and operating a personal aircraft.

We at MOONEYLAND honestly hope that this article has provided some insight and value to you. Done right, aircraft ownership can be somewhat tamed in cost yet the REALIZATION OF OWNING YOUR OWN AIRPLANE can be easier met by keeping a few things in mind as presented by this Mooneyland Article.