Daniel Oppenheim - AOPA Pilot Information Center

Hi everyone,
I am in the market to acquire a new 6 seater, but would like to get an advanced idea of what I may be getting myself into regarding yearly maintenance costs. I know there are websites out there that will sell access to specific aircraft's maintenance cost expectations. Has anyone used these and found them worth the subscription costs? If so, which would you recommend?

thanks in advance.

dmk

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Daniel Oppenheim Sep '20

This is a loaded question; Fixed gear or retractable? Turbo or normally aspirated? Each of these items adds incremental cost to maintenance. Prepare to spend more on your first annual as your IA might spot items that were previously missed. On a 6 place single, you can figure roughly 20-25 hours for a basic inspection and then go from there, depending on what’s found. Also, you may want to budget something like $3000 annually for “unexpected” items, like an alternator or starter going bad or something similar. Unless you’re buying new with a warranty, it’s safe to say you’ll easily spend between $3,000 and $6,000 annually on inspections and recurring maintenance, “surprises” notwithstanding. If you can assist in annuals and other maintenance items, then that number will be on the lower end.

Dan