I believe Mike is in a community hangar with valet service so the property tax would be borne by the FBO. I have the same setup - $495/month w/ CAA price for based tenants, free GPU, etc.

I am no expert but a quick web search shows sales/excise tax on airplanes in Indiana but no property tax. It is the same here in Oklahoma. Also, aircraft over 30 years old qualify as antique and annual reg fee is only $10.00.

I'm confused by your extremely low maintenance costs.

I see the charge for the ACM overhaul, but no labor to remove or install it.
I see a charge for new tires, but no labor to change them.
Same goes for ignitor leads, "door parts", oxygen tank, etc...
They don't seem to be lumped in with the phase 1-4 since the dates don't match.

Where are those charges? Did you bundle them in with the parts charges?

Hi Mike,

As always Thank You for Sharing this information - very helpful!

Ken
Flying the Duke but looking to upgrade

He states in the OP that he was actively evolved in the ACM repair and the tires and other parts he states that he purchased as on hand spares that are still in his inventory.

He states in the OP that he was actively evolved in the ACM repair and the tires and other parts he states that he purchased as on hand spares that are still in his inventory.

Smart move on the tires! A tire and rim for a CJ4 was nearly 30AMU a few weeks ago.

I'm not.

See attached invoice for the phase 1-4 and the various fixes, including the ACM work.

You will see that I am driving a lot of the squawk list. "Owner reports ..." I carefully collect each and every issue I find, sometimes I do my own diagnosis when I can, and thus the issues are well understood before we even hit the shop.

For the inspection tasks, I review the list of them and some of them I can do. Like, for example, there are some run up tests and I did them, documented them, and the mechanic signs them off.


Tires are in spares inventory currently. Given there is no recap operations any more, I'm going to take my existing set down to the limit and then replace them. An advantage of having home base maintenance is that I can do "spontaneous" small work which can get me more life on things like tires and batteries.


Oxygen tank was installed in 2023, so no labor in 2022, but it was done (and paid for).


The invoice for the work came WAY after the shop was done. The phase 1-4 was in August, invoice closed in December. I would prefer they bill more promptly.


They are on the invoice.

Mike C.

Makes sense now - thanks for the updates!

I can't afford to buy a 182, have you seen those prices? :-)

I have been fortunate enough to afford to fly the plane I have. I use it mostly for business where it really improves my ability to serve clients and saves man days for my staff. My staff is now far more willing to do site trips with the Citation.

I've notice that my business success ramps up to a new level right after I get that next level up airplane. I don't know if the plane creates the success, or my need to pay for it motivates me, but either way, it correlates to my business growing.

The Citation V will be the pinnacle of my aviation career. I'll fly it until I retire and then get something more sedate. But for now, I'm living the dream and liking it a lot.

Mike C.

Very good question, but with a complex answer.

There is no property tax on the hangar. At both KEVV (first 4 months or 2022) and at KEHR (remainder of the year), the hangar is community hangar with valet service. I don't actually have a "spot", my plane may be put in various places.

As for tax on the airplane, that's more complex. First off, the owner of the plane is "Ciholas Aviation LLC" which basically has one asset, the plane. The plane is then leased to "Ciholas, Inc" the main business. The purchase price of the airplane was NOT subject to sales tax due to being bought for leasing, but the lease payments ARE subject to sales tax. So for the first 4 months of 2022, we paid sales tax to Indiana. Then it was moved to Kentucky and we now pay sales tax to Kentucky. This move was a bit of a complex legal thing.

I don't list the sales tax payments on the lease as operating expense since it is just an optimization on sales tax payments. If I were to do it again, I would NOT make this same arrangement and just go ahead and pay the sales tax at purchase time. The reasons are a story for another day.

That leaves property tax. In Indiana, that is simple for a plane of this age (over 30 years), there is an excise tax of $0.01 per lbs of max weight. So my yearly tax was about $160. Not big deal.

Kentucky is different, you have to file a form stating the market value and then various state, county, and possibly city tax rates are applied to that. I've yet to pay any Kentucky property tax since they haven't sent me an invoice for it yet. I think the tax will be about $500/year, but still waiting for confirmation.

So, no, property tax is not reflected in the numbers but it is not a very big number.

Indiana doesn't charge sales tax on aircraft parts, and Kentucky does. So I order my parts to be shipped to my office. Any parts my shop buys come with sales tax, so the more I can handle parts procurement, especially expensive items like ACM turbines, the better I am.

The ideal arrangement would be if the shop in Kentucky would exist in Indiana. Alas, not the way it is.

Mike C.

I'd love to find a set of main wheels so I can have mounted spares ready to go. That would be very nice!

But Textron wants $43K list, $28K with my discount, for one wheel. That's $56K for a pair.

I'm okay having to remount my existing wheels when my tires need to be changed. Yup, totally fine with that.

Mike C.

I'd love to find a set of main wheels so I can have mounted spares ready to go. That would be very nice!

But Textron wants $43K list, $28K with my discount, for one wheel. That's $56K for a pair.

I'm okay having to remount my existing wheels when my tires need to be changed. Yup, totally fine with that.

Mike C.

I simply applied to be a buyer from my company at Textron.

I was a credit card account, then moved to a net 30 account recently. The discount levels didn't change.

They do vary a lot from part to part, some parts have no discount, some can be over 50%.

Textron can have outstanding prices on some things, usually things you can buy commonly that aren't proprietary parts. I've bought a fair amount of stuff from them.

They can also have bizarrely high prices for things that make no sense. The brake system has two pressure switches, one runs the pump motor and the other lights a warning if too low. BOTH switches were broken on my plane when I bought it such that OCCASIONALLY my brake pump would not run (stuck open) and the warning switch wouldn't light either. In the first 6 months I would occasionally find I had no brakes on landing. Happened 9 times. Mechanics would fix various things, but it wasn't until I attached a voltage logger to the system did I find the motor switch was busted.

Textron wanted $1188 for the warning switch, $5650 for the motor switch. They are literally the same switch, made by the same company, just with a different pressure set point.

Textron has a way to ask for a price adjustment. So I sent in a request to review the pricing. In about 3 days, they lowered the price of the motor switch to $1000. So I bought the motor switch at $1000 and the warning switch at $1188, had them installed, brakes have been fine ever since. Just by asking, I saved $4650.

I subsequently asked about the warning switch being more, and now that switch is $756 today. The motor switch is currently $1767. Just by asking, I saved $4650. I have since used this method to get a number of adjustments.

Some parts are just wickedly expensive, for seemingly simple parts. Here is a small 2 inch diameter clear plastic window with three fastener holes used to see fluid levels on preflight in the nose compartment:

$581 for that? A price review yielded no movement at Textron. So if I need one of these (I have a mildly cracked one, but serviceable), I'll just make it from sheet stock.

Mike C.

I simply applied to be a buyer from my company at Textron.

I was a credit card account, then moved to a net 30 account recently. The discount levels didn't change.

They do vary a lot from part to part, some parts have no discount, some can be over 50%.

Textron can have outstanding prices on some things, usually things you can buy commonly that aren't proprietary parts. I've bought a fair amount of stuff from them.

They can also have bizarrely high prices for things that make no sense. The brake system has two pressure switches, one runs the pump motor and the other lights a warning if too low. BOTH switches were broken on my plane when I bought it such that OCCASIONALLY my brake pump would not run (stuck open) and the warning switch wouldn't light either. In the first 6 months I would occasionally find I had no brakes on landing. Happened 9 times. Mechanics would fix various things, but it wasn't until I attached a voltage logger to the system did I find the motor switch was busted.

Textron wanted $1188 for the warning switch, $5650 for the motor switch. They are literally the same switch, made by the same company, just with a different pressure set point.

Textron has a way to ask for a price adjustment. So I sent in a request to review the pricing. In about 3 days, they lowered the price of the motor switch to $1000. So I bought the motor switch at $1000 and the warning switch at $1188, had them installed, brakes have been fine ever since. Just by asking, I saved $4650.

I subsequently asked about the warning switch being more, and now that switch is $756 today. The motor switch is currently $1767. Just by asking, I saved $4650. I have since used this method to get a number of adjustments.

Some parts are just wickedly expensive, for seemingly simple parts. Here is a small 2 inch diameter clear plastic window with three fastener holes used to see fluid levels on preflight in the nose compartment:

$581 for that? A price review yielded no movement at Textron. So if I need one of these (I have a mildly cracked one, but serviceable), I'll just make it from sheet stock.

Mike C.