That's it in a nutshell.

Since there were some questions about numbers, I pulled my financials over the holiday weekend to give you all some actuals.

In three years of owning the plane, I've flown it 164.5 hours , averaging 54.8 hours per year (note these are actual flight hours based on the squat switch). I had planned on 80-100 hours per year but the reality is this plane is faster and as a result, less hours flown for same number/distance trips. Obviously more hours will drop hourly costs until you hit >100 hours per year when a second 100 hour inspection becomes necessary (the 100 hour is required every 100 hours or annually).

So, costs:

Fuel - $63,798.43 or $387.83/hour.

Just for giggles --
If fuel costs $4.41/gal (my average cost this year), that equates to 87.9 gph.
If fuel costs $6.30/gal (ballpark number for 100LL), that would equate to 61.56 gph (which is not much higher than what you would actually be burning in a cabin-class piston twin). This is what drives my conclusion that fuel costs per hour and per trip are pretty close to a wash between the MU-2 and the 421.

Maintenance - $43,551.56 or $264.75/hour. This is for all maintenance. I had three unscheduled maintenance items in the first year of ownership (a failed beta switch, a blown oleo seal and a failed pressure reg valve). Cost of those three items was $1,982.73. My second year I did replace both batteries but that is necessary around every 5 years or so, I just happened to get it that year (the batteries were 5.5 years old).

In addition, $10,142.33 of that $43K in maintenance was optional -- I chose to have all the autopilot servos overhauled because I couldn't find a record of when they had been overhauled in this 35 year old plane and I felt it prudent to perform this proactive maintenance. If not for that choice, my total maintenance would have been $33,409.23 or $203.10/hour, $11,136.41/year.

Insurance (1M smooth with a 500K hull value) was $9,814.00 the first year, this year it was $7,715. My initial training cost $7K, recurrent is $3K annually.

So what is the grand total counting everything (hangar, GPS subscriptions, insurance, maintenance, fuel, note on plane...literally every dime spent)? $243,187.03 or $1,478.34/hour. If you subtract the cost of the loan out of it, the numbers become $189,579.67 or $1,152.46/hour.

Bottom line (as others have said), with a turbine your fuel burn goes up, but fuel is cheaper and you fly faster so fuel costs end up being pretty close to what you would pay for a cabin class twin. With the exception of major maintenance events (which you can plan for), you tend to go inspection to inspection with no MX issues and I think $12K/year is a good round number for an MU-2. In the research I did before purchasing, I found that King Air MX tended to be more (to the tune of somewhere between 50-100% more) than the MU-2. Part of this are the Beech/Raytheon/Hawker/whatever SIDS and pricey MX events and part is the difference in MX between a Garrett and a P&W PT-6.

Again, you can play with these numbers all you want and obviously they can be interpreted many ways. I look at it as my first hour of the year costing me $12K for the hangar, $8K for insurance, $3K for recurrent training, $12K for MX or a total of $35K. After that, every flight hour costs me around $400 for fuel.

Obviously I haven't talked about the cost of money...but this is part of the reason I have a low interest note vice tying up all my money in the plane. Both approaches have pros and cons, this was just the approach I took.

Hope this is helpful to others.

Dave

I felt my wallet shudder in my pocket when I read this post...

Can you tell us avg. trip length and block speeds? I'm curious about cost/NM.

Best,

Lot of variation among MU2s, almost as much among King Airs, dependent upon

1) engines (-10>>-5 or -6>>-1)
2) short/long body (short >> long)
3) 3 vs 4 blade props. (3 > 4)

Fair amount of information at
http://www.anacondaaviation.com/tech.htm

The fltplan.com models are reputed to be accurate and show the Marquise (long body, -10, 4 blade) blocking about 260 kts. (They have 421 blocking just under 200)

Im looking to apply David's #s to his expenses...

I have a Marquise (-10 engines). Average TAS is 270kts (and a good number I use for flight planning). I do have some older, higher time engine so my plane is probably one of the slower Marquise's out there...

Average trip length is probably around 600-700nm. Coast to Coast is generally with one fuel stop, anywhere KS,OK,TX East is non-stop (I base out of Manassas, VA near Washington, DC).

Yeah, but look at his profile/avatar picture (I case it doesn't show, here is an artists rendering of it: ).

Yeah...it makes you smile every time you realize you're flying such an incredible machine with that kind of performance. Also, if you look at the pic, the left engine is shut down...cuts your fuel burn by 50%! (Just kidding).

What, an engine shut down ? I thought they immediately turn into a deathly lawn-dart the second that happens (its on the internet, and they can't put anything that isn't true on the internet, bonjour!)

You got it Florian. The plane is such a death trap that since the SFAR went into effect (requiring pilots who fly this plane to be trained in how to fly it correctly...what a concept) it is now the safest twin turbo prop in the world! Clearly every time I go to recurrent training or perform an engine shutdown to verify the NTS system is functioning correctly I am on the edge of death (sarcasm).

It's amazing how many internet experts (and even lawyers and legal experts who testified at trials about the MU-2)...have never flown one...

Yep, the safest turboprop in the world...yet I don't think the world knows that yet.