For amusement, I added up all my expenses for my Citation V in the calendar year 2022.

Flight time: 122.1 hours

Fuel: $114,860
- 23,657 gallons
- average price $4.86
- block 193 gph

Maintenance: $17,550
- phase 1-4
- ACM rebuild
- misc other tasks
- tracking service (Sierratrax)
- washes

Parts: $25,244
- ACM OH
- new ignitor leads
- engine covers
- ignitors (spares, not used yet)
- tires (spares, not used yet)
- oxygen tank (preparing for 2023 replacement)
- engine oil
- misc parts

Total direct operating cost: $157,654
- $1291 per flight hour

Fees: $3728
- ramp/facility
- parking (most of it)
- landing
- misc fees

Hangar: $8,895

Insurance: $12,311

Services: $2,616
- dues for CAA, CJP
- nav data subscription
- Airtext service

I've attached a spreadsheet so you can see the actual data, every expense I incurred in 2022 related to the airplane.

2023 is trending less due to no big inspections due, lower fuel prices, flying the plane a bit more efficiently (using less than MCT much of the time), more aggressive about fuel tankering, and not fixing latent faults nearly as much as 2022 (like the wrong ignitor leads, $2K in 2022). 2023 did have my AOG hydraulic event, and I had a set of 10,000 hour inspections done (no findings), but nothing else major so far. My 2022 costs also included stocking spares (about $5K of ignitors and tires). I expect I will be under $1200/hour DOC in 2023.

I'm building a spare inventory which lets me shop in advance for materials so I can get them cheaper and have them ready when I need them. Tires were the big win in 2022 and I still have the set unused (they are lasting much longer than I expected). I picked up a cheap oxygen bottle in 2022 since I knew my bottle would time out, it has already been put in the plane saving me a few $K.

Nothing like real honest data when it comes to operating costs.

Mike C.

I know nothing about jets, but I don’t see you listing the annual? Maybe that’s what phase 1-4 is?
Also don’t see training included, I thought simulator time was mandatory?

Mike-

How does this square up with your predicted expenses before buying the Citation?

Phases are Inspection Program events rather than an annual.

Those are very good numbers and many are much less that we are paying for a C-441 (other than fuel).

We just spent $50k on maintenance in the last month for an ACM overhaul and a bunch of inspections.

Our insurance is double of yours as we were told that insurance companies are shying away from insuring older turboprops.

Thanks for sharing Mike.

While the anecdotal ownership cost stories are entertaining, nothing can substitute for a spreadsheet with hard data.

This is very useful for those of us who might aspire to move up to something Jet A someday.

Cheers

Planes in this class (multi engine turbine) get inspected on a progressive plan per 91.409(e). There is no "annual" per se.

The primary inspections are phases 1 to 5. Phase 1-4 are due every 3 years and 450 hours. Phase 5 is due every 6 years and 1200 hours. These intervals are extended by a "low utilization maintenance plan", a LUMP, which is something Textron offers (for a one time fee) versus the normal intervals. This plan qualifies under 91.409(f)(3) since Textron provides it.

There are a bunch of other phases that occur at varying intervals. To keep track of all that, jet owners usually have a maintenance tracking service. I use Sierratrax for this purpose. It is currently tracking 994 items which includes inspections, life limited parts, and parts in general. For example, my GI 275 battery capacity check was last done on May 1, 2023 and is valid until May 31, 2024. The tracking software sorts the items so the items due soonest are at the top.


Training is mandatory, use of a simulator is not. I did not include pilot related expenses.

In my case, in 2022 I paid $12,800 to Flightsafety for two simulator 61.58 SPE recurrent courses, which is $6,400 per course. The "SPE" stands for single pilot exemption which means I do extra training to be able to fly the plane single pilot, otherwise it would require two pilots.

Other pilot related expenses (such as medical exam) are not included in the list.

Mike C.

You may consider calculating two other numbers

Spend per NM
Spend per Seat

Thank you, very interesting. The two numbers that surprised me were insurance and hangar. Both seemed very reasonable. I pay more for a 44' wide T hangar for my Baron and insurance on my Baron runs closer 1.5% of hull value.

Fuel - higher (due to the fuel prices being elevated). I bought the plane when fuel was in the low $3 range. Cheapest fuel I got was $3.20 at KCUL self serve pump in early 2022. Most expensive was $7.58 at KTYS. As the year progressed, I became more adept at buying fuel cheaper (loading up when it was low, buying less when high). By the end of the year, prices did start to abate somewhat but my overall average was $4.86. This year is much better. I mostly use Everest (works at my home field) and CAA works at most destinations) for contract fuel, and some low retail prices as well.

Maintenance and parts - Lower than I expected. You always fear this part. The ACM was a worry because it was 5000 hours since last overhaul (recommended TBO) and sure enough it needed it. But I found the right vendor who does the real work (not passing it through middlemen). My ACM turbine was OH for $10,000. Textron wants $24,206 for an exchange unit, $50,000 core charge, and warns that if the unit is seized, you will not get back all of the core charge (my unit was seized). That is a potential exposure of $74,206. I was so worried about the unit that I bought a used turbine for $7984 and sent both that unit and my unit in for OH, hoping to get one unit back. In the end, the vendor said both were repairable, my old one for $13K and my newly bought one for $10K. I had my newly bought one OH and used in my plane and then I later sold the other unit for $8K to someone else (while it was sitting at the OH vendor) and they had it OH and put in their inventory.

This is what the ACM package unit looked like during rebuild.

And after it was ready to go back in.

I did much of the work on the ACM personally. It is a much feared thing but really not that bad. It helped that I manage to find the manuals for it so I had really good data on the process (most mechanics don't).

As for fire bottles, I had a mixture of Kidde style and Pacific Sciences style. The PS style is cheaper to maintain, so I bought a used fire bottle, had it OH, and put it in the plane. My used Kidde style was removed and I have it for sale (so far, no takers). This meant it cost me more to unify my bottles in 2022, but long term it will be cheaper. I always try to choose the long term cheaper option.

In my parts cost for 2022 are parts I didn't use in 2022 such as tired ($2K), two ignitors ($3K, if I don't meet free shipping minimum, I throw an ignitor on the order, I'll need them eventually and good to carry spares), oxygen bottle ($1K, now installed). If you can plan ahead and inventory spares you know you will need, it saves money and reduces down time.

Insurance - I was carrying minimal insurance so very low cost but not much coverage. Basically I was insured for the hull and even that was below market. This year I increased coverage as my time in type has improved.

Fees - more than I would like. Sometimes it pays to not buy fuel and pay the ramp fee, sometimes not. I had a lot of business at some high priced places. Transient parking can be expensive, $100/night adds up fast. I did pay for 4 nights of hangar ($500) at KLWM during a winter trip with storms. Cheaper than a deice.

Hangar - Tri State was getting ready to sell themselves so they jacked prices a huge amount (hangar would have been over $1800/month). Plus local fuel was expensive. So I moved the plane to Henderson, KY KEHR. Penalty is 10 minutes extra drive. Savings are hangar at $720, maintenance on field, and much lower fuel costs. Expected yearly savings from the move is about $25,000 once you consider flying the plane for maintenance.

Services - Being able to fully update the databases for under $1K for a jet is ridiculous. That is a very nice feature of Garmin panel update, I get to rid the economic profile of smaller airplanes for the same data. Don't anybody tell Garmin this! Dues at CAA get me cheap fuel, dues at CJP get me information from other Citation operators (and also a yearly $500 coupon from Textron which I use for parts).

Overall, I expected to be about 50% more per mile than the MU2 and it is turning out to be somewhat less than that, say about 35% more per mile. Given how economical the MU2 was, this is pretty good. A 501 is not a lot better in cost per mile since they are slow, so the penalty for having the faster airplane with the big cabin is relatively small. I am flying with more people on board now, very rarely alone, and I've had 9 once and 7 or more a number of times.

Mike C.

Using direct operating cost (fuel, maintenance, parts):

Assuming a block speed of ~360 knots: $3.59/nm

Assuming 9 seats full: $0.40 per seat/nm.

The block speed is a guess, but should be pretty close.

Mike C.

Very good numbers

The engineer in me loves this!

The pilot in me loves this!

The accountant in me ... will be happy to continue flying my 182

Thanks for sharing!

What about property tax on the aircraft/hangar?

What's crazy is the rent on my single-engine T-hangar is just as much as yours.

I also have to pay the same county I rent the hangar from, property tax on the hangar, as well as the aircraft.

Property tax on my airplane is just over $4000 a year.

Sounds like California problems