It costs approximately $5 per hour for a major overhaul (if all goes well)
Although, for the used airplane buyer, the actual set-aside depends on how many hours the engine already has.
For example, if you buy a 150 with 1200 hours SMOH, you might figure on an overhaul at 1800 hours. (My understanding, as a non-owner myself, is that the average time-between-overhauls is less than that "in the real world".)
An overhaul would be, what, $12,000? So if you set aside $20 an hour into an account, you'd be guaranteed to have 12G by the time 1800 hours rolled around.
If you had only 600 SMOH, you've got twice as long to get to 1800, so the set-aside would be half that.
Or you could just wing it, and scrape up the dough when the time comes.
What do most folks here do?
- Jeff
P.S. If you haven't checked it out already, AOPA has an operating cost calculator on their "Aircraft Valuation" page. I think you have to be a member to get to it, but hey, you should be one anyway.
