Any Pitts Owners?

[FL510GV]

I'm looking for some general figures here...

How much for MX, Fuel, Insurance etc annually for about 75 hours of flight time?

Thanks.

 

[flydog]

You didnt say wether you were interested in the 2 seat S-2B or the single seat S-1S variant so here is the info for both. As a rule of thumb the costs of owning the 2 seater are triple the single seater mostly due to higher insurance and maintenance costs. The S-2B has more systems and weak points and 2 of everything. The 2 seater also has some costly ADs such as the prop hub. If the prop hub is the original Hartzell it cannot be overhauled and must be replaced with a new unit.

If shopping for an S-2B stay away from the original cotton fabric and high time Hartzell props. Common problems are the fabric ($25,000 to recover), crankshaft cracks (have it magnafluxed during prebuy as a new crank is $15,000 + engine teardown), and crushing of the drag wire blocks inside the wings (all the wing inspection holes need to be opened up during prebuy to check tension of drag wires). Loose drag wires eventually lead to cracked spar and failure of the wing at the rear spar fitting. Also check the longerons near the firewall area for cracking. There is also an AD for the rear spar fitting that requires either repetitive inspection every 50 hrs or welding a reinforcement. This requires removing the wings and a lot of time and money. There are a bunch of $60,000 S-2Bs out there but by the time you replace the fabric and any problems youll be out $100,000. Spend the money on a good example.


S-2B- about $150 hr

Insurance runs about 3% of hull $2,500-$3,000
Typical annual $1,800-$2,500
Parachute repack 120 day $300-$500

D.O.C.

Fuel 16 GPH @ $2.50 $40 hr
O/H 1600 TBO $15 hr
Propeller O/H $5 hr
Maintenance reserve $20 hr

I didnt include a reserve for recovering but figure every 15 yrs @ $25,000 if current fabric is recent.



S-1S - about $60 hr

Insurance about 2.5% of hull $1,200-$1,700
Typical annual $800-$1,400
Parachute repack $150-$250

D.O.C.

Fuel 8 GPH @ $2.50 $20 hr
O/H 2000 TBO $8 hr
Maintenance reserve $5 hr


PM me if you have any specific questions about Pitts or acro in general. I own one and have time in most of the Pitts variants.

 

[FL510GV]

Great info flydog. You are the man. I'm off for a trip, but will be in touch.