Baron 58 vs. Meridian or older TBM 700

[peter185]

ackattacker,

Thanks for clearing up the takeoff distance issue, I had heard that the TBM was a little long on takeoff too, which is factoring into our aircraft upgrade decision with only 3400' of runway available.

One more question ackattacker would you put the hourly operating cost of the TBM at $350 an hour if fuel cost an average of $3/gallon.

 

[Geronimo4497]

$3 a gallon for jet fuel? Where, I'll be there shortly!

 

[ackattacker]

ackattacker,

Thanks for clearing up the takeoff distance issue, I had heard that the TBM was a little long on takeoff too, which is factoring into our aircraft upgrade decision with only 3400' of runway available.

One more question ackattacker would you put the hourly operating cost of the TBM at $350 an hour if fuel cost an average of $3/gallon.

The new C2 model advertises a 2800' takeoff distance over a 50' obstacle (due to the 800lb gross weight increase from the B model). Still should be OK with a 3400' runway.

I'm having trouble pulling up the spreadsheets I used to do the figuring, so I can't tell you what fuel cost I used (but it was probably somewhere around $2.40). I had concluded with an average hourly variable expense of $347/flight hour. So add another $30/hour. But there's a lot of assumptions in there, and at low utilizations the fixed expenses are actually much greater than the variable. At 350 hours per year for 5 years, taking into account the total cost of ownership, you're actually spending more like $625/hour.

If you're serious you'd be wise to get the latest Conklin and de Decker info. Although I flew the airplane a bit, I never managed one so I can't really add to their data. I recall that I used their info as a starting point when I did my analysis.

 

[peter185]

Geronimo,
Airnav says the national average for Jet A is $3.21, so the $3/gallon assumption is a little low.