As #270 I have a wait for my Cirrus but I have the benefit of renting one at Windy City Flyers. It is N5841 which is a “C”. I now have about 25 hours in it. I am finishing up my instument rating in it rather than a 172. I have concluded that it was the right thing to do because there is a lot to learn about the Garmin when you are doing it by yourself in IMC. (And it is fun to land.)
The Club will rent the Cirrus to non-members for $175 per hour. That is wet and the Hobbs has an air switch which comes on at 30 knots so you only pay for actual time off the ground. I find that the chargeable time comes out at about 65-75% of the actual time in the aircraft. The Clubs’ insurance requires a checkout , 250 hours total time and an instument rating to take the plane without an instructor.
The Club is at Palwaukee Airport just north of Chicago. Lots of nice farm and lake area to fly over in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Or you can land at Meigs Field - just like in the simulator. There is a motel right next to the Windy City office. Take a week off and satisfy your Cirrus longing!
$175/hour sounds quite steep, for those of us mired in the world of 172s. BUT:
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obviously they can charge a premium for offering what is the only rentable Cirrus on earth at the moment;
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on a price-per-trip basis, it actually may be a bargain compared to some conventional planes. Wings Aloft, here in Seattle, has rates that are high across the board. (In fairness, they have very good maintenance, a first-rate operation, etc.) For a 182RG they charge $158 an hour – and when the Cirrus’s “time in the air only” Hobbs meter is taken into account, the difference between the 182 and the SR20 is small. (I typically spend .2 or .3 on the Hobbs between engine start and takeoff at a busy airport like Boeing Field.) The Cirrus should be faster than the 182RG, it should also be safer, and it certainly is more comfortable, fun, stylish, and pleasant to fly. So any given trip in it might be both cheaper and faster than the same trip in a 182.
$175/hour sounds quite steep, for those of us mired in the world of 172s.
It does indeed sound steep, but look at like this;
Direct operating costs/hour: $50
Insurance and hangerage - say $10000/annum
Cost of investment: $200000 @ 8% 16000
Utilize at 300 hours/year, overheads are 86/hour so total cost/hour is $136. The profit margin of $39/hour is probably split between the club and the owner (I’m assuming it’s not actually owned by the club).
I don’t think that is a terribly big profit margin, though it’s probably higher than the norm for aircraft rental, but the SR20 does have a certain cachet absent from your typical 25-year old 172.
Your analysis is correct. And it is a $200,000 airplane which affects insurance costs and it is hangered which makes preflights pleasant in our Chicago winter and spring. (Unless you are agile enough to drain the tanks without putting a knee on the ground. ) Also factor in that for members it is $150 per hour. Especially in instrument training you spend a little extra time on the ground fully checking the autopilot, setting up the Garmin etc. I also hate to think of what it is costing me on a long taxi if I am paying for that time. But if you just want to bore around and build time a 172 is less expensive.
$175/hour sounds quite steep, for those of us mired in the world of 172s. BUT:
- obviously they can charge a premium for offering what is the only rentable Cirrus on earth at the moment;
- on a price-per-trip basis, it actually may be a bargain compared to some conventional planes. Wings Aloft, here in Seattle, has rates that are high across the board. (In fairness, they have very good maintenance, a first-rate operation, etc.) For a 182RG they charge $158 an hour – and when the Cirrus’s “time in the air only” Hobbs meter is taken into account, the difference between the 182 and the SR20 is small. (I typically spend .2 or .3 on the Hobbs between engine start and takeoff at a busy airport like Boeing Field.) The Cirrus should be faster than the 182RG, it should also be safer, and it certainly is more comfortable, fun, stylish, and pleasant to fly. So any given trip in it might be both cheaper and faster than the same trip in a 182.