Thanks for all the great info. but frankly, no one really answered my questions. The usual banter went back and forth, but the bottom line is…SR22s will rent at some point, they will be popular and there are many other aircraft on leaseback that are as difficult or more to fly than a Cirrus.
What do you think pilot minimums should be? What would you pay to fly a new 22 if you couldn’t afford or hadn’t taken delivery on your own 22?
My trade off for not owning the aircraft out right is really not my question nor is the pain of seeing my own aircraft not cared for.
OK Josh…since you are breaking new ground here, the correct answer is probably, “whatever you decide to charge…”
But seriously, this is probably the wrong group to ask, although many on this forum could proivide you with solid estimates of overall operating expenses. If I were you I would pound some pavement around the greater Bay Area and do some telephoning to Southern CA to see what’s charged for renting aircraft of comparable performance: 210’s, Bonanzas, late-model Mooneys, maybe even twin trainers like Duchess or Seminole. You could probably then add a premium to those rates (10%? 20%?) due to the SR22’s cachet. In addition, I would suggest contacting a couple of the fractional ownership outfits to see what their rates are: the combination of monthly fee and per hour wet rate, number of owners per plane and average yearly hours flown by each plane–most will tell you these things–will give you an idea of what you could reasonably charge.
My seat-of-the-pants guess would be around $175-185/hr wet. I ran the proposed SR22 numbers (as of 8-10 months ago) from the Tradewinds fractional group at RHV and that’s what I came up with for their 150 hr/year share. Whether that’s “fair” or not I haven’t a clue, but that’s what your competition will be. I have priced out a couple of fractional ownership arrangements and if you’re interested contact me off-line.
In the final analysis, if it doesn’t fly enough you’re charging too much, if it flies more than you want or the pool of renters becomes too large, then you’re charging too little. An SR22 for rent will be rather unique, so you’re inventing your own market and will have to evaluate it as it were, “on the fly.”
In my limited experience, the pilot minimums for any rental aircraft more exotic than a Skyhawk are set by the insurance company. You would be free make them more stringent, of course.
I think that it will be quite some time before the SR22 is available in the average rental program but here are a few items for consideration. We make the 20 and 22 available in our fractional ownership program, The minimum requirement that we set for a 20 is 200 hrs and private pilot ticket. The 22 requires 500 total time and your IFR rating. In both cases, each pilot must take the recommended Cirrus ground school which is about 6 hrs and must complete 15 hrs of dual flight training with a Cirrus qualified flight instructor.
Having said that, the cost to become a fractional owner in one of these beautiful planes ranges from $40K to $55K with monthly fixed costs of around $450 and wet costs around $120.
The company is currently offering its program in a few US cities at this time, one of which happens to be Las Vegas which is where I’m the man.
This may not be the best news for want-a-b Cirrus renters but it sure offers an alternative to sole ownership. I always say, if you can’t aford to fly a new Cirrus under our program than you probably will be waiting for a long time before you see this plane in local flying schools on a rental basis.
I would pay $185/hr wet. I’d require: IFR rated, 3 hours in type each 3 months, 25 hours in type initially either with a flight instructor or pilot current in plane, 500 hours total time, at least 40 hours prior actual IFR, and at least 50 hours of prior night flight. Clark Jernigan