Beechcraft Baron - Cost Of Ownership and Maintenance

it was in good shape and I bought it it's never had any damage history that that's recorded in any book anywhere and I can tell you it's never had damage history as long as I've had it alright I'm Dan Ritter from Cartersville Georgia and we're here today to talk about one of my favorite subjects the Beechcraft Baron and for15 Romeo whiskey Addie model Baron Beechcraft Baron made in 1969 great airplane I've had it for 12 years and it served me well ok let's talk about the cost of ownership of one of these aircraft and as everyone watching this will tell you it varies a great deal from place to place and to how you're handling the aircraft what you're doing with it but I can only tell you my experience if you break it down into your fixed cost it cost me $500 a month for a hanger and I definitely believe in a hanger I do not like an aircraft sitting outside it will end up cost you more money with the wear and tear of the sunlight and stuff on avionics than the $500 a month so $500 a month is is it whenever I travel which is fairly frequently I always try to put it in the hangar at night wherever I'm at sometimes not successful but I'd say 80% of the time it goes in a hangar from an insurance standpoint I have a little over 10,000 hours of flight time most of that's twin-engine time I'm an instrument-rated commercial pilot and so I'm paying 2,500 I think in 48 dollars a year for this aircraft for insurance I talked to a good friend of mine that has another baron and we're almost identical so I I don't know that's good or bad but I do know compared to a friend of mine who has similar type of experience it's it's fairly common amount of money so those are your insurance and your hangar cost the actual operating cost it runs me about 24 gallons our on the types of trips the types of use that I get out of the plane I use it almost all for business so consequently I'm taking it on to our plus trips most of the time yeah I'll get an hour hour-and-a-half trip here and there but most of the time I'm gone to two and a half three hours and that will average me 24 gallons per hour day in and day out if I fly two and a half hours I'll and I take two and a half times 24 tell the guy how much fuel I need and I'll be within a gallon it's that close so it's been very consistent that way all use oil hasn't been too bad on it I probably am running we change weather 25 hours and I'm probably adding two quarts between oil changes so the oil change hasn't been a big big problem or oil you see had you been a problem engines if you're gonna replace the engines you probably need to look at 28 to 30 thousand dollars maybe thirty two thousand dollars per engine by the time you get it replaced that's including buying a remanufactured engine and having somebody replace it we put these engines on they have a little over six hundred hours on them they've been great and I ended up with about fifty five thousand dollars in cost with these two engines when I put them on and that's been why maybe six years ago because I'm playing a little over a hundred hours a year now annuals we work a little bit different maybe than some of you in that we have what we call progressive maintenance we don't just leave everything build up until the annual and fix everything at one time we if I come back in from a trip and I have a squawk we fix it right there there the aircraft has been maintained I would say well above average as far as maintenance concern if you had to pin me down and say what would an annual cost I'm gonna throw a number out and I probably nod off over a couple hundred dollars twenty five hundred dollars a year for an annual so that let me give you a rough idea what it cost you to operate the aircraft talk a little bit about what I've done with the airplane into twelve years I've owned it mmm I'll probably skip a few things because there's are a lot of little things that you've done along the way but some of the highlights we talked a little bit about we're in a cabin ball the avionics upgrades it was in good shape and I bought it it's never had any damage history that that's recorded in any book ever and I can tell you it's never had damaged history as long as I've had it so it's been a good airplane not a lot of squawks on it we've upgraded the avionics which you talked a little bit in detail earlier we've put the LED lights in it we put the rosin visors in it someone prior to me put the thicker windows in it for soundproofing one thing we didn't mention is that aircraft comes equipped with the shoulder harnesses which I'm a big believer in short shoulder harnesses for aircraft so those are some of the AV some of the things that have been upgraded on this airplane that made it a really good cross-country airplane one of the things I didn't mention the Baron is a very stable instrument platform if you get a set up on an approach and you want to fly an approach this aircraft will do a superb job for you flying an approach it's just a really good stable airplane it's a fun airplane to fly instruments with well in thinking back over the 12 years as to some of the flights I've had with with old for15 Romeo whiskey a couple of things come to mind I mentioned earlier that I've had it in a lot of states around the United States we've spent a fair amount of time in Montana it does really well up at ltitude in the higher elevations of Montana and I can go to Montana and come back with one stop and stopping in Nebraska get fuel and go to Montana if I Drive to Montana it takes me three days if I fly to Montana it takes me about six and a half seven hours so it's a big difference my wife and I have had some really good trips in the airplane a few years ago we and one of the ways I use it again let's go back to how I use it business-wise very seldom I I guess I've never taken off and flown into California just to go to California if I'm going to go to California which I have done it's because I've taken hops maybe I've gone to Kansas City maybe I've gone into Mexico maybe I gun to Denver Salt Lake City I've I've set up appointments where I can make hops give there take care of my business and go on to the next place a few years ago we have trade show in Las Vegas we took off made a call in st. Louis another call in western Kansas spent the night in Santa Fe New Mexico had a great time there flew on into Las Vegas after Vegas we went to another small trade show in Reno Nevada came and called on a customer in Salt Lake City back to call on Cabela's in western Nebraska and then back to a call in the eastern Nebraska st. Louis for another trade show and back home so that's the kind of trips that I like that you can really get a lot of use out of the airplane when the trips I just mentioned by going out to st. Louis and western Kansas most of those flights at least not as far as western Kansas I was at 10,000 feet interesting sidenote once we left st. Louis almost all the way to western Kansas we were flying in the remnants of a hurricane Hurricane Hugo aircraft did great it was a nice smooth flight but lots of rain all solid IFR until we got within about 100 miles of our destination in western Kansas so but we're at 10,000 feet like I said burnin about 24 gallons an hour 183 185 knots true airspeed so it's a very good cross-country airplane now once we get out in the mountain I usually I'll take it up to 13,000 I have some onboard oxygen above above eleven twelve thousand I like to wear oxygen and I'll take it up to thirteen thousand aircraft does great up there it has no problem at all thirteen thousand so friend of mine has a beam model Baron he's had he has at fifteen thousand says it does well I've just never had the need to go that high well I guess I've come to the point now where I'm probably gonna sell the airplane everybody says why are you gonna sell it you've had airplanes all your life well there's actually two reasons one I sold my company and as I mentioned earlier I really am a person that uses airplanes for for business and I use it for for travel to go out and call in customers and stuff I'm not the guy that comes to the airport on Saturday and just goes for an hour flight to go get a hamburger someplace I so I really don't have a great need for it anymore secondly I'm 77 years old and even though I feel like I'm in pretty good shape the FAA says I'm good enough to have a class three medical my wife says I need to hang it up so I'm gonna listen to my wife first and probably go ahead and sell the airplane anyone that's interested in hearing more about my story with with the good old Baron weren't happy to talk to you my number is four oh four six two six nine three zero zero [Music]

Channel: MojoGrip

Views: 211,269

Keywords: beechcraft baron, beechcraft bonanza, twin engine aircraft, ownership cost, aircraft maintenance cost, airplane for sale, aircraft for sale, 1969 beechcraft baron, baron d55, beechcraft baron g58, mul

Id: RXO_eH7UzZY

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 23 2018