What Does It Really Cost Per Hour to Own a Cessna 172?

When I owned a plane, I kept getting asked the same question: "So what does it actually cost you per hour?" The honest answer is that it depends on one number most people never think about, which is how many hours you really fly.

Here's how to work it out for a Cessna 172, or really any single-engine plane you fly under Part 91.

Two kinds of costs

Every airplane has two buckets of cost.

Fixed costs are what you pay whether you fly or not:

• Hangar or tie-down
• Insurance
• The annual inspection
• Loan payments, or the money tied up in the plane that could be earning something elsewhere
• Subscriptions like databases and charts

Hourly costs are what you pay only when the engine is running:

• Fuel
• Oil
• An engine reserve, which is money you set aside every hour for the overhaul you'll eventually need
• A maintenance reserve for the squawks and parts that come up between annuals

The formula

True hourly cost = (fixed costs per year ÷ hours flown per year) + hourly costs

The first half of that formula is why two owners of the same airplane can have very different costs.

A worked example

These are example numbers only, for illustration. Your hangar, insurance, fuel price, and engine will all be different, so plug in your own.

Fixed costs per year (example):

• Hangar: $3,600
• Insurance: $1,800
• Annual inspection: $2,500
• Everything else: $600
• Total: $8,500

Hourly costs (example):

• Fuel: 8.5 gal/hr × $6.00 = $51.00
• Oil: $2.00
• Engine reserve: $30,000 overhaul ÷ 2,000 hours = $15.00
• Maintenance reserve: $10.00
• Total: $78.00 per hour

Now look what happens as you fly more:

Same airplane, same owner. Flying 50 hours a year costs almost twice as much per hour as flying 150.

The reserves people skip

The two lines most new owners leave out are the engine reserve and the maintenance reserve. Skipping them makes the hourly number look great, right up until the engine hits TBO or a cylinder needs replacing. Setting the money aside each hour turns a surprise bill into a planned one.

Renting vs. owning

Once you have your true hourly cost, compare it with the wet rental rate at your local FBO or club. If you fly only a little, renting often wins. As your hours go up, owning starts to make more sense. The point where the two lines cross is your break-even.

Sharing the plane

Partnerships change the math a lot. A common setup splits fixed costs by ownership share and hourly costs by the tach time each partner actually flies. Two partners at 75 hours each can end up with a much lower hourly cost than one owner flying 75 hours alone.

Run your own numbers

I built TachTime 91's free calculator to do exactly this math: true hourly cost, rent vs. own, and partnership shares. It's free, with no card needed. Put in your real numbers and see where you land.

If you already own, the TachTime 91 Tracker also counts down your annual, oil changes, ELT, VOR, and ADs by tach and calendar, whichever comes first. It costs $8 a month or $79 a year per aircraft, and the first month is free with no card needed.

TachTime 91 is a planning aid. It isn't a logbook and doesn't determine airworthiness; official records stay in your aircraft logbooks, and airworthiness is the owner/operator's call.