cessnapilotmfe

Hello, I have been following this forum for about 6 months and I am looking for some assistance in figuring the rental rate for a Cessna 310.

We are currently reviewing the idea starting a multi engine school and rental company in Deep South Texas, and I would like to know how to compute the rental rate for a 1979 310R, as well as breakdowns of costs to consider for charging rental hours in the aircraft. As well as assistance on going about leasing this aircraft to renters. Any help is appreciated.

JPilot23

You will have a hard time operating it for under $400 wet and $350 dry.
Your best bet would probably be to sell block time at a bit of discount per hour.
Target customers would be to rent for cross country's...It is a complex aircraft to teach initial multi students in and not the greatest for the engines.

Outlaw2097

A company in Lafayette rents theirs for ~$325.

Have you looked into something else?

FlyJSH

Here is what I found after a quick Google:

T&G Flying Club, Inc.

Aircraft And their requirements for rental: Rental Requirements

Assuming 28 gal/hr per side at $4 per gallon, yields a fuel cost of $224 per hour. Assuming roughly 30 hours (my guess based on 20 hours for a 182) of labor for a 100 hour inspection at a rate of $60 an hour, you can add $18 per hour. That puts us up to $242 per hour plus parts (I wouldn't hazard a guess at that without a VERY thorough pre-buy inspection). And don't forget insurance and hanger fees (if you choose a tie down, assume you will be repainting about 5 times as often: McAllen sun is murder on paint). Guessing about $15000 per year. So if it rents out 30 hours per month that adds another $40 per hour.

That puts costs over $300 per hour.

joepilot

That fuel flow is on the high side. 20 gal/hr/eng should be closer, assuming 75% power. That would give you fuel cost of $160/hr. Of course if your renters leave the throttles and props full forward, your fuel bill will be higher, but not as high as the engine overhaul bill.

Joe

cessnapilotmfe

oh, I appreciate the help, now, lets say i sell it as a package to primary and cross country pilots for 6 hours at 1680 for a block of 6 hours, will it still be sufficient at that price?

Ewfflyer

Are you sure about those FF's? 20gph per engine?

65% cruise is 26-28gph total on the R-Model with IO-520's(not sure if the 550's burn that much more). I would know, I have 2000 hours of seat time in the C310R, and honestly, I would run them 25"/2100RPM to get it down to 22 and still get about the same cruise speed, or 21-squared and get it around 18gph.

I know in the training environment, you're going to be doing a lot of high mixture power settings, but are you assuming you're going to be operating the mixtures at 75% climb power the whole time? There's a point in MEL training where really you're going to be at 23/2300 most of the time, or really since it is training, why use such high power settings.

If you like your airplane, you will set standards in your training environment where the power settings should be on the low side for manuevering and shooting approaches(18"/2300 comes to mind). Benefits are A: Lower fuel consumption B: Engines will last a lot longer C: Students can handle the slower speeds and adjust better D: As an owner, there's a chance the plane will be flying incrementally longer each flight, with a reduction in other costs, so you gain revenue!

As far as X-C rentals, I hope you're insurance is great, because it's one thing to insure an aircraft as a trainer, and always having a qualified, high time individual in the aircraft, it's another to insure it for low-time, wet-ink, individuals to take that plane across the country. I would really research this, because it will cost you a premium to offer this(I honestly don't know of too many places that even do this with Seminoles!)

Be careful of offering services on these X-C flights, because you could start venturing into the 135 market, and the Fed's have been cracking down on these ops pretty heavy as of late.

Any specific questions about flying the C310R, I'd be glad to answer them, I flew it on a 135 op doing both freight and pax flights, and it's a great aircraft! I don't see it as a trainer as much, but definately a great X-C machine to move up into after adding your MEL.

FlyJSH

Fair enough. I was getting my fuel flows from second hand sources for the R model. If I use your flows, I come up with $240 per hour using my previous numbers.

And I failed to add an engine reserve. According to Vref, an overhaul is $32k per engine. So assuming mid time engines (700 hours) and that you overhaul the engines at TBO, you need to add another $92 per hour ($46 per hour AFTER the the upcoming overhaul).

joepilot

I think you would be losing money. It looks like $300-350/hr for expenses, plus interest and depreciation. I think anything under $400 would lose money. You might try $250/hr dry, that way pilots would fly at lower power settings to save gas, and you would save on engine maintenance as well as get in an extra tenth of an hour of rental income from the cross country renters

Joe

joepilot

Ewfflyer,

Yes, the 20 gal per side is conservative (high), but I think that an owner has to plan on the renter trying to get there fast, and using 75% power, such as 24" at 2,400 rpm, and leaned to 100 rich of peak or a little richer, depending on experience level.

I like a dry rental, but there is always somebody who may lean a little too aggressively, and detonation is expensive.

Joe