A "Doing Okay" Person's Charter Service SATSair

I love this idea. SATSair (Small Aircraft Transportation System) is a charter service for those of us who aren't rich enough to rent a jet, but are doing well enough to want to avoid the 3-7 hour road trip. One pilot in a nice new Cirus SR22 comes to get you and two of your friends, family, or co-workers. The pilot has a commercial rating and at least 1200 hours of flight time.

You buy a block of time and use them as you need. A block of 10 hours is $500 an hour.

Let's do some numbers on the back of an envelope. My Zodiac cost me $90K. In five years it will be worth $45K. So that's $9K a year. In five years I'll pay $10K for insurance, $8000 for tie down, $3000 in annuals (that's low for a reason), $4000 in maintenance, and about $16,000 in gas and oil. So, that's about $86K to fly 500 hours or $172 an hour. So, I'm ahead! (Yes, I know I ignored the cost of money and some of my costs are pretty low). If I had started out with a $250K airplane sitting in a hangar, the numbers would be different.

Honestly, when I started the figuring I didn't think I'd beat the rental Cirrus. Oh yes, he has an IFR capability and that thing called "payload", but don't bust my bubble.

I still like this SATSair idea. Honestly, it would make the commute between Tampa and the Keys a WHOLE LOT better! Check it out here.