Kent Misegades has written a blog post repeated by General Aviation News about an interesting article in EAA’s November 2011 issue of Sport Aviation (“My $.02 on $6 Avgas”) which had pointed out that the price of avgas might be less important than you think.
In the article, author Mike Busch calculated the annual costs for his 1979 Cessna T310R twin under the assumption that he would fly less should the price of avgas rise from $4 to $6 per gallon:
His conclusion? The true impact of $6 avgas is less than what he initially thought and while it still hurts, it does not hurt enough for him to quit flying or to sell his airplane. Mike also included the following table of fuel cost estimates:
On the other hand, the Kent noted that not all pilots agree with Mike’s analysis and it cited a report from WINK News in Fort Myers, Florida where several pilots said higher fuel prices were killing the general aviation business.
Kent also noted how higher fuel prices have been hitting boat and marina owners along with drivers and he suggested that a smarter long-term idea would be to tap into autogas as well as exploit every drop of oil in North American.
Nevertheless, we want to ask you what you think about Mike’s analysis: Are you flying less thanks to higher fuel prices but actually saving more money or have avgas prices risen so much that you have or are thinking of giving up flying?
I think only a few US pilots know how lucky they can be for 6 USD/ Gal. Take a look across the ocean to good old Germany: 12-14 USD/Gal. of 100 LL or even worse Italy: 14-15 USD/Gal. And it`s getting more expensive !