CHEAP TRAVEL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 336, 24 September 1932, Page 2

CHEAP TRAVEL

COST OF FLYING COMPARES WITH FIRSTCLASS RAILWAY FARES. EN'GLISH ESTIMATES. Running costs are as important to the owner of a private aeroplane as to the owner of a motor car. Petrol eonsumption is not unduly heavy in a light aeroplane, nor are maintenanee costs much ahove thos > of a highpowered car, but the allowance that must be made for obsolescence, rel resents a fairly large anniuT sum. Only when the total cost is rendered in terms of cost per .person a mile is j it clear that private ownership is not ; more costly than first-class rallway travel, provided the aeroplane is frequently used. If a two-seater is flnwn 3000 hours in the year the cost is 2id a mile. If only 150 hours' flying is done in the year ihe cost rises to 3id, says a writer in The Times. This eonclusion has been reacbed after keeping detailed records of expenditure on a two-seater fitted with a 105 h.p. engine. A life nf 1500 flying hours is assumed by the leading aviation insuranee combany as the basis of insuranee for an aeroplane. This, at 300 hours a year, gives about five years, and expcrier.ce shows tnat an aeroplane engin v after 1500 hours' use is practically worn out and that the whole machine is out of date after nve years.

The Main Item. The main it.'in in operaiional costs thus is the cost of the machine divided by 1500 hours, and, taking the first cost of an opan two-seater as £700, obsolescence works out at 9s 4d for every hour flown. Full insuranee for an owner with less than 100 hours' flying experience is likely to be £100 a year, which adds Gs 8d an hour to the costs. Fuel and oil together made up a figure which is likely to stai'tle those who are not acquainted with anything bigger than a car engine, but it must be remembered tliat the aero 'engine is a large unit which repays its feed by giving high speed. lln practice over an extended period it appears that not less than 9s an hour should be allowed for fuel and oil tog ffher. A lock-up garage for a machine with folding wings will generally cost £36 a year or another 2s 5d an hour. Running repairs and replacements are variahle. In the present cass a fastidious owner has found them to worlc out at tlie rate of 2s Od an hour. In addition periodic overhauls of engine and machine are required hy law, and generally these consist of: (a) A top overhaul of the engine after caeh 15-9 hours of flying; (b) a complete engine overhaul after 450 hours; (c) a complete machine overhaul yearly. With a little ingenuity the overhauls can be combined and expense kept down, but, in any case, not less than 5s an hour should be allowed under this heading. The Average Speed. Sundry items such as licenses, ground engineer's services, and washing will cost the owner another 9d an hour. The total therefore amounts to 35s 8d a flying hour. Although the cruising spieed of the modern light aeroplane is somewhere about 100105 miles per hour, it would be very unsafe to accept this figure as the average speed over a year's flying. Such speeds are possible only in cairn weather, and it would probably be wiser to take 85 miles an hour as a fair average speed under all conditions. On this basis the figures show that it costs £535 for two persons to fly for 300 hours in a year, or putting it in another way, 2id a person a mile for 25,5000 miles, which, it will he admittod, compares very favourably with the cost of first-class railway travel.