Think it’s expensive to fill up your car? According to AirNav, aviation fuel is now running as high as $6.79 a gallon.
Yes, you read that right. We’re pushing seven dollars per gallon.
Anyone want to take a guess about how high it will go? Eight dollars? Ten? Assuming a fuel flow of 30 gallons per hour on takeoff, an SR22 would be burning nearly $300 an hour just in gas. Filling up an 80 gallon tank would cost $800.
I’d love to open an FBO just so I could take pride in having the most expensive fuel on the planet. And you know what? People would still line up to buy it. I don’t see any of these FBOs suffering.
Good times, my friends. Very good times.
Yeah, but if you get a partner…
(hint hint)
Heh. I had a feeling you’d say that. 🙂
I have FIVE partners in the Pitts, believe it or not. Of course, that’s a different situation. Whenever the S-2B leaves town, the odds are that we’re all going to the same place anyway — for an aerobatic competition.
When I’m not CFI’ing fixed wings, I work dispatch at a helicopter school. Today I got a call from some guy asking for a quote on a particular tour. I told him $500. Oh man, he lost it. Yelling and screaming and telling me we were trying to fleece him. Apparently, he called in september and was quoted $450. I explained gas prices have gone up, etc. “I ain’t putting 50 dollars more gas into my car when I fill up!” I explained av gas and fuel burn and so on and so on. He hung up to call our competition.. called right back to schedule a ride. Strange, those turbine helicopters cost a bit more than our robbies.. who knew. All of a sudden we aren’t so spendy. This fuel rising stuff has got to stop.
So, there is no way, as a private pilot, to some way hedge your fuel costs?
Like on some sort of prepaid credit line or something like that?
If that is not possible, that is too bad that you are at the mercy of the market with no options.
Does Avgas fluctuate just like regular gas depending on location? Is it more expensive closer to a larger city or vice versa etc…
There’s no way to hedge, per se. But there are things you can do, like run at lower power settings, operate the powerplant lean of peak for best fuel efficiency, etc. There are also engine and prop conversions, as well as STCs for using auto fuel.
Avgas fluctuates, yes, but it’s a much smaller market, about 1/100 the size of the automotive fuel market. So our prices adjust less frequently than most gas stations.
Only $ 6.79 a gallon? That’s for free! Dutch government taxes it already to $ 10.90 a gallon TODAY (but Holland is tax country nr 1 in the first place in Europe).