Cost Of Commercial Maintenance For A Diamond Da-20 Katana?

[Vito Paparazzi]

I recently purchased a Diamond DA20 Katana for personal use (flight training). A local flight school has offered to lease the aircraft on a "per hour" basis (naturally, I would like them to commit to a certain minimum number of hours). This situation may-or-may-not be mildly profitable. I'm aware that I will have to upgrade my insurance, and the aircraft will now have to be maintained to commercial standards.

My Question is:

Can anyone give me a ball-park figure of what one-year's worth of commercial maintenance on this plane would be? Let's assume:

Aircraft: 1995 Diamond DA20 Katana
Engine: 80 HP Rotax 912 F (1,500 TBO)
TT SN: 1900 hrs
TT Engine: 900 hours
Assume that the flight school leases the aircraft for 400 hours in the 12 months.

 

[mgrace]

It all depends on your specific agreement.
I was offered a leaseback from my local FBO if I bought a brand new Cessna 172 (ha, like I could ever afford THAT!). I ended up with a 1958 172 which the're not even slightly interested in for a leaseback, nor am I.

My first concern with your deal is that if it's used in flight training, it requires essentially a full "annual inspection" for every 100 hours flown. Does that 100 hours include your time flying too, or only the leaseback CFI and student? Who pays for that inspection? If problems requiring repair during these inspections, who is responsible for paying for the parts, and who gets final say into what parts are used?
The second big concern is that assuming they do 400 hours, that puts you only 200 hours away from TBO. Assuming you do an overhaul at 1500 hours, this deal will essentially shorten the engine life (compared to if only you were flying) by years, assuming you fly about 100 hours a year or so.
I just don't see how the aircraft owner could possibly end up on the winning side. Hopefully for your sake, I'm wrong.

 

[PRINCESS KIDAGAKASH]

My advice. DON"T DO IT! That flight school needs to buy their own airplanes and quit trying to get a sucker to lease them one. If you lease your airplane out for flight training, your airplane will more than likely not make it to TBO, because of the increased wear and tear. If one of these students crashes your aircraft, guess who is going to be sued if that student dies or the student crashes into a house,etc. It just ain't worth it in my opinion.