I don't disagree with some of the key points made here, that you need to start with (and pay for) a sound aircraft and that you can't skimp on maintenance, but some of the numbers posted above seem very high and I believe there are ways of flying a reliable aircraft while spending considerably less money.
Let me shock most of you with this: I have been recording the costs of the annual inspections since 2005 and they were $3,540, $2,770, $1,745, $950 and $2,025. That averages $2,200 per year -- and it includes biennial transponder tests!
More on this in a moment (including an image of my actual handwritten records and how I achieve it) but let me talk reliability. I fly mostly over water, typically Florida to the Bahamas, with my family. Several families who also own aircraft will routinely ask me to take their children and grandchildren on my flights ("Ernie, you got a seat on your Thursday flight?"), and yet will not let these same children aboard other private twins, including twins where I sometimes serve as their consultant and I know they spend $10,000 - $20,000 each annual. Why? Because these families trust the reliability of my Skymaster, which I have been flying to the islands for over a decade. In short, I may cut costs but not corners.
There is an entire thread on maintenance costs at
http://www.337skymaster.com/messages...read.php?t=764 where members were asked by the then Administrator to share their costs. The last message on the first page is mine and explains how I achieve these numbers. In part: we do most of the work on the ramp (not an FBO); I do some of the work, including all the AD compliance paperwork (I'm an aerospace engineer but not an A&P) and will be hands-on during the entire annual; I try to find apprentice A&Ps to do much of the labor intensive work (depaneling and in my case sanding and painting corrosion because the plane sits outside); I aggressively search for parts (details are in that message); but most importantly because I have an A&P who knows 337s intimitately, has been doing my annuals for 10 years, is a friend who I pamper and essentially supervises the labor and limits himself to the actual inspections (compression check, flap cables, etc.).
One way of buying a sound aircraft at lower cost is to find one without the latest avionics. If it has reliable radios and transponder, if the engines, props, landing gear and airframe have been meticulously maintained -- with the records and ADs to show it, and after a rigorous pre-purchase inspection -- and if you find the owner
HAVING to sell, then that's your aircraft. This takes advantage of the marvelous hand-held avionics now on the market.
One note, however, now in the opposite direction. Most of the numbers you see in this thread, including mine, don't have engine and prop reserves. If you fly 100 hours a year like I do, I figure $2,000 per year in reserves. Also, I occasionally have maintenance between the annual inspections; I don't keep a record of this but I believe it is under $2,000 per year. So add reserves and miscellaneous maintenances and I have annual maintenance costs of about $6,000 per year.
I realize that my situation is atypical. But if you can find an A&P who works on the ramp and knows and likes to work on Skymasters, and if you start with a sound aircraft (my current 1973 337G was maintained by the Ohio State University FBO before I purchased it), and you are willing to do some of the work, then your maintenance costs should be under $10,000 annually, including reserves.
Now add other costs which should be easy to compute (hangar/tie-down, fuel, etc.) and you can get a fairly accurate picture of what's ahead.
Ernie