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Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

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Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#51

Post by sokoloff »

mahyarm wrote: post #33
mistercow wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, where I am, it's about 5/3 as expensive. The upper bound improvement factor you can get over driving due to flying in a straight line is 2/sqrt(2), so your best case cost-equivalent efficiency is about 11 mpg.

This is why I'm excited about electric airplanes and driverless cars. A GA electric airplane has about 1/10th the energy cost of an avgas one. The cost of avgas is what discourages me from owning an airplane.

In most cases, avgas will be under half your total expenses for the year. You have to fly well over the average utilization for gas to dominate over maintenance, insurance, hangar, database updates/charts, etc.

Even at 100 flight hours/year in a thirsty airplane, you'll spend maybe $10K on fuel. It would take a very simple airplane, hangared very cheaply, and no abnormal maintenance events for the year, for those other costs to be under $10K.

Few privately owned planes fly even 100 hours per year, and most of the non-fuel costs are largely fixed, meaning you pay them all just to fly the "first hour" and then subsequent hours just cost fuel and a small wear-related maintenance allocation.

Airplanes are cheap to buy, but not cheap to fly. The cost of gas hurts, but doesn't dominate in my experience (owning three airplanes over 15 years, and flying my family on most of our domestic travel east of the Mississippi).

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#52

Post by lmm »

gambiting wrote: post #49
apunic wrote: post #15

Don't get me wrong but I do not get what's so exciting about flying yourself or owning a plane. Flying is for getting from point A to B. Flying just for fun missing any purpose might be fun the first couple of times but then it's like driving a bus from A to A.

You could say the same thing about cars - they are only for getting from point A to B,right? Yet I very often take my car for a drive, without a purpose or a destination in mind. Drive for a couple hours, through the nearest forests or hills, and then head home. It's fun.

See, this is respectable, if not that common. But when I tell people I sometimes just take a train somewhere new and then come back, they look at me like I'm weird.

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#53

Post by tzs »

btgeekboy wrote: post #34
noname123 wrote: post #5

You forgot the LAQ: "Can someone who only 'trained' on a Flight Simulator be able to take-off and land in a real plane?'

Take off is actually quite easy. On your first lesson, it's likely you'll be doing the takeoff. Just point it straight, compensate for the left turning tendency, and gently pull back. Landing is a different story...

A friend of mine was given as a gift one of those "Discovery Flights" where you are taken up and get to fly the plane, which is supposed to entice you into signing up for lessons.

Not only did he get to do the takeoff, they let him do the landing.

He had a little trouble keeping it from turning on the takeoff, and a lot of trouble with that on the landing. Afterwards, they found out why. Something had punctured a tire before takeoff, and it was a little flat during takeoff, and a lot flat during landing.

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#55

Post by sokoloff »

apunic wrote: post #15

Don't get me wrong but I do not get what's so exciting about flying yourself or owning a plane. Flying is for getting from point A to B. Flying just for fun missing any purpose might be fun the first couple of times but then it's like driving a bus from A to A.

I'd encourage people to call up your local flight school and schedule an intro lesson. It'll be about 45 minutes, no real "book learning" component, and the cost will vary (they'll tell you) but should be $150 +/-$50 range.

You'll either immediately be hooked (me), or at least see/feel some of the excitement and decide whether or not it's worth it. Either way, you got a novel experience.

I completely agree that I wouldn't leave tech to go fly an airliner around on a schedule.

I used to stop by the airport 2-3 evenings per week and just fly around for an hour; it was a great way to push all of work out of my head and truly relax. Now, with a family and much more demanding job, I fly to go places, for currency/training, but very rarely have time to "just fly".

It's not for everyone, but anyone even close to on the fence should take an intro lesson. Little to lose and if you find you like it, it's a quite enjoyable hobby.

Feel free to email me with questions.

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#56

Post by Udo »

I would love an app that matches passengers to GA flights going between airfields, essentially a ride-sharing option for small aircraft. Pilots could offload a bit of the fuel cost and passengers could go between short range destinations very fast if they're lucky.

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#57

Post by ekianjo »

tlrobinson wrote: post #37
ekianjo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> about half the pilots I knew in 1980 (instructors as well as students) had been killed in flying accidents Wow, that's certainly dissuasive. By the way, are there some kind of autopilots on modern amateur planes? Or is that even possible to integrate any ?

From the makers of X-Plane: http://www.x-plane.com/x-world/hardware/seeker-avionics/ (I don't fly and know nothing about this but it sounds pretty cool)

Excellent link, thank you!

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#58

Post by marvin »

lutusp wrote: post #23
jeiting wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a ton of sim experience when I jumped in a trainer for the first time. It helped a ton with the systems and comms but pretty much nothing for my landing and takeoff ability.

> It helped a ton with the systems and comms but pretty much nothing for my landing and takeoff ability. Yes, a common experience. Landing and taking off involve some subtle things that most simulators don't capture, like the fact that in a small propeller-drive plane, at slow speed, the propeller torque twists the body of the airplane, so you have to apply some counter-rudder to straighten out the fuselage and maxim…

You must have flown crappy simulators. All flight sims I have flown incorporate this in the aerodynamics model. (I also fly gliders).

The biggest differnces I figure between real life and the simulator are the acceleraion, the sense of moving very fast and the fear of dying.

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#59

Post by moron4hire »

rodgerd wrote: post #36
DanielleMolloy wrote: post #14

There are a couple of websites for airplane pooling around: http://www.skypool.com/ Like ridesharing / carpooling, just with airplanes. They are clearly not as successful as the car variant, but when flight destinations / times match they might offer a little adventure on the route (and one could avoid some of the traffic jams around the Bay Area).

Getting into a car which may or may not be well-maintained[1] with a driver whose competence I know nothing about is disturbing enough. Getting into a plane (where the failure mode on shoddy maintenance is falling out of the sky) with an unknown pilot seems like a very courageous move. In the Yes, Prime Minister sense. [1] I once had a boss that picked up $200 cars. He asked me to move it out of the company car park…

except they hand out driver's licenses like candy, but pilot's licenses take quite a bit of training. also, the vehicle inspections are much more stringent.

Re: Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

#60

Post by mseebach »

btgeekboy wrote: post #32
apunic wrote: post #15

Don't get me wrong but I do not get what's so exciting about flying yourself or owning a plane. Flying is for getting from point A to B. Flying just for fun missing any purpose might be fun the first couple of times but then it's like driving a bus from A to A.

The adrenaline rushes I get during the various phases of flight are why I do it. Turning onto the runway, the big white numbers rolling under you, pushing the throttle forward and letting the engine roar to life is quite thrilling. Also thrilling is trying to put yourself on a 50' wide piece of pavement while going 70mph in a medium that's moving, unlike the pavement. Oh, and the view is awesome.

> Turning onto the runway, the big white numbers rolling under you, pushing the throttle forward and letting the engine roar to life is quite thrilling.

I still get a little bit of that - as a passenger in a commercial airliner. And I fly weekly.

However, my father in law, who's a retired captain and flight safety specialist has made no ambiguity as to his opinion of anyone related to him getting into a plane piloted by anyone not a career pilot (and it's not that he doesn't like or trust me - it's entirely based on his opinion of GA safety). Given his gravity on the subject, I'm inclined to do what he says, but it seems I should get myself a lesson or two to try it out.

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