Perhaps 3-5x as fast in terms of time because you don't have to stop at red lights and you can take the "as the crow flies" path instead of zig-zagging. Pretty sweet deal for $30k!
Not really -- think "free like a puppy". Planes are like boats, except you die if you screw up. There are plenty of repairs, storage charges, etc that can get expensive pretty quickly.
General aviation is something you do out of love, not to save money.
A private pilot license (PPL) does not allow for commercial flying (charging passengers). To charge passengers to pilot requires a commercial pilot license.
A PPL does allow for "cost sharing" for flights under Part 91. It's a very grey area around ride-sharing boards, but as a pilot I wouldn't touch a ride-sharing board because of exactly what you say, that the FAA would likely look at that as a Part 135 (charter) operation, my insurance may not be valid, my certificate would be at risk, etc. all for a few hundred bucks in shared costs. No thanks. It's perfectly legal f…
It's a very thorny area, and not one that I'd want to get involved in either. The FAA also has the concept of a "Common Purpose" to the flight. By my non-lawyer reading of this, it would be illegal for a private pilot to even have a casual conversation with someone, discover that they're going to the same city, and split the expenses. They have to be say, all going on the same vacation together. I believe that the intention of this is to avoid people flying with private pilots that they don't personally know and have the opportunity to evaluate their general judgment.
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.
Disclaimer: Highly biased of course ;) Speaking as a glider pilot in training, its hard to beat the feeling of winch launch or the rising in a thermal column. Flying small planes connects you to the elements while still leaving you in control (if everything goes well). To me its the perfect combination of technology and outside activity.
I'm comercial pilot with 9000+ hours of A320, B737, and MD80.
Every time someone asks me about getting the Private pilot licence, I point them to a glider course. The airmanship and the experience is so much pure and intense in a glider. Also the costs are much lower for the weekend airman.
Perhaps 3-5x as fast in terms of time because you don't have to stop at red lights and you can take the "as the crow flies" path instead of zig-zagging. Pretty sweet deal for $30k!
Not really -- think "free like a puppy". Planes are like boats, except you die if you screw up. There are plenty of repairs, storage charges, etc that can get expensive pretty quickly. General aviation is something you do out of love, not to save money.
> except you die if you screw up.
That happens with boats, too.
Perhaps not as often - boats don't fall out of the sky when they stop working - but it happens.
Perhaps 3-5x as fast in terms of time because you don't have to stop at red lights and you can take the "as the crow flies" path instead of zig-zagging. Pretty sweet deal for $30k!
True, but it takes around 45 minutes to prepare a plane for flight and about 20 minutes to put it away. Also, you have to drive to and from the airport. Planes are incredible, but you have to fly pretty far before they're a timesaver.
Fuel is also a lot more expensive now. And that makes up quite a significant chunk of the flying costs. On a quick look, the price of an hour of flying has gone up nearly 50% in the last ten years in the aviation club I used to belong to.
That's what 4.1% annual inflation compounded over 10 years will do. In real dollar terms, that price is very close to what it was 10 years ago.
Euro area inflation has been way lower than that, it seems. Including negative % on some years
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.
No way. I used to take the trains in Seoul...going to new places. Sometimes I wouldn't get out except to switch platforms and go back. If it was the green line, I'd just go in a big circle, ha. It's good for clearing the mind.