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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

#181

Post by lutorm »

nathanstitt wrote: post #176
scott_karana wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's the answer? :)

Opps, sorry.. guess it would have been good to actually answer the question. Any private pilot can fly at night. There is a newer class of license called sport pilot that does impose restrictions on night flight (and quite a few other restrictions), but just about all pilots can fly at night. I'm really confused by why people think it would not be ok to fly at night though. Just about everyone I've told that I'm a pi…

Because it's kind of like flying on instruments, which you need an instrument rating for? Because you are supposed to fly by visual reference to the horizon, which you can't see at night? I find it a bit weird myself.

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

#182

Post by jcoby »

nathanstitt wrote: post #177
jcoby wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. Or they bought the plane 20+ years ago and still own it. When I go to EAA meetings I'm the youngest by 15-20 years and I'm in my 30s. I don't think I've ever seen a privately owned certified plane that was newer than 25 years old. It's all around a bad situation for general aviation.

Same here. I'm in my late 30s and am by far the youngest at any pilot gathering I attend. I really don't know where the airlines are going to get the next generation of pilots from. Of course with the horrible pay and hours, I can't blame anyone from not choosing that career path.

I've heard that starting pay for ATP or cargo is somewhere in the low $20s and schooling is in the mid $100s. Is there any truth to that?

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

#183

Post by Retric »

rogerhoward wrote: post #180
vilhelm_s wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you mean? The suggested calculation is: In any given year, a motorcycle owner has a 72/100000 chance of dying. So if you own a motorcycle for 30 years, the chance of dying is approximately 30*72/100000.

If you own a motorcycle for 30 years, your chances are not the same every year - your chances of dying on a bike are higher when you're younger and when you have less years on a bike. So every year I ride, my chance of dying that year on a bike gets smaller. In other words, the bulk of deaths on bikes are young, inexperienced, and/or unlicensed riders. Also, bike deaths are far more likely to involve alcohol than car…

Not really, your odds do change as a non drinker but age is far less important than you might think. Your hypotetical driver that owns a motorcycle for 30 years is more likely to die over 25 than under it.

http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsMotorcycleSafety/

A significant reason for this is your far less likely to survive an accident as an older rider than a young one.

Note: The death rate statistics they quote include non motorcycle owners.

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

#184

Post by [deleted] »

vilhelm_s wrote: post #168
jedmeyers wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are not the same "motorcycles" each year, so you cannot multiply by 30.

How do you mean? The suggested calculation is: In any given year, a motorcycle owner has a 72/100000 chance of dying. So if you own a motorcycle for 30 years, the chance of dying is approximately 30*72/100000.

[deleted]

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

#185

Post by [deleted] »

jedmeyers wrote: post #164
Retric wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

72.34 per year per 100,000 registered motorcycles * 30 years is 2.17%. Worse plenty of people own more than one motorcycle so the rate is probably higher than that.

Those are not the same "motorcycles" each year, so you cannot multiply by 30.

[deleted]

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

#186

Post by colechristensen »

malandrew wrote: post #170
lutusp wrote: post #2

It's important to say that the general aviation population has gotten much smaller over the last few decades. It was a lot more popular 25 years ago when I flew much more than I do now. A number of aircraft manufacturers have stopped building small general-aviation planes for a number of reasons including liability and a reduction in public interest. I started flying about 1980. By 1992, 12 years later, about half th…

Whoa! really? I never imagined that deaths were that frequent. What were most of the causes of the accidents? Operator error? Poor conditions? Equipment failure? Has the rate of people dying off fallen as the equipment (planes and instruments) has improved? I had always assumed the decline has more to do with the economics of the sport and the amount of upfront investment necessary to get to the point where you can f…

It is very rare that an aircraft falls out of the sky for any reason other than human stupidity. For decades, aircraft engineering has been well understood: the conditions for safe flight are known, staying in them is straightforward, and only very rarely does following the rules end badly. New technology has very little to do with this.

The thing is that it's easy to make stupid mistakes operating and maintaining an aircraft, and unlike many other areas of modern life, there aren't training wheels to make it idiot proof.

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

#187

Post by jrs235 »

lutorm wrote: post #157
jrs235 wrote: post #108

For those wondering how much it costs to get your private pilot's license... You'll need to study and pass a written examine so you'll have to either purchase self-study books or take a ground school class. (This is relatively cheap, a few hundred dollars.) You need to log 40 hours of flight training time. Depending on locale, anticipate paying $100-$150 per hour for a flight instructor and $100-$150 per hour for pla…

It's not quite that bad as quite a lot of those 40h will be flying solo.

True... found a good FAQ here: http://www.robinsonaviation.com/flight_faq.htm

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

#188

Post by lutorm »

jokoon wrote: post #166
lutorm wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building your own airplane is possible and actually quite common. There are kits for anything from one-seaters with open cockpit to pressurized turboprops. http://eaa.org/homebuilders/

No I meant like newer generation planes with more efficient engines, lighter, more aerodynamic, etc. I'm not sure if current airplane designs are as good as they can...

True, engine efficiency is kind of flat-lined. Turbines aren't efficient for most GA operations, but there are new diesel aviation engines coming online.

Aerodynamically, I don't know about big gains. Something like a Lancair Legacy is pretty low drag. You can make lower-drag planes, but that typically comes with much higher stall/takeoff/landing speeds that make the plane harder to fly and much less safe in the event of a forced landing.

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

#189

Post by nathanstitt »

jcoby wrote: post #182
nathanstitt wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I'm in my late 30s and am by far the youngest at any pilot gathering I attend. I really don't know where the airlines are going to get the next generation of pilots from. Of course with the horrible pay and hours, I can't blame anyone from not choosing that career path.

I've heard that starting pay for ATP or cargo is somewhere in the low $20s and schooling is in the mid $100s. Is there any truth to that?

Yep, that's about right. If you do it right, schooling can be quite a bit cheaper, but starting is sometimes even less than 20k.

Plus figure in "working" 60+ hours a week and only getting paid for 30-40 of them. It's not uncommon for airlines to fly pilots from city to city to stage them for flights. But they only pay them for the time they are actually touching the controls. So they get up at 3am to catch series of flights, then don't start getting paid until noon.

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

#190

Post by sfeng »

nathanstitt wrote: post #176
scott_karana wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's the answer? :)

Opps, sorry.. guess it would have been good to actually answer the question. Any private pilot can fly at night. There is a newer class of license called sport pilot that does impose restrictions on night flight (and quite a few other restrictions), but just about all pilots can fly at night. I'm really confused by why people think it would not be ok to fly at night though. Just about everyone I've told that I'm a pi…

Flying at night without an instrument rating in some areas is pretty sketchy to be fair. More than one person has died by losing track of where the ground is and where it isn't. In much of Europe you actually do need an instrument rating to fly at night.
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