G.R. Patterson III wrote:


Henry Bibb wrote:

When the planes were being made, the airlines of the day were not
quite twice as fast, and the cost of airline travel was far higher. Today
if you fly a fast piston powered airplane you're going, relative to the
airlines, half as fast for four times the cost.

Some grist for the mill, methinks.


Only if you're going further than about 1500 miles. We may not fly as fast, but
we don't have to show up at the airport two hours ahead to get through security,
and we don't have to fly 500 miles out of the way to go through some hub, and we
don't have to spend an hour or two at a layover when we get to that hub.

I cruise at 126 mph and I can beat Delta from my house in New Jersey to my mother's
house in Knoxville, TN without pushing hard.


I don't doubt it for this distance, but I also don't think GA pilots
honestly account for how long a flight takes.

You have to include your flight planning time, as well as door-to-door
time when comparing flying somewhere to driving there, for example. I
take a lot of flights around 100nm, and quite frankly I don't think in
any of them I saved any time over driving when I honestly account for
ALL the time the flight took, including planning and preparation. But I
still do it because I love to fly.

I figure that will change when I start flying longer distances.