Research Question and hello

On 4/22/2011 6:24 AM, Louann Miller wrote:
I know very little about small planes, and I am trying to gather
information for a piece of fiction. I need a plausible aircraft that
seats six for a character. Not the most expensive luxury thing in the
world, but something moderate and in good condition. What kind of plane
would fit these requirements?

He has a large piece of rural land. It would be great if he can keep the
aircraft there and have a landing strip. What would this involve in the
way of equipment, other people, etc? How big would it have to be?

Flying into Dallas, Texas, where would such a plane land? I assume not
DFW at all. Does Love Field have facilities for this kind of plane or
would it be one of the even smaller airports like Addison? Would someone
who flies into Dallas often have hangar space rented at an airport?

What would be the flight time from the Amarillo area to Dallas and vice
versa?

What would be the investment, time and money, for someone to get this kind
of pilot's license without learning to fly in the military?

And for the plot, I'm thinking about this man telling his wife he went to
town A when he actually flew to town B. Would there be any records to
trace his movements later on? Either that the wife could find out about
herself or that the police could find while investigating a crime.

I hate it when novels get these kinds of details wrong, would appreciate
some advice so I don't make that kind of mistake.

Thanks,

Louann Miller

A Beechcraft Baron, or Piper Malibu would fit the bill. Read the
Wikipedia articles on them to get some more info.

Private air strips are fairly common. A 3500' runway will accomodate a
Malibu easily.

Private traffic is allowed into DFW, but in practice, most private
pilots avoid the largest ("Class B") airports because of the congestion
and often excessive landing fees.
Airnav.com is a good resource. It will give you information about
airports and services provided.

You can compute flight time from the cruise speed of the aircraft and
the distance involved. Add 20 minutes or so at each end for preflight
checks and parking, fueling, delays...

Figure $10,000 in training, more or less, for a private pilot
certificate (not a license, although it is commonly referred to as one).
More for a instrument rating.

If the pilot is flying an instrument flight plan, there are web sites
(flightaware.com is one) that show the radar tracking info. If the pilot
is flying VFR, and not in contact with air traffic control, there is no
record kept.

Thanks for taking the trouble to do the research. I hate it when the
details are wrong too. It ruins the illusion.

Curt

According to Curt Johnson :
You can compute flight time from the cruise speed of the aircraft and
the distance involved. Add 20 minutes or so at each end for preflight
checks and parking, fueling, delays...

Love Field (KDAL) is a busy airport, and it's right in the middle of
some very busy airspace. It can be a bit hectic for a small plane, but
there are plenty of small planes in the airspace even during busy
commercial traffic times. I've flown a much smaller Cessna 172 into Love
Field on a high tempo Friday afternoon and wouldn't hesitate to do it
again.

You can see what the airport looks like at:

http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KDAL/map

As busy airports go, it's actually pretty small -- space constrained
from being located in a dense metropolitan area. Taxi times are quick
and direct. You can be parked and out of the plane within a few minutes
of touching down.

Note the "FBOs" tab on that site. An FBO is a "Fixed Base Operator" and
that's where a pilot would take his plane to refuel, park, and make
arrangements for ground transportation. Love Field has several FBOs
which handle private aircraft of all sizes.

For flight times, here's a Cessna 210 that made the flight from
KAMA to KDAL last September:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...837Z/KAMA/KDAL

The flight took 2 hours and 6 minutes. That's "wheels up" to "wheels
down" not accounting for taxi time.

Here are a bunch of pictures of Cessna 210s:

http://flightaware.com/photos/aircrafttype/C210

If the pilot is flying an instrument flight plan, there are web sites
(flightaware.com is one) that show the radar tracking info. If the pilot
is flying VFR, and not in contact with air traffic control, there is no
record kept.

This is an important point. Any pilot with a C210 can be expected to
have an instrument rating and fly "IFR" with full radar contact with the
FAA for anything more than a short trip. It's that IFR flight plan and
radar contact that allows sites like FlightAware to track an aircraft.

However, there's no requirement at all for an airplane to fly IFR as
long as the weather permits Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight. If a
pilot wanted to be sneaky, they wouldn't file a flight plan, they'd fly
VFR (weather permitting) and the ability for others to track that flight
or verify the details of travel would be significantly curtailed.

There would still be exposure in the form of FBO staff or enthusiasts
monitoring the (open and unencrypted) radio communications at the
relevant airports. Even flying VFR there are countless witnesses to a
plane's operations and location. Plane spotters, especially at a field
like KDAL might have taken pictures of the plane landing. Someone
refuelled it. It would be parked in the open on "the ramp" at the
airport for some period of time.

Thanks for taking the trouble to do the research. I hate it when the
details are wrong too. It ruins the illusion.

Agreed. So true...

--
David McNett