Give Me A GOOD Reason

The Same reason that people spend so much money on:
Boats
Snowmobiles
4 wheelers

Sking
Golf
Etc.

Done This.
Door to Door from Boise To Roswell, NM via the airlines and required
driving = 10 hrs.
Door to Door From Roswell to Boise, via 105kt Stinson = 10 hrs.

"jim rosinski" wrote in message
oups.com...

an order of magnitude. Rule of thumb: Skyhawk is twice as fast as a
car, but gets you there more like three times faster due to its ability
to travel in a straight line. So the areal coverage is increased vs.
car travel by a factor of 3x3=9.

Because it's nice to have people in Boston look at you funny when you say
"Let's have lunch on the Vineyard" and then realize you're not kidding.

-cwk.

"steve.t" wrote:

Assume 120KTAS and a Piper of some kind (4 or more seats).
Assume max time in air per leg of 3 hrs and 30 minutes to fuel, potty,
refile, & go.
Note time of departure from house and time of arrival at destination.
Departure from local a/p where you rent/tie down/hanger to Tampa FL
(also assuming you are 300 Miles from Tampa).
Assume you would have to fly out of ATL or connect via ATL.

Which way will get you to the Tampa area and to your hotel in the
shortest time w/o heartburn/migraine, etc.?

Well, for something I've really done, Delta will get me from Newark, NJ to
Knoxville, TN in 4 hours, 36 minutes. Rather than hassle with parking, I would
take a limo, which will show up at my house two hours before the flight. Total
time about 6.5 hours.

The run in my Maule will be approximately 6.5 hours with typical winds and one
30 minute fuel stop. The drive to the airport, preflight, etc. will take about
an hour, so we have a total of about 7.5 hours.

As far as cost goes, the loaded cost of flying my Maule will be higher than two
airline tickets. The fuel cost alone is about 60% of the cost of one coach
ticket.

As far as "heartburn" is concerned, dealing with the airlines is a pain, but
worrying about the weather for that run is worse.

For a run to Tampa, Delta takes 4 hours, 40 minutes through ATL and the Maule
takes 8.5 hours (*not* counting wind) with two fuel stops.

George Patterson
He who marries for money earns every penny of it.

"George Patterson" wrote in message
...
Which way will get you to the Tampa area and to your hotel in the
shortest time w/o heartburn/migraine, etc.?

Well, for something I've really done, Delta will get me from Newark, NJ to
Knoxville, TN in 4 hours, 36 minutes. Rather than hassle with parking, I
would
take a limo, which will show up at my house two hours before the flight.
Total
time about 6.5 hours.

Try it from somewhere away from a city the major airlines serve.

Montrose to San Diego - Montgomery Field (in-laws...okay, maybe not the best
example but go with me on this).

15 minutes to airport and park car in hanger
3hrs. 30 min flying time, taxi/run-up.
30 minutes to shutdown, get rental car
Drive 12 miles to in-laws house from outskirts of city: 20 minutes.
** Bonanza - Door-to-door: 4hrs 15 minutes. Cost: +/- $690 (total cost
@$160/hr)

Airline way:

Drive to airport and park (easy to do here): 30 minutes
Arrival ahead of departure : one hour
Commuter flight to Denver or Salt Lake: 40 minutes
Turn around to major airline: one hour.
DEN or SLC to SAN: 1.5 hours
Putz around San Diego airport waiting for luggage... one hour.
Drive 31 miles to in-laws through the heart of the city: one hour.
**Airline - Door-to-door: 7.0 hours. Cost of four tickets: $502 apiece =
$2008.

'Nuff said?


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

George Patterson wrote:

As far as cost goes, the loaded cost of flying my Maule will be
higher than two airline tickets. The fuel cost alone is about 60%
of the cost of one coach ticket.

This appears to violate the "3X" general rule of thumb that the total
cost of aircraft ownership is roughly three times the cost of the fuel
you put into it. If the 3X rule applied in your scenario, your
ownership cost would be only 180% of the cost of one coach ticket,
which is cheaper than the 200% cost of two coach tickets. No doubt it
depends greatly on hangar and maintenance costs, but I find the 3X rule
applies well to ownership costs of my Skyhawk. But I conveniently
exclude engine reserve and the opportunity cost of the initial purchase
price in that calculation.

As far as "heartburn" is concerned, dealing with the airlines is a
pain, but worrying about the weather for that run is worse.

Agreed. For-real utilization of decades-old spam cans for purposes
where you must be at a specific place at a specific time seems
problematic at best. Maybe some folks can make it work, but I've never
done it.

Jim Rosinski

Matt Barrow wrote:

Putz around San Diego airport waiting for luggage... one hour.
Drive 31 miles to in-laws through the heart of the city: one hour.
**Airline - Door-to-door: 7.0 hours. Cost of four tickets: $502
apiece = $2008.

'Nuff said?

Yes I think the main reasons the numbers work for you are 1) you're
filling your airplane with people; 2) $502 ticket price seems excessive
for Montrose-San Diego; and 3) connecting through a hub city wastes
alot of time. But an *hour* waiting for luggage in San Diego??? I don't
have much good to say about Denver's airport, but on United quite often
the luggage arrives at the carousel before I do.

Jim Rosinski

Because for thousands of years humankind has looked up and wished for
the ability to fly... and would've given almost anything to be able to.

Now we're lucky enough to live in the age of common flight.
More than reason enough.

Kev

.............One trip we take is a 6.5 hr drive around a body of
water by car.

Via 172, 1.6 hrs chock to chock....over the water of course...

And very often my partner (who uses the plane for business
travel) saves hundreds of $$$$ in meals & hotel costs. His clients
are very happy with the response time and low costs to them. With
good weather (so he can fly) he is killing his competition and still
making a great margin on his services.

...works for us...

Dave



On 25 Jan 2005 20:00:17 -0800, "jim rosinski"
wrote:

Jay Beckman wrote:

Can anyone give me a good logical reason to spend so much money to
fly airplanes or helicopters for private use?

Because everytime I fly, I get another chance to drink from the well
of my soul.

I like that answer. Another more practical reason I use is that for a
given time constraint (say, out and back in a day), even my slow Cessna
increases the number of available destinations over driving by nearly
an order of magnitude. Rule of thumb: Skyhawk is twice as fast as a
car, but gets you there more like three times faster due to its ability
to travel in a straight line. So the areal coverage is increased vs.
car travel by a factor of 3x3=9.

Jim Rosinski

jim rosinski wrote:

This appears to violate the "3X" general rule of thumb that the total
cost of aircraft ownership is roughly three times the cost of the fuel
you put into it.

Yes. Actual ownership costs will nearly always "violate" this rule. That rule
might apply if you put something in excess of 200 hours a year on the plane. It
will not if you fly less.

Consider another "rule"; that the break-even point between renting and owning is
about 100-200 hours (depending on who you ask). Well, rental on an older 172 in
this area is about $80/hr. It will burn about $21/hr in fuel. Applying the first
rule-of-thumb, the ownership costs for that plane are about $63/hr. Applying the
break-even point rule, however, tells you that your ownership costs are likely
to be much higher.

Mine certainly are.

George Patterson
He who marries for money earns every penny of it.