Another reason to fly yourself

I get on earlier flights all the time on Continental if they
have a seat and I've never been asked to pay extra. I go through
Houston to the midwest out of MIA.



Marty from Florida wrote:
I flew commercial from West Palm Beach to Kansas City MO a few months ago.
Got pulled aside for a random search, which was pretty stupid. I could have
knitted a knife with my hair and stabbed the person beside me with it. The
TSA is truly nuts, reflecting it's association with the newly formed office
of remarkably extreme paranoia (Homeland Security). They need to really
decide if a $ 450,000 Cirrus Sr-22 can do as much damage as a $ 39.00/day
Uhaul truck. I digress ...

All things considered, it took a huge amount of time messing around with TSA
nonsense, checking in and out, waiting in Atlanta for a 2.3 hour connection,
etc. I could have walked there. I feel great sorrow for today's airlines
(what's left of them). The former arrogance of large companies such as
Eastern Airlines has certainly caught up with American and Delta. They now
treat their clients as mini cash-cows. It's not pretty. I tried to get an
earlier flight that was leaving in minutes rather than the 2.3 hours and was
told to pony up cash. What a way to treat a customer. The only reason I had
to wait 2.3 hours is because of Delta's schedule that put me on the plane.

Anything under 7 or 8 hundred miles and I'll just fly myself. Better food,
much more fun, quicker when you add up all the time wasting.
Marty from Rainy Palm Beach Florida


wrote in message
...

In rec.aviation.owning wrote:
: Right. There are lots of good reasons to fly yourself, but cost isn't
: one of them. Not by a long shot.

As far as *direct* operating costs, it's usually cheaper to fly yourself

if

it's within 500nm. You know... about the same range as it's potentially

feasible to

drive...

The indirect expenses and easily ignored as the fixed expenses of the

"hobby."

Heh...

-Cory

--

************************************************ *************************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************ *************************

When you contrast those days with the Russian Aeroflot model we've come
to emulate (just think -- we used to make fun of them!) since then, it is
to weep.

Maybe if you didn't have to pay for the tickets back then. Airfare from
Knoxville to New York then and now costs over $700. But $700 was half the
cost of a new car in the early 60s.

Oh, I intellectually *know* all that. Flying was exclusive, literally,
back then, and is much more accessible to the common man today. In that
regard, it's all good.

But, hell, go back to the 1930s. To fly on the Pan Am Clippers from the
U.S. to Japan cost the equivalent of $10,000 US dollars -- at the height of
the Great Depression! Now *that* was exclusive!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"three-eight-hotel" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've always wondered... Why is it, everytime we jump on an airline,
for even a short one or two hour hop to a fairly close destination, we
are suddenly starving??? I'm guilty myself! I get in my seat, enjoy
my window-seat view of the take-off, and start looking for that food
cart to come around!!!
Pavlovian response!!!

Was this Intel by chance?

Nowadays the choice seems to be coach or nothing. Or, really, prison
transport or nothing.

Still, when I come back home next November, there is no way I am going
to make the trans-Pacific flight in coach. Urgh. I will pony up the
difference to at least go business class. Even then, if I start to get
a little homesick, just thinking about the flight home cures it real
fast.

Nowadays the choice seems to be coach or nothing. Or, really, prison
transport or nothing.

Still, when I come back home next November, there is no way I am going
to make the trans-Pacific flight in coach. Urgh. I will pony up the
difference to at least go business class. Even then, if I start to get
a little homesick, just thinking about the flight home cures it real
fast.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Oh, I intellectually *know* all that. Flying was exclusive, literally,
back then, and is much more accessible to the common man today. In that
regard, it's all good.

Well, for half the cost of a new car, you'd be able to do better than that
today. Just not on a major carrier.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

wrote in message
...
In rec.aviation.owning wrote:
: Right. There are lots of good reasons to fly yourself, but cost isn't
: one of them. Not by a long shot.

As far as *direct* operating costs, it's usually cheaper to fly yourself
if
it's within 500nm. You know... about the same range as it's potentially
feasible to
drive...


A days work back in September by TN Bonanza.

Montrose to Wichita Falls - 530nm, 3hrs 5 min - Depart 5:30AM MDT, arrive
9:35AM CDT

Work with lawyers for upcoming developments, then contractors for
negotiations over lunch (I pop for the tab).

Depart Wichita Falls for Victoria, Kansas at 1:30PM, 305nm, 1 hr, 35 min -
arrive Hays at 3:00PM

Attend closings for two properties (my wife at one, myself at another) from
3:30 to 5:00PM

Depart Victoria at 6:00PM CDT, for Montrose (420nm), arrive Montrose at
7:30PM MDT.

A 14 hour day, but one that covered 1255nm in about 6 hours flying time.

Try that by car or even commuter airlines.


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

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote in message
...
Jay Honeck wrote:
I managed to catch the tail end of elegant train travel at that age, too.
When you contrast those days with the Russian Aeroflot model we've come
to
emulate (just think -- we used to make fun of them!) since then, it is to
weep.


I have an old friend who was flying on Aeroflot with his family many years
ago (before the fall of the Soviet Union). I guess they used any
opportunity to hone their skills because the pilot started doing some
airwork along the way... s-turns along a road, etc....

I've never experienced such a thing on an American airliner.

I remember a story years ago about how is was not unusual to have livestock
in the cabin on domestic flights in the old USSR.

Now let me just say I have seen animals onboard airliners...

Yes.

Do you work for Intel?