Cost of gas is beginning to hurt

"Paul kgyy" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm fortunate in not having to own a car.

What's kinda weird to me is the tendency to put ever larger engines in
4-place aircraft.

Mooney defined efficiency (and pretty much continues to do so) but
there seems to be a big market for 300+ horsepower engines.

I suppose if you're laying out $400K for an airplane and 4000 a year
on insurance, an additional 5-8 gph isn't a big deal.

I think the small engined Cirruses (Cirri?) have taken the fast, 200 hp, 4
seater market away from Mooney. If you compare spec's of a pre-201 Mooney
and a Cirrus SR-20, they are reasonably close and the Cirrus is a much
simpler airplane, both to operate and to maintain.

KB

On 2007-04-18 17:23:24 -0700, Margy Natalie said:

C J Campbell wrote:
On 2007-04-18 14:44:21 -0700, Matt Whiting said:

C J Campbell wrote:

It cost me more than $40 at Costco yesterday to fill my gas tank. I
figure it costs me at least $10 in gas every time I drive to the
airport -- and I have a hybrid car. I am beginning to wonder how long
some of the younger instructors can keep this up.


You live 60+ miles from the airport? You just need to move closer to
the airport!!

Matt


As the crow flies, it is only about 15 miles. But the road is really,
really crooked.

Hey, the house is free. It is in the woods, on the beach, with its own
creek. I can walk out my front door and pick all the oysters and clams
I want. Seals and whales play out in front, and eagles nest in my yard.
Sure, it is ten miles to the nearest town. But there are compensations.
OTOH, I notice that bears have been clawing up some of the trees in the
back yard...
Sounds great! Hmmmm, complaining about $10 for gas to the airport from
the FREE house. Rent around here is something like $1,500 a month, how
many times could we drive to the airport...

Hey. I'm retired and I don't even have a pension. :-) I have to save
money any way I can.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

On Apr 18, 9:06 am, Paul kgyy wrote:
I'm fortunate in not having to own a car.

What's kinda weird to me is the tendency to put ever larger engines in
4-place aircraft.


What's really strange is all those new 4 seaters are designed with
engine requiring 100LL, instead of 91/96.

The oil industry is completely ready to supply unleaded avgas with
similar AKI of 91/96 leaded avgas, which would be basically straight
premium autofuel. Such fuel can easily knock $1 off a gallon in
price, and more so in the future as the cost of distributing the
leaded fuel continues to rise because it can't use pipelines.

C J Campbell wrote:

Hey. I'm retired and I don't even have a pension. :-) I have to save
money any way I can.

You need one of these :

http://www.kawasaki.com/Products/Detail.aspx?id=200

70 mpg!

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

--
Message posted via AviationKB.com
http://www.aviationkb.com/Uwe/Forums...ation/200704/1

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
news:2007041813552895335-christophercampbell@hotmailcom...
On 2007-04-18 10:27:45 -0700, "Matt Barrow"
said:


Just as the Evil Bush was dictating the cost of gas before the election,
he
and Halliburton are jacking the price now that the election is over and
done. It's their retribution for losing the elections, you know.

Oooookayyyy. Didn't know the President (or Halliburton) was able to do
that. I thought Nancy Pelosi was running things now (she said so on CNN,
so it must be true).

Recall that prior to the last election, the Dem's were claiming that Bush
was manipulating the price of oil from the White House to better the R's
chances in the elections. Investors Business Daily had a cartoon about it
that was hilarious (Bush as "math challenged").

"M" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Apr 18, 9:06 am, Paul kgyy wrote:
I'm fortunate in not having to own a car.

What's kinda weird to me is the tendency to put ever larger engines in
4-place aircraft.


What's really strange is all those new 4 seaters are designed with
engine requiring 100LL, instead of 91/96.

It part of a big bore engine.

On Apr 18, 12:45 pm, "Peter R." wrote:
On 4/18/2007 1:12:25 PM, wrote:

Just wait until they jack up the fuel tax to $0.70 a gallon and then
listen to the complaints! There will be a lot more planes parked on
the ramp and fewer in the air once this tax increase goes through.

If this tax does go through, expect the number of unfilled Angel Flight
missions (failure of a volunteer pilot to accept the flight) to sharply
increase.

--
Peter

Saudi Arabia must have some nice GA fields funded by the "tax" they
impose on us.

JG

What's really strange is all those new 4 seaters are designed with
engine requiring 100LL, instead of 91/96.

It part of a big bore engine.

True, but IO-470J/K can run on 80/87. I'm sure they'll do fine on
SR-20 airframe. It also won't be very hard for TCM engineers to
reduce the compression ratio a bit and make IO-550 run on 91/96.

My point is the aircraft manufacturers are short sighted. Relying on
a fuel that's going to be increasingly more expensive than automotive
fuel doesn't do GA much good.

C J Campbell writes:

Actually, it is a big deal. I know lots of people who own multi-million
dollar aircraft. They all complain about the price of fuel. Without
exception. No one seems to think it is pocket change.

Complaining about it and being able to afford it are two different things.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

On 19 Apr 2007 17:38:00 -0700, M wrote:

My point is the aircraft manufacturers are short sighted. Relying on
a fuel that's going to be increasingly more expensive than automotive
fuel doesn't do GA much good.

Have you tried getting mogas lately? Even auto gas is becoming
unusable because of all of the alcohol. I suspect for aviation diesel
will be the solution for a while.