In the Midwest, you can usually follow a line of thunderstorms (albeit at a
distance) and still make your destination even if a bit late. Many people
just park it for a few hours and let the storms roll through, then continue
their trip in the beautiful clear skies behind the front.

--
Jim Carter
Seen on a bumper sticker:
If you can read this, thank a teacher
If you can read this in English, thank a soldier.


"Richard Kaplan" wrote in message
s.com...

wrote in message
...

missed connections. All that said, the airlines still offer higher
reliability of safely getting to where you want to go more or less when
you
want to be there, but if you use the flexibility inherent in flying your
own
light airplane (NOT a rental!), the difference isn't all THAT huge.

I don't count a flight being cancelled by airlines and getting there 6
hours
later as a cancellation -- you still get there.

Airlines can, indeed, plan routes around weather; in fact, an airliner at
500 knots can do this much, much easier than I can do at 160 knots.

The difference between airline reliability and general aviation
realiability
is VERY significant anywhere except the Southwest U.S. Also Florida is
very reliable except during the afternoon in the 6-month rainy season.

Especially if you fly a non-deiced airplane, you can be grounded for
several
days in a row in the Northeast or Midwest or Northwest due to icing. In
the
summertime, frontal thunderstorms can easily prevent completion of a
cross-country trip for 1-2 days.

Also what happens if you have an 8-hour cross country trip you plan to
start
at 10AM but weather does not clear until 10PM? The airlines will get a
fresh crew to do the night flight. Will you start a long night flight at
10PM single-pilot IFR after you have been up all day checking weather?

There are LOTS of advantages to GA travel and I do it all the time... but
the only realistic way to do it is to either be prepared to rent a car or
to
schedule departure/arrival windows which are 24-36 hours wide depending on
the season and the capabilities of the pilot and airplane.

On the other hand, a rather novel use of general aviation when weather is
bad is that you may be able to fly to an inexpensive airline airport such
as
a Southwest hub and continue your trip from there. When I had to cancel
my
trip from Pittsburgh to Orlando due to 2 hurricanes, I flew my airplane to
Norfolk Virginia and got the family $69 tickets to continue the flight
from
there to Orlando; that was immensely less expense than the commercial fare
from Pittsburgh to Orlando and a strategy I will not forget in the future.


--------------------
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com