On Wed, 3 May 2006 11:53:36 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

Roger wrote:
: Not really. I might stop at places selling fuel cheaper on long
: trips, but I don't go out of my way to get it. It normally takes 20
: to 30 gallons to top off. At a $1.00 a gallon cheaper I can't save
: anything by making a 20 mile hop to fill up.

30 gallons at $1.00 cheaper = $30 savings

20 miles at 12 mpg = 1.7 gal @ $4/gal = $7

Bzzzt! Try a different argument....

Try again. At $115 to $125 and hour I'm looking at roughly half an
hour total round trip counting taxi time at both airports. That works
out to about $55 to $62.50 minus $30 still costs me $25 to $35 over
the gas savings.
So instead of saving a dollar a gallon I'm spending an extra dollar a
gallon. IE, it costs me $2 a gallon to save a dollar a gallon.

There's a lot more to the cost of flying than gas.
Now if I'm coming back from a trip in that direction it makes sense to
top off before coming the rest of the way home.


For long trips (especially to popular/large places with expensive fuel) one
can usually find less expensive fuel with very little additional distance. If you
don't want the aggravation, that's a different story.

On trips where I can plan ahead even the extra 20 miles of so makes
much less difference and there I'm often putting in 60 to 70 gallons.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


-Cory