Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question for the Pilots

I have just landed a new job. and I am driving between 3.5 and 5.5 hours each and every day to get to and from work.
I started flight lessons many years ago and then stopped due to my finances.

I need some advice, would it be financially positive for me to go back and get my pilots license to be able to commute back and forth to work.
I was told that it is more cost effective to buy a used small plane while you are going threw flight training because the payments can be pretty cheap on the plane and then you only have to pay the trainer. I know there will be a mooring charge and insurance for the plane as well.

Work is about 85 miles as the car drives, as the crow fly's would be less. I have an airport less than a mile from my home and an airport about 5 to 8 miles from my job.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Not practical to many bad weather days.

I think you'd be better off renting a room near your new work location.

Flying is expensive and weather-dependent.

If i passed the instrument test. Weather should not be to much of a problem. I live in So. Cal.. flying from the inland empire to long beach. and on the real bad weather days I could still drive to work. Weather here is pretty moderate compared to other parts of the country.

I agree, not really feasible. Also the airspace in S CA can be rather restrictive, not easy to go straight line in many cases, VRF or IFR.

I'd work on plan B.

It would probably be cheaper to move than buy a plane to commute. You'd also need a car at the work end, remember.

Lot of people think that the distance air takes over the top of the wing, compared to the air that takes the shorter route under wing creates a lower pressure above the wing lifting the aircraft?

Admitting that it has a lot to do with keeping an aircraft airborne.
$Money is the the largest controlling influence!

I thought about the car at the other end.

All of your advice is why I put the post up. Some time you are to close to the question to be able to see the answer.

I have always wanted my pilots license but like what has been said it is an expensive hobby and trying to justify the costs of somethings is not the best way to go.

I am self employed and could probably find a way to rite some of the expenses off but I still need to be able to pay for it first.

New airplane equals money pit!

Used airplane equals BIGGER money pit!

Unless........you're flying for Uncle Sam. In a Tomcat we typically burned 8 tons of fuel for a sortie off the boat.

It's more than just buying a plane. With all the inspections & maintenance costs, they're very expensive.

However, if you can afford the plane, here's a new one called the Terrafugia Transition that will be on the market soon. You won't need the car on the far end. It'll only cost about $279k out of the show room.

Without doing a real analysis I can't really say. Put your current costs based on vehicle miles (gas, insurance, maintenance due to miles) on a spreadsheet and the then the costs associated with flying on the other (vehicle at destination airport, airplane rental, license costs). Potential time savings will be hampered by preflight & post flight procedures. I don't think weather will be too much of a factor, but don't underestimate the marine layer in So Cal. From 500' to 1200' that thing is thick!

Yep, that's a very crowded air corridor. I wouldn't want to pilot a plane anywhere near there.

I recently did a calculation for my son who is in Navy flight school, and a GE F110 would burn about 933 lbs of fuel per MINUTE in full blower.

Yep, you could run yourself out of gas in a heartbeat

Move...and then buy you a nice used J-3 Cub with a 100 HP engine and learn to fly.....CHEAP!! When you tire of it....you'll get your $$$$ back plus some...as long as you continue regular maintenance!! I just happen to know where one is!!

"If you've got time to spare, go by air!"
Cheers

And about 270 - 300 pounds of air per second per engine. Air doesn't weigh very much per cubic foot so that's a lot of air.

Tomorrow, drive to your local airport. Time it. Calculate the amount of time needed to preflight, taxi to the end of the runway and take off.

Sometime during the week, when you're at the work end of your commute, time the drive from the airport there to the workplace.

Then calculate average flying time, and don't forget to factor in the time needed in the landing pattern and taxing to the tie-down area, and then actually getting off the airport property to whatever vehicle you ride to work.

That should be interesting.

I spend $40.00 per day in just fuel for my truck. I have a motorcycle , a 2008 model and it broke down on me the first day home that day cost me about $500 and 8 hours on the road and I still do not have the bike back from repairs. It is over 50 miles from home. ( a stupid air leak in some gasket in the intake. When I get it back I calculated that it would cost me about $20s per day in just gas. 3 work days after that I had a front wheel blow out on my truck and took out the fender and crinkled the door $350+ for the tire and I do not have time to see what the damage is going to set me back. If I was flying all I would have to worry about is falling out of the sky and with a hard hit I would not be worrying any more.

I do regular maintenance on my vehicle and they are in very good shape but with all of this traveling I do not know how long they will last. I have traveled long distances for work for the past 24 years just not in traffic and I am getting tiered of burning vehicles up before I get them paid off. I have went threw 4 trucks since 1998 I am on my 3rd diesel. Getting out of the road traffic would be heaven but I do not know what to expect from the air traffic.

As for the time it would take me at my local airport it is about 1 mile from home and it is a very light traffic airport. My preflight would probably take longer than the runway time. Long Beach airport is another story it is very busy and with LAX close by there would be a lot of traffic. The cost of the moorings I would have to look into but I do know that they exist. More to consider.