Any Pilots On Here??

[Gary Fowler]

Take a look at the trade-a-plane.com website for pricing. If you think UTV pricing is ridiculous, then just take a look. In 1985 I bought a 1977 Cessna Cardinal RG for $13K while I was working in Venezuela, flew it back to USA when I finished my job. Spent another $3-4K on getting all the paperwork checked out and translated into English. Sold it in 1989 for $25K. If you can find one in trade-a-plane, just see what they are going for now. The Cardinal was a very roomy 4 place but way underpowered with it's 180 HP engine. It would have been great with a 225-250 HP engine. Cruise speed on mine would true at 150 knots at 10,000 feet and 8 GPH of fuel which made it really economical to fly. Insurance, airport fees and yearly inspections was just too much for me while raising my family. I was so busy working that I didn't have time to fly, so I sold it to an Air Force Captain. The bug does hit me every now and then till I look at pricing. Even ultra-light planes are in the $20K range.

 

[plowhog]

Except the Beech B55 Baron twin, I sold every airplane I had owned for more money than I paid to buy it. My mistake with the Baron was I paid too much for it to start with.

 

[Old Red]

I have been flying for about 10 years. Bad weather made me stay in Disney one extra day and a few days at my mothers.

If your not willing to rent a car and drive home, then don't do it.

One other thing, if ATC ask you if you have weather in the plane, thats code for you are likely going to die if you proceed.

How far did you fly to get to disney? What plane did you fly to get there? We go to orlando twice a year, the gulf usually 2 times a year, mountains once a year, and I have monthly meetings 3 hours away by car. When you go to a busy place like Orlando, do you fly in those airports that have all that traffic or somewhere else? How friendly are those places to little trainer planes and what not?

 

[MossRoad]

Except the Beech B55 Baron twin, I sold every airplane I had owned for more money than I paid to buy it. My mistake with the Baron was I paid too much for it to start with.

Today, the Baron runs around $1.4M.... :shocked:

Controller.com | BEECHCRAFT G58 BARON For Sale - 18 Listings - Page 1.

 

[MossRoad]

How far did you fly to get to disney? What plane did you fly to get there? We go to orlando twice a year, the gulf usually 2 times a year, mountains once a year, and I have monthly meetings 3 hours away by car. When you go to a busy place like Orlando, do you fly in those airports that have all that traffic or somewhere else? How friendly are those places to little trainer planes and what not?

That's one more thing to think about when learning to fly. There's several small, quiet, airports around here that you think would be a great place to learn to fly. No tower. Little to no traffic. You basically just announce that you are in the area and hope the others hear you and rely on that and visual identification. However, small airports without towers don't teach you anything about playing in traffic, so-to-speak... how to listen, understand, and speak to air traffic control. Learning to fly at an airport with a tower and moderate traffic, in my opinion and not being a pilot, would be extremely advantageous for the places that you are thinking about flying into.

 

[mark02tj]

Got my ticket back in '01. Got the itch when I was doing a job in Illinois that there was no good way to get there. It was an 8 hour drive from home, or fly to Chicago and drive which also made the total trip 8 hours. There was a little general aviation airport about 10 minutes from the client site and I figured out it would take about 3 hours of flying time to get there. My "plan" was that I'd learn to fly and it would open up all sorts of new business opportunities. :laughing:

I did fly for business from time to time (but had long since finished the IL job when I got my ticket). It was never practical to do so though. As others have mentioned, there is generally a "daily minimum" when you rent. Plus, you have to arrange for transportation at the client's end of things - either rent a car or they pick you up. I did have one client that was actually based on an airport - an old AF base with 12,000' runways. I learned to "land long" there so avoid having to taxi a half-mile to the first taxiway in the Cessna 150 I was renting. They still had a National Guard refueling unit based there. One day I had to wait for a while to take off as the tanker was doing touch and go's and I had to wait in order to avoid the wake turbulence.

Did fly some for pleasure trips - a couple of times to WV for family reunions (turned a 5 hour drive into less than a 2 hour flight) and also a day trip here and there. Mostly it was $100 hamburgers though. When my niece got married in the SF Bay area, I rented a Citabria and an instructor and took a flight out over SF Bay, over the Golden Gate and then up the coast to the Napa/Sonoma area! GREAT time!! Last time I flew was in October of 2007 when Sweetie and I were in Key West. Took a C-172 out over the Keys for an hour or so. Another great time.

I also used to take a lot of kids up for "Young Eagle" flights at the airport's annual fly-in and pancake breakfast. Lots of great kids!! I found out a couple of years ago that one kid I took up ended up being a commercial helicopter pilot and is now flying oil rig duty in the Gulf. His mom told me that he said he owed it all to me!

Sweetie and I's first date was a flight in a '46 J-3. I heard that chicks dig pilots and I guess it was true!! :laughing: Sadly, she has some health issues now and no interest in flying - or in me taking it back up again. That's OK - it was a great experience and I'm content using my tractor now. Although, some days I do get the itch to head down to the airport and take an "introductory flight" again.

 

[Drstrangeglove]

How far did you fly to get to disney? What plane did you fly to get there? We go to orlando twice a year, the gulf usually 2 times a year, mountains once a year, and I have monthly meetings 3 hours away by car. When you go to a busy place like Orlando, do you fly in those airports that have all that traffic or somewhere else? How friendly are those places to little trainer planes and what not?

I live just north of Mobile, AL. I flew my 172s. Not sure about the time, I think about 4 hours total. Going down I had a ground speed of 166kts, so had a real good tail wind. The airport we flew into was Kissimmee. from there it was an easy taxi ride to Disney.

 

[Old Red]

Got my ticket back in '01. Got the itch when I was doing a job in Illinois that there was no good way to get there. It was an 8 hour drive from home, or fly to Chicago and drive which also made the total trip 8 hours. There was a little general aviation airport about 10 minutes from the client site and I figured out it would take about 3 hours of flying time to get there. My "plan" was that I'd learn to fly and it would open up all sorts of new business opportunities. :laughing:

I did fly for business from time to time (but had long since finished the IL job when I got my ticket). It was never practical to do so though. As others have mentioned, there is generally a "daily minimum" when you rent. Plus, you have to arrange for transportation at the client's end of things - either rent a car or they pick you up. I did have one client that was actually based on an airport - an old AF base with 12,000' runways. I learned to "land long" there so avoid having to taxi a half-mile to the first taxiway in the Cessna 150 I was renting. They still had a National Guard refueling unit based there. One day I had to wait for a while to take off as the tanker was doing touch and go's and I had to wait in order to avoid the wake turbulence.

Did fly some for pleasure trips - a couple of times to WV for family reunions (turned a 5 hour drive into less than a 2 hour flight) and also a day trip here and there. Mostly it was $100 hamburgers though. When my niece got married in the SF Bay area, I rented a Citabria and an instructor and took a flight out over SF Bay, over the Golden Gate and then up the coast to the Napa/Sonoma area! GREAT time!! Last time I flew was in October of 2007 when Sweetie and I were in Key West. Took a C-172 out over the Keys for an hour or so. Another great time.

I also used to take a lot of kids up for "Young Eagle" flights at the airport's annual fly-in and pancake breakfast. Lots of great kids!! I found out a couple of years ago that one kid I took up ended up being a commercial helicopter pilot and is now flying oil rig duty in the Gulf. His mom told me that he said he owed it all to me!

Sweetie and I's first date was a flight in a '46 J-3. I heard that chicks dig pilots and I guess it was true!! :laughing: Sadly, she has some health issues now and no interest in flying - or in me taking it back up again. That's OK - it was a great experience and I'm content using my tractor now. Although, some days I do get the itch to head down to the airport and take an "introductory flight" again.

Did you ever own a plane? What I am finding are those pilots who do not own planes find the least benefit in having their license. Renting a plane turns into what turn out to be meaningless 100 dollar hamburger runs.

I still don't know. Yesterday evening went and spent some time with my friend on his two planes. His Piper 180 and 6-300 planes. Showing me around and looking at all the buttons and gauges and what not. We did not go up as it was too rough. I guess my next thing is going up and seeing how sick I get. Again, this idea...and plan....is to own a plane and travel. We love travel and getting away....and as we get older we do it a lot more and every chance we get. But if it is a pain in the rear and no fun to fly places in these little single engines to places then I'm out. I guess I can just get my license and go from there.

 

[Spiros]

Hey Old Red,
You might consider learning to fly gliders first. Nothing like good old stick and rudder training to wow your powered flight instructors later. Powered flight instruction is about $125 to $175 per hour with around 40 hours required for licensing. Glider training averages out to about $30 to $50 per hour.
We fly out of Wynne, Arkansas, Memphis Soaring Society. Also for building hours in powered flight one option is to purchase a C150 for around $15k and build your hours for your ticket, then sell when you get your SEL rating.

 

[Old Red]

Hey Old Red,
You might consider learning to fly gliders first. Nothing like good old stick and rudder training to wow your powered flight instructors later. Powered flight instruction is about $125 to $175 per hour with around 40 hours required for licensing. Glider training averages out to about $30 to $50 per hour.
We fly out of Wynne, Arkansas, Memphis Soaring Society. Also for building hours in powered flight one option is to purchase a C150 for around $15k and build your hours for your ticket, then sell when you get your SEL rating.

My apologies but I don't know what the acronyms are. What is SEL rating? Single Engine License? What is a C150? Glider? Like no engine? I have no idea if any of that happens around here?

Also when you say build your hours for your ticket....please explain? Would this be time in the air without an instructor by myself? Doing the maneuvers I need to do?