4 ms·

I've been toying with the idea of getting my pilot's license (eventually) partially for the sake of avoiding the TSA when I actually have to travel. What I'm cu

I've been toying with the idea of getting my pilot's license (eventually) partially for the sake of avoiding the TSA when I actually have to travel. What I'm curious about is how difficult/expensive it is to rent a plane that can fly further than stated in the article? (say, TX to CA, for instance) I imagine it wouldn't make much sense to buy a huge cross-country jet for the occasional long trips, although I am kind of surprised it's only ~$30k for a smaller one!

lutorm 13y ago
I think renting such a plane would be difficult, but there are home-built airplanes with ranges over 1000 miles. You need a big bladder to go that far, though...
- mcdougle 13y ago
  Really? I've heard it should be pretty easy, and that unless you're planning to fly often, renting is by far the best way to go (aside from just taking the airlines). Then again, my sources might not be all that knowledgable!
  - sokoloff 13y ago
    Renting is tough to use airplanes to take purposeful trips. Flight schools (the overwhelming source of rental airplanes) don't want you taking their plane for 9 days (two weekends and the week in-between) and flying it 3-hours each way, or 6 total hours of rental for 9 days where they can't rent it to anyone else. The typical minimum is 3 hours per day away from base. Before I bought my twin-engine airplane, I wanted to have 50 hours of multi-engine time (to make insurance more affordable), and I rented a flight school twin to build that time, including some trips. Because it was a twin (and therefore not in as high-demand), I was able to negotiate a 2-hour daily minimum, but that meant for long trips like Thanksgiving and Christmas, I had a lot of "extra hours" that I was going to have to pay for anyway, so I'd take side trips to fly off those hours (and to go visit used airplanes that I was considering purchasing). It is also virtually impossible to decide "Hey, the weather looks good this weekend; I'd like to rent a plane all weekend and go to XYZ." The plane will be booked at some point during that weekend. If you want to use an (non-airline, non-owned) airplane for travel, you want to join a partnership or a small club, not rent from flight schools. (This will be vastly cheaper than sole ownership, as you could imagine.)
skybrian 13y ago
That range is just the distance you can fly without stopping to refuel. Multi-stop trips can certainly be longer than that, if you have the time. A faster plane will get you there quicker, of course, but they are also much more expensive and harder to fly. That price is for a rather old used plane; newer planes cost much more. Some flying clubs have a variety of planes to rent, though you need to reserve them and more importantly learn to fly them.
cpncrunch 13y ago
First of all, you can buy a perfectly safe and airworthy Cessna 150 for around $15k, and you could fly it from TX to CA - it would just take quite a long time, and probably be quite bumpy. You might also get stranded for a few days half-way while waiting for weather. To fly long cross-country trips in comfort you really need something like a Cessna 182, or even better a Cirrus or a light twin. You'll end up spending at least $100k for well equipped IFR plane (and you'll need an instrument rating). Ideally you'd want oxygen, turbos and deicing so you can fly above/through the weather. So, in summary, it's not really feasible to buy a plane for personal transportation across large distances unless you want to spend a lot of money. You just can't beat the airlines in terms of value for money, safety and reliability, even if it is a miserable experience.

lutorm 13y ago

I think renting such a plane would be difficult, but there are home-built airplanes with ranges over 1000 miles. You need a big bladder to go that far, though...

mcdougle 13y ago
Really? I've heard it should be pretty easy, and that unless you're planning to fly often, renting is by far the best way to go (aside from just taking the airlines). Then again, my sources might not be all that knowledgable!
- sokoloff 13y ago
  Renting is tough to use airplanes to take purposeful trips. Flight schools (the overwhelming source of rental airplanes) don't want you taking their plane for 9 days (two weekends and the week in-between) and flying it 3-hours each way, or 6 total hours of rental for 9 days where they can't rent it to anyone else. The typical minimum is 3 hours per day away from base. Before I bought my twin-engine airplane, I wanted to have 50 hours of multi-engine time (to make insurance more affordable), and I rented a flight school twin to build that time, including some trips. Because it was a twin (and therefore not in as high-demand), I was able to negotiate a 2-hour daily minimum, but that meant for long trips like Thanksgiving and Christmas, I had a lot of "extra hours" that I was going to have to pay for anyway, so I'd take side trips to fly off those hours (and to go visit used airplanes that I was considering purchasing). It is also virtually impossible to decide "Hey, the weather looks good this weekend; I'd like to rent a plane all weekend and go to XYZ." The plane will be booked at some point during that weekend. If you want to use an (non-airline, non-owned) airplane for travel, you want to join a partnership or a small club, not rent from flight schools. (This will be vastly cheaper than sole ownership, as you could imagine.)

skybrian 13y ago

That range is just the distance you can fly without stopping to refuel. Multi-stop trips can certainly be longer than that, if you have the time. A faster plane will get you there quicker, of course, but they are also much more expensive and harder to fly. That price is for a rather old used plane; newer planes cost much more. Some flying clubs have a variety of planes to rent, though you need to reserve them and more importantly learn to fly them.

cpncrunch 13y ago

First of all, you can buy a perfectly safe and airworthy Cessna 150 for around $15k, and you could fly it from TX to CA - it would just take quite a long time, and probably be quite bumpy. You might also get stranded for a few days half-way while waiting for weather. To fly long cross-country trips in comfort you really need something like a Cessna 182, or even better a Cirrus or a light twin. You'll end up spending at least $100k for well equipped IFR plane (and you'll need an instrument rating). Ideally you'd want oxygen, turbos and deicing so you can fly above/through the weather. So, in summary, it's not really feasible to buy a plane for personal transportation across large distances unless you want to spend a lot of money. You just can't beat the airlines in terms of value for money, safety and reliability, even if it is a miserable experience.