doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/10/85)
> Airports are NOT always 40 miles away from start and destination points, > usually they are quite conveniently placed (even the offices of Terak Corp. > are near a general aviation airport if I remember correctly). OK, > Boulder Co. is a forty minute drive from the nearest airport. But, from > ABQ (or further) it's still faster to fly. Hey, I said Murphy's Law puts airports far away in the wrong direction. Maybe I should have put a ":-)" on that. Murphy's Law does tend to be operational, though. While Terak is indeed across the street from Scottsdale Muni (SDL), it is 25 miles from my house. Fortunately, the Phoenix area is blessed with way more GA airports than most (good flying weather and all that), so Falcon Field (FFZ) is only 8 miles from my house. In the wrong direction :-) > I've NEVER spent an hour to refuel (I've never spent 10 minutes refueling > my car either, unless you count the time wasted going out of my way to > get to the station). Interesting. I've never spent less than 30 minutes on the ground for refueling, and a hour-and-a-half is not unheard of. Anyone else on the net care to offer their experiences? > planes usually have larger range than cars, so don't need to stop nearly as > often. My car has a range of 300 miles on a tank, but I have to stop every couple of hours or so to drain my personal tank :-). My 100-mph plane has a range of 500 miles on a load, but I have to stop every couple of hours or so to drain my personal tank. Since I don't like to arrive with minimum fuel, I always refuel when I make a "pit stop" in my plane. Pit stops are more necessary when carrying passengers. The practice of always refueling is by no means universal, but I do recommend it highly. > I my case, most trips are point to point with NO intermediate stops. This should make your plane-to-car times worse. I admit surprise that under these circumstances that you find flying to be a lot faster than driving. > Bizarre claims about the inconvenience of flight are not bourne out by > experience (not mine anyway). If Mr. Pardee finds it inconvenient, I'm > sorry for him, but his experience is not relevant to me. Anyone else on the net want to contribute their experiences? Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug
marcum@rhino.UUCP (Alan M. Marcum) (01/14/85)
I'll note a few trips in particular, from both sides. My home base is Palo Alto (PAO), roughly midway between San Francisco and San Jose. PAO is five minutes from my house (I bought the house BEFORE I started flying, or even thinking about it -- if only PLANNED things could work out so well.....). Flew PAO to Tucson, Arizona in a Grumman Tiger. I recall logging about six hours each way, with about an hour on the ground for a fuel stop each direction. This hour included, at one stop, waiting for the FBO folks to arrive, and at the other, getting another weather briefing (we'd flown through a forcasted cold front; wanted to see what was what). Flew to Disneyland for the day. One-stop down (Santa Barbara, an emergency pit stop for the ~9 year old girl with us), non-stop back; about 2 hours air time each way in a 182RG. Driving would have been eight hours down (~400 statute miles). Flew to Modesto, to visit my aunt there. Its about 1:40 to drive; it was about 1:30 door-to-door in a 172, including waiting for her to pick me up after calling upon landing. Flew to Davis (near Sacremento) for various business functions. Generally, these have been scheduled for 8pm; I better leave about 5pm for traffic. In a 152, I've left at 6:30, after a nice dinner at home, and made it in plenty of time. Flew to Lake Tahoe for dinner in a T210. Five hour drive; ~1:30-2:00 each way, including ground time and the walk to and from the restaurant. Finally, the biggie: flew to Washington, DC in the 182RG. Two of us logged a total of 37 hours round trip. We stopped, if I recall, three times each way for fuel, including one overnight each direction. Sure, much slower than commercial. Not exactly a 100-mph plane. But, oh, what a trip! Some of these flights have been in planes much faster than 100-mph. Others have been in 152s and 172s. Admittedly, it's rare that I stop for my "tank" before I stop for the plane's; this usually holds true with passengers, too (though note the Disneyland trip). And, personally, I'd MUCH rather fly for two hours than drive for two hours (or pre-flight for X, fly for Y, ground time for Z, than drive for X+Y+Z). -- Alan M. Marcum Fortune Systems, Redwood City, California ...!{ihnp4, ucbvax!amd, hpda, sri-unix, harpo}!fortune!rhino!marcum
brent@phoenix.UUCP (Brent P. Callahan) (01/14/85)
This discussion assumes that you can proceed to your destination by road in more-or-less a straight line. Convenience becomes biased heavily on the side of the aeroplane when various road-inhibiting obstacles or heavy traffic are placed in the way. I've done most of my flying in New Zealand. A country where the multilane highway reduces to single lane 30 miles out of the city. With lots of hilly terrain, the roads can get narrow and winding - in a vertical plane as well! That can greatly reduce the average speed of a car. Living in Auckland, my wife and I used to take weekend trips to Napier or New Plymouth. Leaving after work on a Friday evening, we could make it by 11 pm - 6 hours of driving in slow, unpassable traffic. Taking an aircraft (Warrior) we're there in 2 hours in time for dinner with our host (who were delighted to meet us at the airport). Flying between the North and South Island was magic! The Cook Strait ferry crossing takes 3 hours from roll on to roll off across about 30 miles vs 15 min by air. Auckland to Christchurch is 7 hours + 1 hour refueling stop. By road: 14 hours driving + 3 hours ferry (if you don't miss it). Brent Callaghan -- Brent Callaghan AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ {ihnp4|hogpc|pegasus}!phoenix!brent (201) 576-4439
rb@houxn.UUCP (R.BOTWIN) (01/15/85)
[] My first trip after finally getting my private was from Robbinsville, NJ to Rutherfordton, NC (near TN border) to visit my brother. Including a half hour pit stop at Chesterfield, VA for refueling the plane's tank and draining mine (also to get a bag of potato chips)...the trip was 5 hours door-to door. Commercial flights were unavailable, as anything big couldn't land as close, and driving would have been a minimum of 15 hours... This was a labor day weekend. We started out early Sat, and got there Sat afternoon. We had the rest of Sat, all day Sun, and Mon morning to enjoy ourselves... We wound up leaving around 10 AM, only because of forecasts of thunderstorms due in to NJ late afternoon (after 5)...we arrived at 3PM. Aside from this being my wife's first long trip, and impressing her with all the assistance available on VFR flight (radar vectors, VOR's, etc.), it was enjoyable and exciting. The only problem was the ringing in our ears from the loud engine noise of the C172 (gotta get headphones one of these days!) This trip could not have been done in the time available any other way!!! Rob Botwin, N2FC .....{utah-cs|seismo|decvax}!harpo!eagle!hogpc!houxn!rb ATT/IS Labs (201) 577-5016 (Cornet 8-270-5016) FJ 1B-130
lmiller@ucla-cs.UUCP (01/16/85)
[] I used to fly every week from Los Angeles to the SF bay area. About half the time on airlines, half the right way. Door to door, from my house to Xerox PARC, light plane flying was equal in time to the airlines. I could land at Palo Alto and take a cab vs. SFO or SJC and rental car. About half the time I had to file IFR, and either shoot an approach into SJC, or cancel and go VFR in PAO. On one occasion I needed to go into SFO and they were just wonderful. I'd fly almost anything available, and got to the point where the route could be done in minimal time: about 2 hours in a Mooney or Bonanza. For one person the airlines were cheaper; for two it was a wash. I'd leave LA (either SMO or VNY) around 7. Leave Palo Alto around 5 or 6 the same day. A couple of times LAX was fogged in and we hand to land (many hours later than scheduled) at Burbank, but when I flew myself, VNY was always open even when LAX was not. Forget driving: 7+ hours each way. (The distance, by the way, is about 280 nm.)
sean@ukma.UUCP (Sean Casey) (01/18/85)
We often fly down to Hilton Head Island, S.C. from Lexington Ky. to spend a week soaking up the sun. By car, it's over 12 hours. By Beechcraft, total time from front door to condo is between 4 and 5 hours (conservatively). Flying time is between 3 and 4 hours, depending on wind. If we leave at 9am, that practically gives us an extra day. Even for shorter trips, you don't have to go far at 200 MPH to outweigh the slighly longer embark/disembark times. A great deal of the delays you speak of can be avoided by planning ahead. Familiarty with both airports can chop off even more minutes. For example, Fuel stops don't have to take 30 minutes. Well planned fuel stops take about the same time a car stop would (Family goes to bathroom, gets some soft drinks. When all of family gets back, plane is fueled). Most airports, even small ones, have better bathrooms than gas stations. Personally, I much prefer flying to driving. I find that time in a plane passes very quickly while driving drags on and on and on. Not only that, but most car seats cause me severe back pain after 5-6 hours. Enough Ramblin, Sean