Aircraft To Commute To Work

I_Money

I_Money

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Anyone know of a person who uses a GA aircraft to commute to work? What plane? How far is their commute? Do they have a full time pilot as after a long day in the office they might be too fatigued to fly? Thanks!!!
 
I know a few "retired" contractors that use an airplane to do work all over the country and still be able to make some weekends home.
One guy has a Grumman Tiger, the other a Cherokee 6.
 
A guy here at 3g4 just sold his 310 that he used to commute to Detroit where he was based flying the 747. Nothing like flying to work just to go flu
 
I knew a guy that used an old Skyhawk to commute 30NM back and forth.


The Cirrus I fly is a weekly commuter for a private owner. It's 550NM each way and one other pilot and myself fly it. The owner isn't a pilot.
 
Inverted25 said:
A guy here at 3g4 just sold his 310 that he used to commute to Detroit where he was based flying the 747. Nothing like flying to work just to go flu
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/thread takeover
How close do you live to 3g4? I live 2 miles from GQQ. M&G?
/unthread takeover
 
Growing up I lived on an airport and had three neighbors that commuted to work. Two flew 65 miles to same airport every morning (not sure why the didn't plane pool?). It was an hour and a half drive they both flew in their Warrior's in 35 minutes. The third neighbor flew 90 miles in his Cherokee six in about 30 minutes (a 2.5 hour drive) every day. My mother flew for a guy that flies a Navajo Mon-Thurs to work. He departs from home at 6am and returns at 4pm. The flight is 35 minutes, the drive is over three hours in good traffic. He has a full time pilot.

I have been very tempted lately to buy an airplane to fly to work in. My drive is a little under an hour. I live five minutes from an airport and work at another airport and do the drive five days a week. I hope to in the next year.

Alex.
 
I am in sims with a guy who flies a copter from his house helipad to his office helipad. Ya he's rich.
 
I know someone who flies corporate that commutes from CZL to PDK in his 140. Thats a very short flight but its about an hour drive or more if there is traffic in ATL. I also have family who flies his 182 some from North Georgia to Ft. Rucker where he is a contract instructor.
 
I don't do it all the time, but I've commuted to work in an RV-6 a handful of times.

For me the biggest logistical item is the ground time. How long are you going to be driving versus what can you save by flying?

I was driving 2.5 hours, roughly. I was flying about 45 minutes. However, I was driving 20 minutes to the plane, then another 10 or so minutes getting the plane ready to fly, then flying the leg, getting the plane secured (and paying the ramp fees) and driving to the "office." Which meant parking in a crew parking lot, getting on the bus, and doing the normal joe blow routine and by the time it was all said and done, it was just easier to drive in.

I still do it occasionally, but only if it's going to be stress free - ground school, recurrent, a sim, something like that.
 
My dad sometimes takes the 310 or the Archer to work.

They live just north of MRJ, and he teaches at the Blackhawk Tech campus on the airport at JVL. It's a 2 hour drive each way, about 15 minutes in the air with the 310 and about 25 minutes in the Archer. One does have to factor in prep time for the airplanes, etc, but it does save him some time. It costs a LOT less in gas to drive his little Geo Metro though, so he doesn't take the plane often. Over the years that he's been doing that drive, he's gone through about 4 of those little cars, they get tremendous gas mileage and he takes most of them to 300k miles before the bodies rust away from the Wisconsin winters.
 
My chief pilot sometimes commutes using various aircraft. He has an airport in his backyard, and its an 1.5 hour drive vs 30 minutes flying. He'll borrow an airplane from some of the many students he has, and its normally something cool like a Cessna 180 or a Champ.
 
ChasenSFO said:
Pretty sure Complexav8tr said he commutes by GA.
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Depends on the contract but that is the whole point of the aircraft. A business tool.

I noticed no mention if fatigue. I have had problems in the past of getting a call late in the day 10pm departure, work all night, and then get ready to head home. I learned a long time ago to get the rest when needed, take a nap at the field or full blown hotel room sleep. Goal is to get home safe. I also will say that when I was doing a 2.5-3 he flight to work in the am and returning home at night 3-4 days a week it gets to you FAST but I wanted to be home for activities with the kids. Could of never done it driving or commercially flying.
 
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