Does GA flying suffice for you?

meritflyer said:
I'll take the King Air.
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Hey hey, you're crazy!

Citation X is still a citation...:insane:
 
Bigey said:
A king air or a Citation would not be bad at all to fly around! Not as much stress either having your parents or family friends as your clients!
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Seems like that might be a candidate for a Mustang or an Eclipse. A Citation X might be a little much on the balance sheet....
 
Back to the orginal topic, I have been flying an RJ for about a month and a half and I already long for flying something smaller for fun. I like my job, but it is a job and the flying itch would be more satisfied by flying around a citabria. Why don't I go back to my higher paying job and buy one? Because then I would be hating my job.

Flying small planes for fun is where its at. It's an entirely different kind of flying... altogether. :rolleyes:
 
Yet from the eyes of a GA'er, flying the airlines and possibly getting to the majors one day sounds just a little better than zippin' around in a 182.

All a matter of perspective I guess.

I love my job!
 
notawannabee said:
FrogFlyer....if I made that kind of money...I would absolutely live like a refugee. I'm serious. I would ( and should be now...working on that ). I would live in someone's basement..a tent..whatever. That's if it was just me, but like meritflyer I have a family and want a comfortable standard of living...but sacrafices now would afford much deserved freedom later on.
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When I lived in NJ there was a guy doing the same thing. He lived in my apartment-house, minimized his expenses, and he saved everything he could. He was grossing about $195k (he worked for a drug company too) and figured in 10 years he'd have well over $1.5 million in cash.

$1.5 million, even at a guaranteed low-end MMA, would yield $45k/yr at current rates (3%, 5% is more what they are going for these days). For 10 years worth of frugality, he could live a lifetime while not lifting a finger if it came down to it. He could lose his job and not have a care in the world. That truly is financial freedom. Yes I know, inflation will eat into that. But you get the point.

I've never been in the position to save that much money, however if I was ever in that position I would like to think I would do the same thing. Of course, once you have a family, mortgage, nice cars, etc. it is hard to go back to being frugal.

Also, if you're making $60k+ and not maxing out your retirement and investing 10% getting your $$ working for you, you are living well outside your means IMO (like Kell said). Luckily, as pilots, we have the ability to commute from lower COLA outstations. That's worth quite a bit IMO.
 
***I've never been in the position to save that much money, however if I was ever in that position I would like to think I would do the same thing. Of course, once you have a family, mortgage, nice cars, etc. it is hard to go back to being frugal.**


You got that right....then the wife comes home and talks about the giant diamond ring her co-worker got......hint hint
 
notawannabee said:
***I've never been in the position to save that much money, however if I was ever in that position I would like to think I would do the same thing. Of course, once you have a family, mortgage, nice cars, etc. it is hard to go back to being frugal.**


You got that right....then the wife comes home and talks about the giant diamond ring her co-worker got......hint hint
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Man, am I glad my wife hates jewelry and flowers. She does like Xbox games and DVDs, though. :)
 
kellwolf said:
Man, am I glad my wife hates jewelry and flowers. She does like Xbox games and DVDs, though. :)
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lucky lucky....I will say that when my beer is low my wife brings me another. She also makes sure it is just below freezing with a 1/8 inch of frost on the surface.....ahhhhh. I WISH !!
 
Speaking of buying a light jet or a TP, here was an airplane some guy told me he was going to buy (a doctor I work with, ironic eh?)

SMARTJET

Guess their under $1M. Makes me wonder if the light TPs (TBM and Meridian) will have to reduce their price to stay competitive.
 
kellwolf said:
Man, am I glad my wife hates jewelry and flowers. She does like Xbox games and DVDs, though. :)
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We must've got ours from the same store. Not into jewelry (although she does like flowers) and she gets a rush from cutting coupons. On Friday we will actually get paid to remove merchandise from a grocery store. She might not earn a whole lot, but she sure makes up for that when we go buy food.
 
meritflyer said:
Speaking of buying a light jet or a TP, here was an airplane some guy told me he was going to buy (a doctor I work with, ironic eh?)

SMARTJET

Guess their under $1M. Makes me wonder if the light TPs (TBM and Meridian) will have to reduce their price to stay competitive.
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i was getting my car oil changed the other day and picked up a magazine that had about 10 advertisements for light jets ...no kidding...some were at a little over 1M. Changes are a' coming. There was one called " Delta Elite" with DAL logo...I believe the entry level package is 40K for 15hrs.?...don't quote me on that. There was not a write up about it, but someone here has probably heard of it.
 
kellwolf said:
Seems like that might be a candidate for a Mustang or an Eclipse. A Citation X might be a little much on the balance sheet....
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Haha i know but had to justify the whole citation thing.

If anything, price range wouldnt be anything higher than 1mil.

Remember, the price of the plane has to justify the cost with freedom, and returned profit due to the jet.

I think i'll be pretty content with flying a citation around. Who knows, if it becomes a crazy lucrative restaurant and business (Sbarros prime example) we could move up to bigger and better jets. Hell, even have a fleet. Then i can call myself chief pilot and hire all JC'ers!

Okay, out of dream land..most reasonable is probably a citation or a king air.
 
Are you insane? They say you must be, if you want to fly for the airlines. Yes, it's great fun...for about a year. Then the reality of low pay, lousy schedules, time away from home, and no career stability sets in. Then you will wonder what you were thinking to walk away from the lucrative career that you had. It's called work for a reason. It's not supposed to be fun.

My advice? Stay where you are. Work hard, provide for your family, save and invest, send the kids off to college and retire early. Then you can take those last few years to chase the dream. Believe me when I say that those few years will be enough.

In the meantime, if flying the "heavy iron" is something you just have to do, then go to one of the airlines who rent out simulator time. Lay out a few hundred or thousand dollars to fly a simulator of your choice.

And to answer your question, yes GA flying is enough. I haven't flown in over six months, but the next time I do, I know it will be very satisfying. That is, in fact, what makes any activity satisfying: its scarcity. It's basic economics: the value of something is inversely related to its supply.
 
What's interesting to me is that if you read this thread, you'd think GA means nothing other than flying single engine Cessnas around the traffic pattern at an uncontrolled airport.

Tell that to my buddy who flies bizjets for a Fortune 100 company. He's GA as well. Gets up to the flight levels and actually goes higher and faster than most airline traffic!
 
tonyw said:
What's interesting to me is that if you read this thread, you'd think GA means nothing other than flying single engine Cessnas around the traffic pattern at an uncontrolled airport.
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I don't think anyone thinks that; but in the context of this thread, that's basically what it is.

I took it to mean,
GA = flying on a non-professional level
 
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