Yes you can burn energy quickly in car descents with wheels or engine breaks (maybe less if you drive +20T trucks where you have to plan steep descent, exceed 40mph in some it’s outgoing only), in aircrafts it’s just hard to burn height & speed that easily without going in uncontrolled regimes (using aerodynamics breaking near VS or VNE)
With car keeping with traffic and inside the road is way more harder than aircrafts as you only have to car about flying a heading and keep pitch +8deg/-3deg, flying becomes more challenging as driving when it’s done near mountains, instrument runways or 300agl near the ground but you don’t have the luxury of “car breaks”, imagine driving with no breaks that would be tough 
This past year, I have certainly flown more than I have driven. I find flying SEP VFR more relaxing than driving. Once I leave home, I am expected to remain between the lines while driving my car. It is only very brief times while flying that anyone cares if I keep the plane between the lines. If I want to maneuver in the third dimension in the plane, I can circle up or down – difficult in the car, confuses the other motorists!
After taking an involuntary break from both driving (5 months) and flying (seven months) I certainly felt more at home climbing back into a 172 than my VW. But then… I’ve been flying for two more years than I have been driving!
Learning to fly is like learning to ride a bicycle. Once you know how to ride a bicycle, it is hard to forget what you learned. same for the basic flying skills. OK, I haven’t been flying for a while, it takes one or two flights to get back into the routines, but the basic skill learned is still there.
MedEwok wrote:
Superficially, the question wheter flying a SEP can be as easy as driving a car seems to be easily answered: No.
A lot has to do with currency. If you do both about the same amount of time and with the same approach to how you do it, I would say flying is a lot more relaxed and less stressful than driving which lets you build reserves you usually don’t have while driving.
I drive daily and fly rarely, yet I never find the mechanics of flying very difficult. Where flying is more demanding is primarly in all the stuff around it. But generally, I would think that the actual flying itself is mostly a lot more relaxing than the daily trying to avoid maniacs on the road from smashing into you. Nevertheless, I love both and would be hit very hard if I could not do either of them anymore with old age or for other reasons.
One major difference is that when driving you can hit the break and stop (ok in some places it might not be appreciated by other drivers…) whereas in flying, you first need to land before you can stop… That is where planning beforehand is more important when flying than when driving…
But otherwise, I did a few several days trip with GA airplanes, and after a couple of days, flying feels like quite natural, It’s been a while since I’ve done this, was planning a trip this summer to Northern Norway but the weather decided otherwise, so hopefully next year!
“Flying a plane is certainly more COMPLICATED than driving a car”
Flying a tailwheel for sightseeing in the hills in Class G is noway as complicated as driving a car. Engine background noise gives most information. Once you’re accustomed to the nose attitude, you just look out the window.
I’ve never done formation flying, which would be very more attention demanding.
Almost all my driving is formation driving, with no agreement in advance with the other drivers.☹️
Jujupilote wrote:
When you are alone in a car, on a busy motorway, in an unfamiliar area, and you realize you took the wrong exit, and you didn’t use GPS because you thought you could handle the nav, then you really don’t know what to do, and can’t do much.
This is a true story. My (previous) wife and I drove from Norway to Brussels to visit my parents for Christmas. I drove, and she had the maps. This was long before GPS. You know how it goes. I was asking: Is this the correct road? She answered (shouting, more and more irritating): “YES!! Stop asking every other minute”. What happened was instead of ending up in Brussels, we ended up in the middle of Amsterdam
Airborne_Again wrote:
You don’t need to do descent planning in a car… You do in GA aircraft.
You need to do constant brake planning in a car (how fast can I drive and still stop before an animal “popping up”) – most drivers are just not aware of it due to their proficiency. Speed management is also much more difficult in a car, because Vne is given by road conditions, radius of turns, etc. which is constantly changing.
matthew_gbr wrote:
Flying a plane is certainly more COMPLICATED than driving a car and requires a higher workload and set of proficiencies and activities, which is an absolute issue.
Would not agree to that: Complexities of driving a car is just different (much more other traffic, animals/children that can unexpectedly jump in front of your car, much more complex routing w/o someone on the radio talking you through it, etc.).
And I would not think that landing a plane is really more difficult/complex than parking a car in a small slot. It’s actually easier.
So to give my thought on the original questions: I absolutely think that flying a plane due to many reasons is much easier than driving a car.
It’s just that making mistakes while flying a plane has a higher likelihood of catastrophic outcomes than doing mistakes while driving a car. Therefore it’s actually a good thing, that it’s easier…
I absolutely think that flying a plane due to many reasons is much easier than driving a car.
It’s just that making mistakes while flying a plane has a higher likelihood of catastrophic outcomes than doing mistakes while driving a car. Therefore it’s actually a good thing, that it’s easier…
I agree 100%
I also think that many of us who keep both means of transport at home do use the aeroplane as much or even more than a car. In terms of distance covered, it’s probably about 5 x according to my logbook and trip computer.
I think driving a car is just different …
I agree flying is easier than driving in that you can just sit there for hours, perhaps on autopilot, which you can’t do with a car and probably never will be able to do because there is no prospect of technology for self driving cars which will do all the fancy parking etc stuff.
Nowadays, in the UK, either activity can terminate your license pretty quick if you aren’t careful. Driving gets you banned at 12 points (the 4th speed camera), flying gets you suspended at the 3rd airspace infringement (the 3rd CAIT software event)
Overall it is a different skillset. Flying – especially the IFR stuff – attracts a fairly well defined personality profile. But then every activity and every profession does that. You can’t imagine Richard Branson applying for the job of an accountant It’s just that driving is something which almost everybody has to do to get around in their life, so people just get on with it, in widely varying ways.
Also different personalities enjoy the two activities. Lots of totally non tech people enjoy driving (and are good at it) but very few of them enjoy flying, except flying at a very basic level. Quite a lot of pilots also enjoy motorbikes…
