That’s equal to the number of minutes of my life totally wasted in the “passenger management” cattle market called “London Gatwick” , a few days ago.
Admittedly Easyjet aren’t normally as bad as Thomas Cook which we flew with, for the sheer size of the queues.
But you just cannot beat
And unless the distance is more than a single TB20 leg, you will probably be landing before the airliner does. My most memorable instance was Shoreham to Granada (Spain) where Justine took an airline and I was there and had the trip writeup finished (up to that point) before she landed. And that was a long flight – 6:30 or so.
I just wish that GA didn’t involve so many other hassles!
There’s another reason for flying GA – and that was brought home to me on my recent flight back from Manchester to Düsseldorf – the guy next to me obviously had been eating baked beans, onions or Brussels Sprouts for breakfast (possibly all three) so the whole journey consisted of green clouds being silently emitted from his fouling body….. And, as we all know, a fart is like success….. only your own smells good……
But you just cannot beat
Canceling IFR and go low VFR to reach your destination and not be stuck in a neighboring country like the rest of the thousands airline pax..
delaying your EOBT so long it is necessary
My family came back from holiday by public transport so I could do Project Propeller. I get to keep the plane a couple years more every time I make them do that.
You just cannot beat:
• going to places in 45 min that otherwise require you 4 hours of driving and 1 hour on ferry and can’t be reached with airliner
• hearing yourself in headphones saying “rotate”
• being welcomed with “good morning, captain”
• meeting like minded people
• talking to knowledgeable pilots
• sharing funny stories and experiences
Couldn’t agree more. My whole aviation progression has been toward the total elimination of airline travel. I’m getting there. And it is worth every penny I spend on it. The stress, the humiliation, the time, the comfort, the godforsaken hubs etc makes this an easy choice for me. Even if it costs more, it’s so worth it. And if time and health is money, then it’s actually cheaper.
I’ve concluded that up 1000nm my Aerostar will beat the airlines door to door every time. If you add a hub and a layover to that, then it’s closer to 2000nm. I could literarily fly from LA to NY in the same time as someone who has to change planes somewhere. Sometimes you beat the airlines so much that it’s almost ridiculous. Like the other year when they wanted me to to go to a small city in Oregon that didn’t have airline connection. My options were fly to Portland and then drive 5 hrs for 10hrs in total. Instead I hopped in the Aerostar and was there in 3hrs! Another good one is the perennial Las Vegas trip from LA. By the time you’ve gone to LAX, been groped by grumpy TSA agents, chavved to death by party people (who decided that a Vegas vacation starts on the plane already) etc, you’ve been in hell for 4-5hrs door to door. Aerostar gets me there in 55mins. Maybe 2hrs door to door – tops.
Now, if I could just find a way of making my international travel viable in my old plane, I could eliminate airlines completely….
Now if we could get rid of all the hassle and obstacles like slots and unforecastable weather, I could think of a few more :)
One can address the despatch rate pretty well with a FL250-300 aircraft, pressurised, deiced , with radar. So a PA46T (Jetprop or Meridian) is the starting point. TBM would be next, arguably.
There is a guy who used to own a Cessna 421C and over the course of a year, doing 1 business trip a week (mostly, IIRC, UK to Italy) he flew 49 out of the 50 flights. On the 1 he had to turn back due to a solid wall of CBs on the radar. So that’s another way, but he did spend an awful lot of money on refurbishing what today would be a very old airframe, and then on the avgas.
Another reason – you know what tape and why you have it on the airplane.