crxpilot
Waaasssuuuupppppp!!!!!
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Posts
- 719
I was wondering if anyone uses their own light plane to commute to work and if so,,,,,,,how is it? I am considering moving to an area about one hours flight to work and having my own land to land on at home. Is it more hassle than its worth? I am thinking of a cheap two seater to keep the cost down etc. Any tips are appreciated. BTW, needless to say, my wife is not thrilled with the idea. As it is, she puts up with my flying job!
When the weather gets bad in the wintertime I give myself plenty of time to get there, as flying IFR in a 172 in MT is out of the question, although in the summer it's fine to just get though a layer or something. I've been doing this steadily for about a year, and it's been great. I park right behind where we park our planes for work, so it's easy to get back and forth from plane to plane. I do all my own maintenance, and it costs me about 15-16 gals in fuel round trip ('59 172). I run on auto gas, so that's about $28 round trip in gas, for about 2 hours flight time round trip. Then there's insurance, about 800-900/year, and of course scheduled and unscheduled MX - I would say about $100-300/month on average. Like I said, I do my own work though, so that is for parts and outsourcing things I can't do, like cylinder overhauls .. (anyone with an O-300 knows about these!!). When the weather is bad, you can always drive, but sometimes given the road conditions here in MT I'm glad that I am flying. I hope this helps, of you have any questions, let me know.
