Min Distance by plane?

Caramon13 said:
It is pretty important yeah. It has the potential to change a bunch of things right now in a positive way, so I definitely do not want to risk missing it. The driving estimate is between 3 hours and 40 minutes and 4 hours and 40 minutes. So it has me leaving at 5:20 AM to make it there in time if it skews towards the longer duration.

On the way back the drive time goes as high as 5 hours and 10 minutes. So at worst could be 10 hours or more of just driving for a 1-2 hr meeting.
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You’re going to get many varying opinions, but if I was in your shoes, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly if all of the stars aligned.
 
Id fly the night before and rent a room. But that’s me.
 
Salty said:
Id fly the night before and rent a room. But that’s me.
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Not a bad idea, but it's not always possible to keep these aircraft overnight. They want them back on the field by the AM. I am really regretting selling my Cherokee heh.
 
Caramon13 said:
..what is the minimum distance point-to-point that you guys consider flying as an option?
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Minimum distance? That's highly variable. The decision tree changes if the two points are separated by a sparse interstate freeway vs bridges, ferries or a gridlocked city.
 
Caramon13 said:
It is pretty important yeah. It has the potential to change a bunch of things right now in a positive way, so I definitely do not want to risk missing it. The driving estimate is between 3 hours and 40 minutes and 4 hours and 40 minutes. So it has me leaving at 5:20 AM to make it there in time if it skews towards the longer duration.

On the way back the drive time goes as high as 5 hours and 10 minutes. So at worst could be 10 hours or more of just driving for a 1-2 hr meeting.
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OK, so what about the idea of FLYING there the night before? Then you're there in plenty of time for the meeting, still get to fly, will absolutely make the meeting, and then can have a super FUN flight home after this great meeting.

It might be overkill, but you could probably nab a cheap hotel and do this and thereby avoid 10 hours of driving, no risk of missing the meeting, and still get to fly for the incremental cost of a night away and a cheap hotel.
 
Caramon13 said:
Not a bad idea, but it's not always possible to keep these aircraft overnight. They want them back on the field by the AM. I am really regretting selling my Cherokee heh.
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Yeah, and most rentals jack the price for overnight as well
 
If the meeting is important enough - I would drive up the night before. I'm not kidding.

What if your route has an overturned truck, construction delays, or something? Leaving the night before assures you get there.
 
Rgbeard said:
If the meeting is important enough - I would drive up the night before. I'm not kidding.
What if your route has an overturned truck, construction delays, or something? Leaving the night before assures you get there.
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Yeah, I was thinking about that as well. Going to see if the rental place lets me hang onto the plane overnight and if so I'll book and either use the plane or just drive. Either way if I can swing an overnight I'll try that. I could use a night away from the family honestly heh.
 
Rgbeard said:
I was fortunate to find that, following an acquisition of a GA-friendly company, my employer now has a GA-policy. I'm a named pilot in the firm. With prior approval I can fly myself to meetings, and get reimbursement for mileage.
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Congratulations on finding yourself with a GA friendly employer. On the topic of being reimbursed by an employer for expenses, do you believe there is any risk the FAA frowns upon this arrangement and considers it a breach of the "no less than the pro rata share of the operating expenses" regulation (61.113)?
 
BPM said:
Congratulations on finding yourself with a GA friendly employer. On the topic of being reimbursed by an employer for expenses, do you believe there is any risk the FAA frowns upon this arrangement and considers it a breach of the "no less than the pro rata share of the operating expenses" regulation (61.113)?
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Nope.
 
Rgbeard said:
Nope.
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If you take coworkers they do. Now you need a commercial, and a 135 cert to get reimbursed for the flight, because McPherson decided to slap her name on the decision that says you are now flying for compensation and for hire. Thank you to the **** that keeps on giving.


Never write the Chief Counsel, ever.

Me personally, I ignore CC decisions I think are wrong.
 
EdFred said:
If you take coworkers they do. Now you need a commercial, and a 135 cert to get reimbursed for the flight, because McPherson decided to slap her name on the decision that says you are now flying for compensation and for hire. Thank you to the **** that keeps on giving.


Never write the Chief Counsel, ever.

Me personally, I ignore CC decisions I think are wrong.
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Taking co workers is high on my list of things to not do.
 
MIFlyer said:
OK, so what about the idea of FLYING there the night before? Then you're there in plenty of time for the meeting, still get to fly, will absolutely make the meeting, and then can have a super FUN flight home after this great meeting.

It might be overkill, but you could probably nab a cheap hotel and do this and thereby avoid 10 hours of driving, no risk of missing the meeting, and still get to fly for the incremental cost of a night away and a cheap hotel.
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More fun to get there in rain and tell people you flew there.

"In this weather?"

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want to drive here in all this rain." ;) :D :cool:
 
Whenever you look at a flight risk assessment tool, "external pressure to complete a trip" adds risk factor. However if you look at a F.R.A.T. and use it correctly to help look at your risks for flying, if that is the ONLY risk factor and weather, maintenance, etc. etc. is good, then you're still within the green zone and good to go.

If the OP wanted to fly, the way I would look at it would be plan to fly and also plan to drive. Make a go/no-go decision at a time where driving still allows him to make the meeting. There could be an accident on the drive that causes one to be late for a meeting, too.

As you gain experience you're able to increase the sorts of conditions under which you can confidently and safely make trips on a schedule.
 
Caramon13 said:
Gotcha thanks. Commitments aside do you have a minimum distance that you use to determine fly or drive?
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For me, when I used to have software customers (two decades ago), my closest one was 160 NM. My home base was 4 miles from KLUK at the time, and I had two customers under 200 NM that were also within a few miles of an airport. They loved to pick me up, it was a novelty, I guess. I never flew with a set time to reach my destination, unless I could leave the day before.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
If the OP wanted to fly, the way I would look at it would be plan to fly and also plan to drive. Make a go/no-go decision at a time where driving still allows him to make the meeting. There could be an accident on the drive that causes one to be late for a meeting, too.
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LOL, exactly! This isn't that complicated...
 
I flew to a meeting today 26 miles away. Then took an Uber. Took about an hour from the time I left my office, my hangar is 10 minutes away.

The drive would have been 2.5 hours. For 26 miles....
 
Look at Ted’s post #31 above. Door to door flying vs driving would be pretty close to the same when you factor drive to the airport, preflight, etcetera. Plan for enough time so that you can drive if flying turns out not to be an option.
 
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I used to fly a 30 minute commute (actually more like 20 minutes) that was an hour and a half drive with no traffic, and three hours or more in rush hour. Add some small mountains, roundabout route, and gnarly congestion and flying becomes a no-brainer on Fridays. Weekdays? It's a wash.
 
Ryanb said:
Some people over complicate things based on their personalities. It’s our job to help them make wise decisions.
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Some people miss the important meetings in their life based on their personalities. But, it’s not my job to make them wise if they don’t want to be.
 
Salty said:
Some people miss the important meetings in their life based on their personalities. But, it’s not my job to make them wise if they don’t want to be.
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You can’t be everyone’s hero.
 
Caramon13 said:
Thanks guys. Just really not looking forward to spending all that time on the road RIGHT before a holiday heh..UGH.
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You obviously need a nicer car.
Not a bad idea, but it's not always possible to keep these aircraft overnight. They want them back on the field by the AM. I am really regretting selling my Cherokee
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AND an airplane of your own.
 
BPM said:
Congratulations on finding yourself with a GA friendly employer. On the topic of being reimbursed by an employer for expenses, do you believe there is any risk the FAA frowns upon this arrangement and considers it a breach of the "no less than the pro rata share of the operating expenses" regulation (61.113)?
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nope.
 
BPM said:
Congratulations on finding yourself with a GA friendly employer. On the topic of being reimbursed by an employer for expenses, do you believe there is any risk the FAA frowns upon this arrangement and considers it a breach of the "no less than the pro rata share of the operating expenses" regulation (61.113)?
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There are some hills on which I am willing to die.
 
I flew from Phoenix to Dallas for a business meeting once in a 182. Came in the night before.

When I arrived there were thunderstorms covering the entire area. The ATC facility even evacuated for a tornado overhead (except the guy talking to me).

Assessing the situation, I landed short of the destination, checked some email in the FBO for a couple hours, the weather cleared and I continued on into my destination to make a pre-meeting dinner.

The storms had thrown all the commercial airports/airlines into so much chaos, things did not get back to normal for a few days! Many people on commercial flights couldn’t make it in at all.

In that case, flying myself was better _because_ of bad weather. Go figure.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Look at Ted’s post #31 above. Door to door flying vs driving would be pretty close to the same when you factor drive to the airport, preflight, etcetera. Plan for enough time so that you can drive if flying turns out not to be an option.
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Yabut I'm only a 3,000 hour GA only pilot. WTHDIK?
 
Back when I was based at IAD I was headed for a meeting at BWI. I'd have flown it if it hadn't been that there was no way to avoid the Signature gouge fee at BWI since I couldn't possibly burn enough fuel to buy enough there.

I've certainly flown to many airports near where I live because I now live on the airport.

The sweet spot for me was always about three hours. Longer than that, I'd get their faster commercially. Much closer, when I had to drive to the airport, the setup time (drive, preflight, etc...) ate into the time efficiency. For example, from home in Suburban DC (Virginia) to Boston was best. I could fly to OWD or BVY which was closer to my destination and beat someone who left home at the same time who had to go to IAD, through security, fly to BOS, rent a car and fight out of BOS to wherever we were going (Salem or Hull typically).
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback! I've got a bunch of options and by next Monday should be committing to a plan of action. It's also interesting to hear that everyone for the most part has that 3-4 hour limit for fly vs drive (with a few exceptions). Since I rent, I have to weight the cost benefit a bit more carefully as I pay more cash up front for a rental than I would for just the gas if I owned. Otherwise I think I would just fly everywhere.

@DaleB yes I do need my own airplane again :). I'd rather drive a crappy car short distances and fly a comfortable airplane longer ones if I had my way.

@flyingron I've thought about that, however I guess that varies on where you are going like you said. I had a business trip to Illinois a few years back and it would have been about 6-7 hours in my Cherokee from Sarasota (SRQ to MDH). I would have beat the commercial flight due to where I had to fly/drive to for that trip. The company required me to fly out of STL which was a 2 hour drive to MDH. Between the drive and the overnight I could have been home having coffee before the commercial even took off the next morning.

Probably would have been more fun too to fly that, however the setup time definitely does matter as you said. The company I work for is not GA friendly unfortunately.
 
I own, am proficient and fly a weather capable aircraft, so will usually choose to fly anything over 30-40 miles. As long as there is Uber, rental or a courtesy car at the other end. So if driving and flying total travel time is even the same.... I will usually fly. Less stressful than dealing with rude, distracted crazy drivers. Plus those short trips, due to being higher workload, are great for maintaining proficiency.
 
Scheduled an IPC for this weekend so I can file using IFR if I go via plane next week. Flying IFR is so much more relaxing to me ironically...
 
Being a snow bird who flys out of SRQ,knowing the weather and chance of storms,I would do the drive.
 
frfly172 said:
Being a snow bird who flys out of SRQ,knowing the weather and chance of storms,I would do the drive.
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Thanks and I totally understand that situation after living here for about 25 years now. Some weeks it can be no big deal, and others you just can't fly it. Summer nights down here are a crapshoot. I may have no choice but to drive. I did manage to snag a faster plane so IF I fly, my trip is shorter by an hour overall.

Either way I am going up the night before, got a hotel in the area and will just chill out, have a nice bfast in AM and get there refreshed instead of walking in after a 5 hour drive or 1 hr 30 min flight.
 
EdFred said:
My music always got interrupted when flying IFR.
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I tried that once..Highway to the Danger Zone. In a Cessna though it's not quite the same feeling. Specially when cars are passing you below on the highway.
 
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