A non-pilot asks.....

flhrci

flhrci

Final Approach
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Groveport, OH
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Display name:
David
"How fast does your airplane go?" To me that is a somewhat complicated question due to TAS and ground speed and all other variables. I tend to make up a ballpark answer. is that what you all do? Just curious.

David
 
'Round this neck of the woods everyone knows it takes a solid 4 hours to drive to myrtle (lots of real slow windy roads). I'll just say "we can get to the beach in an hour" and that usually gets a good reaction.

EDiT: but for a specific number, flight-planning speed is what I tell them, give or take winds.
 
People ask me this quite often. I also usually just tell them how many hours to get somewhere as I figure they really don't want me to explain all the variables about wind and such. Kinda like the correct answer to the question " how are you today" is fine
 
I tell them that it will do MACH point four five! (you can make up any number you want, point 45 just sounds nice to me)
 
Yes, I give them a ballpark answer, 120 knots, about 135 mph. As eman pointed out, around here distance is measured in how long it takes to get there, so the next question is usually about that. People are impressed that I can get to Ocracoke in an hour, but I remind the that I fly direct and I don't have to wait on a ferry.
 
Ballpark in MPH. The conversation usually continues and more detail comes. When I get " wow, you can get from here to there in only 2 hours" then I gotta tell em about drives to the airport, preflighting, taxing, evil controllers, etc etc.
Then I start talking about owning you're own airplane and how some people have garages that are really hangars and streets and alleyways that are really taxiways and how evil controllers are not allowed to build towers and have radios there. She doesn't roll her eyes as much anymore and actually seems to be listening sometimes.
 
But we have to add drive to the airport, preflight plane, get clearance, fly to an airport that may or may not be close to where I am going, get uber/taxi/crew car, drive again to final destination.....

So basically it is usually cheaper and faster for me to drive, but why the hell would I ever do that when I can FLY!! For some reason a couple hours flying in a plane goes by WAY faster then in my car!!
 
my answer: "Well it varies but compared to driving you arrive 3x as fast at 2x the cost".
 
flhrci said:
"How fast does your airplane go?" To me that is a somewhat complicated question due to TAS and ground speed and all other variables. I tend to make up a ballpark answer. is that what you all do? Just curious.

David
Click to expand...
I keep it as simple as I can and reply, "90-100 miles per hour". they're usually not looking for a complicated answer but simply want to relate the plane's speed to something they're familiar with. I normally cruise between 90-95 knots indicated so my answer is in the ball park.
 
I tend to respond but include an example of the same question about a car so they understand it is more complicated than that.

Q: "How fast does a plane go?"
A: "How fast does a car go?"

Q: "How much does a plane cost?"
A: "How much does a car cost?"
 
My big question is how long does it take you to get to Florida,and do you have to stop? Tell them it usually takes 1/2 the time as driving with stops.
 
I usually say the flight takes about half as long as it would take to drive. This is generally true unless there is a highway that goes straight between the departure city and the destination city. There usually isn't for most places people want to go around here.
If they want a number, "___ MPH plus or minus the wind"
 
While true that we have to put it down every time we file a flight plan that differs bunch also. I made couple 650nm trips last week. One way I flew higher and filed 210kts. Other way I flew lower and filed 180kts. Even that was guess. The one I filed 210kts ended up taking 2hrs 53 min. So little faster than 210 kts filed.
 
I was doing a telephone interview with my home town newspaper when I was going through qualification training on a "new" AF aircraft. The question was asked, how fast? But the reporter could not comprehend the speed. So I used something he knew, two bridges along the river in our home county. They are 9 miles apart, give me a minute to get from one to the other. Oh, and I'll be below the the Big Bridge by the state capital.
 
Why give a straight answer???
Why not go into detail on TAS, IAS, CAS, GS, winds, DA vs PA etc?
Afterall, they asked a pilot a question, they need to learn to live with that. :D
 
"Remember the ole concord? She's comparable to that"
 
I tell'em in terms of groundspeed since that's what they'll understand with no explanation necessary. I then follow up with "depending on wind speed and direction."
 
"About 150, so about twice as fast as I drive.

But...

...I also (typically) get to go in a straight line which saves more time yet."
 
timwinters said:
"About 150, so about twice as fast as I drive.

But...

...I also (typically) get to go in a straight line which saves more time yet."
Click to expand...

Hey just keep your arse out of the left lane if you're going that slow.

Oh wait, we pass on the right in flight. Never mind.
 
I give a nominal speed in MPH. I point out my plane gets about 12 MPG doing three times the 55 MPH speed limit.

I exhibit my plane to non-aviation people a lot. I have a post card with a picture of the plane on one side and the Frequently Asked Questions on the back:

What is it? It’s a Ryan Navion B.The plane was designed by North American Aviation after WWII as they thought that all the pilots we trained in the war would buy them like family cars
How old is it? It rolled off the assembly line in December of1950. It was originally the business aircraft of the Eureka Tea Company of Chicago
How fast does it go? 175mph
How many miles per gallon? About 11 mpg (aviation gas, about $5.50/gal)
How long have you had it? Since 1995
How many does it hold? 4 (including the pilot)
Are you a pilot? Yes, we are both pilots
How did you get it here? I landed on the runway at Dulles and taxied it the last few miles down (there's a connection from here to the airport runways)
Where do you keep it? We have a hangar at the Culpeper airport as well as a hangar/home on Long Island Airpark on Lake Norman in North Carolina
Where do you fly it? We go back and forth between our two homes as well as other vacations: Beach, Boston area, Oshkosh Wisconsin
How far can it fly? About 1000 miles on the 100 gallons it holds
How far have you flown it? Our two longest trips were to Cody, WY and Ft. Collins, CO
 
"Faster than your car, and in a straight line with no stops."
 
I give it in mph, true airspeed. A little quicker with a tailwind, a little slower with a headwind.

Range? How big is your bladder? Nobody pees in my plane, no matter how careful they are with the "Pilot Buddy" or equivalent.
 
Cruising speed is 160 mph plus or minus the wind. Never been a hard one to answer for me.
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
I give it in mph, true airspeed. A little quicker with a tailwind, a little slower with a headwind.

Range? How big is your bladder? Nobody pees in my plane, no matter how careful they are with the "Pilot Buddy" or equivalent.
Click to expand...

"Pilot buddy" etc. are brought to you by the same folks who sell metal landing calculators! What an absolute friggin' waste of money (for guys anyway).

I just hang mine out the window.

Okay, maybe not...

I use these both in the plane and when I'm on 8 to 10 hour drives in the truck. They get bleached and sterilized after every leg. I don't recall ever spilling a drop. I may have along the way somewhere...but I don't remember...

The small lid is superglued.

Life's too short to descend from 7500' just to pee! :cool:

IMG_20160613_173322003[1].jpg
 
For my own purposes in justifying a trip by air, I think about the difference compared to driving. Time and fuel required to make the flight compared to time and fuel required to make the drive. Then divide fuel economy for the plane in half because the gas costs more per gallon.

Here to nearest shopping mall is 120 road miles or 84 air nm. 2 hours driving at 60mph average and 6 gallons of $2.50 gas ($15 total) with no ado on either end. Plane goes 130 knots at 9 gph, so it takes 40 minutes and 6 gallons of $5 gas ($30 total) plus preflight and ground transportation at the destination.

Here to nearest real metropolitan area is 650 road miles or 450 air nm. Figure 90 minutes of total stops in the car and average speed while moving of 70mph, and it's 11 hours on the road. At 20mpg it takes 32.5 gallons of $2.50 gas, about $81. The plane goes 130 knots at 9 gph so it takes 3-1/2 hours and 31.5 gallons of $5 gas, about $158.

Trying to convert apples to oranges, it's like driving 180 mph without stops, traffic, road construction or other conditions, or police and getting 10 mpg after adjusting for gas prices. But you have some overhead that doesn't depend on the distance that slow down your equivalent speed.

A half hour on each end of the short trip and you end up with 1:40 point to point compared with 2:00 in a car. Equivalent driving speed is 72 mph and you don't have any real difference in number of meals eaten on the road. This is a flight for its own sake. For the long trip, it gets you to 4:30 flying versus 11:00 driving. Equivalent driving speed is 145 mph and you can keep normal meal times without eating on the road. This is a flight that trades dollars for a real chunk of time, at an exchange rate that I feel really good about anytime I can accept the chance of having to drive or stay home if the weather precludes flying.

In other words, you can answer the original hypothetical person's question with: The farther you go, the faster it ends up being.

But I'm still going to tell people "150 miles per hour and I get to use every one of them all the time."
 
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