Best Plane for 150-200 NM Trips

[David Megginson]

That part is true. For me it's 10+20+10+10. However, @David Megginson forgot to add startup, taxi, run-up, pattern exit, pattern entry and shutdown. From my experience in rentals where I always had an eye on the Hobbs, that adds something in the 0.5-0.7 range

Oh yes, with rentals, all bets are off. Ditto if you're at a busy, towered airport and/or waiting to pick up an IFR clearance, or it's winter and you have to shovel snow, remove wing covers, etc. I was giving my best case of 30 minutes from arrival at the airport to VFR wheels up (since we count all time from wheels up to wheels down as flight time).

My 160 hp PA-28-161 can do Ottawa to Boston or New York in about 2:45 flight time (bit more with a headwind, bit less with a tailwind). If I got rich and replaced it with a bizjet, it would barely change my total door-to-door trip time for a short trip like that (though my dispatch rate would be better in bad weather). You have to be flying a long way (say, 500 nm ++) before getting to/from the airport, preflighting and securing the plane, and all the stuff @asicer mentions matters less than how fast your plane is.

So to the OP, I'd say for 150–200 nm trips, focus on comfort and affordability (including easy maintenance and fuel efficiency), more than speed.

 

[Bill Watson]

That part is true. For me it's 10+20+10+10. However, @David Megginson forgot to add startup, taxi, run-up, pattern exit, pattern entry and shutdown. From my experience in rentals where I always had an eye on the Hobbs, that adds something in the 0.5-0.7 range

Yes, the taxi, run-up and pattern times can vary a lot. Leaving or returning home typically involves zero traffic and zero delays. I brief and file an IFR plan in my recliner then it’s just load, push, start and go in one continuous motion. At the end of most trips I’m in my recliner <15 minutes after touchdown.

At controlled APs arrivals on an IFR clearance almost always get an abbreviated pattern if conditions are VMC (straight in or base turn). IMC is whatever is required but never a hold. The difference is in density; Pittsburgh arrivals are shortest path possible without delay IMC or VMC, White Plains arrivals almost aways involve sequencing and vectoring, Charlotte is next open slot in the traffic stream.

Departures are another matter and that’s where I get big delays at denser airports. Clearances can get long and convoluted around NY airspace. Being number 5 to depart is unavoidable but a request to depart VFR after an extended ground hold usually coughs up an IFR clearance.

Uncontrolled fields are more expedient and most have precision approaches now so there’s that.


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[asicer]

Uncontrolled fields are more expedient and most have precision approaches now so there’s that.

Departing, I find uncontrolled to be more expedient. Just need to find a gap in the traffic and go for it. However, arriving is a different story altogether. Coming from the wrong side of the field, I may have to go overhead, teardrop on to the 45 and possibly 360 until there's a gap. But if there's a tower, they might give me opposite base or mid-field opposite downwind and extend the pattern workers in order to get me in quickly.

 

[RyanB]

However, arriving is a different story altogether. Coming from the wrong side of the field, I may have to go overhead, teardrop on to the 45 and possibly 360 until there's a gap.

Glad to know you do things correctly. I see a lot of pilots do non-standard entries to uncontrolled fields, specifically my home drome, ‘just because they can’. It’s probably one of the most aggravating things that I see.