Cost to Fly or Drive Tool

[WakeNCAgent]

I was checking out different travel sites as I weighed my options for driving or flying to Asheville for an upcoming conference when I happened across this website:

http://www.travelmath.com/fly-or-drive

Does anyone know of a similar site that gives a close approximation for comparison with general aviation travel? I think that would be a very useful tool, especially with the boss.

 

[ClimbnSink]

'You don't want to know'

'If you have to ask..'

Dunno how you could do it unless you went with straight rental costs. And that isn't being hone$t. Do we amortize the cost of the rating and training? For how long?

'Never add up the costs'

 

[Henning]

NBAA has several good tools that you can scale down to bugsmasher values.

 

[Dr. O]

The airplane will always cost more than driving.
Screw the calculator and just fly it
I have never heard an old fella at the airport, leaning on his walker and looking longingly at the planes on the ramp, say, "Damn, I wish I had driven more."

 

[timwinters]

The airplane will always cost more than driving.

Nothing is ever always.

I put a pencil to it when I was still in business and frequently flying over 200 hours...one year over 300.

"All in" my 182 was cheaper transportation to/from the Cleveland area than my 2008 3/4T dodge diesel. And that was before considering the value of the time savings.

 

[Anymouse]

The airplane will always cost more than driving.

Not necessarily.

 

[Brad Z]

That's like a tool that tells you whether to order the steak or the hamburger.

 

[tmyers]

I have a spreadsheet that I used to show the savings of flying vs driving to job sites at work. Hush Matt

 

[WakeNCAgent]

The airplane will always cost more than driving.
Screw the calculator and just fly it
I have never heard an old fella at the airport, leaning on his walker and looking longingly at the planes on the ramp, say, "Damn, I wish I had driven more."

I'd love to fly every time, but that just isn't my reality. Since I have to be more discriminating with my flights, and I think a lot of us share this problem, a tool that can run the numbers would be quite useful.

For me it boils down to how much I am paying for the time saved enroute. If I am traveling somewhere with a highway heading in the same direction, e.g.: Raleigh-Wilmington, it may not make much sense. But a flight to the outer banks versus driving a circuitous route and/or taking ferries makes a lot more sense.

The site I referenced earlier offers a comparison tool that, if tweaked for GA, would be just what I've been looking for.

 

[timwinters]

I'd love to fly every time, but that just isn't my reality.

Remember, the more you fly, the cheaper it is per hour because of your fixed costs...if you own anyway. My annual inspection, insurance and annual are about $3,500/year. I used to fly about 250 hours a year. Now it's closer to 75.

Those fixed costs used to be only $15 / hour...now they're nearly $50.

 

[WakeNCAgent]

That's like a tool that tells you whether to order the steak or the hamburger.

I couldn't disagree more. Steak versus hamburger isn't the choice. It would be if I were debating renting the Skyhawk versus the M20J.

This is a slightly more complex choice because you must weigh the benefit of both flying enjoyment and time savings against the spread in cost. There are some locations where driving is more practical and there's a distance at which I would choose neither and simply fly commercially. Unfortunately, the highway system dictates driving when traveling between certain city pairs; at least for me.

 

[Anymouse]

I have a spreadsheet that I used to show the savings of flying vs driving to job sites at work. Hush Matt

The site I referenced earlier offers a comparison tool that, if tweaked for GA, would be just what I've been looking for.

This is probably your best bet. A spreadsheet really isn't all that hard to build. You can estimate fuel costs for both the car and plane, as well as any maintenance expenses (tires, engine, oil, etc) if you want. Once you have the spreadsheet created, you can just plug in numbers as needed.

 

[bqmassey]

I've tried to make it make sense to fly, and I just never can. Even if I can fudge numbers enough to get the travel to favor flying, having to rent a car at the destination and the tie down fees usually eliminate any advantage.

For reference, I get about 25 mpg in my car (roughly $0.15/mile in fuel). It's a reliable, high mileage car, so very little on top of that for nominal wear and tear, mx, and depreciation.

I rent a 172M for $105/wet. (so, about a $1 a NM).

 

[Henning]

I'd love to fly every time, but that just isn't my reality. Since I have to be more discriminating with my flights, and I think a lot of us share this problem, a tool that can run the numbers would be quite useful.

For me it boils down to how much I am paying for the time saved enroute. If I am traveling somewhere with a highway heading in the same direction, e.g.: Raleigh-Wilmington, it may not make much sense. But a flight to the outer banks versus driving a circuitous route and/or taking ferries makes a lot more sense.

The site I referenced earlier offers a comparison tool that, if tweaked for GA, would be just what I've been looking for.

It's pretty simple to build the tool in Excel, if you know what you are doing you can likely build something in the Googlesphere using their mapping and Nav software to figure it with two end points.

Actually, this would be a nifty app as well. I wonder how tough it would be to link a flight planner into it to get the numbers more precise? Though I doubt I'd see a significant change from it, at least not one large enough to change my mind.

 

[Henning]

I've tried to make it make sense to fly, and I just never can. Even if I can fudge numbers enough to get the travel to favor flying, having to rent a car at the destination and the tie down fees usually eliminate any advantage.

For reference, I get about 25 mpg in my car (roughly $0.15/mile in fuel). It's a reliable, high mileage car, so very little on top of that for nominal wear and tear, mx, and depreciation.

I rent a 172M for $105/wet. (so, about a $1 a NM).

"Can I afford to take my airplane?" "Yes" "Woo Hoo" ".

Makes perfect sense to me to take the plane at that point.

Time is the only thing you can't buy or replace, and flying is some of the best way to spend time I have ever found, and if it saves me travel time allowing me more time to do something besides travel, that is a time value coefficient.

 

[hindsight2020]

"Can I afford to take my airplane?" "Yes" "Woo Hoo" ".

Makes perfect sense to me to take the plane at that point.

Time is the only thing you can't buy or replace, and flying is some of the best way to spend time I have ever found, and if it saves me travel time allowing me more time to do something besides travel, that is a time value coefficient.

Indeed. Many of our discretionary destination trips would not be accomplished at all if I had to drive them. Simply not interested in spending that much time physically traveling in a car. At that point, the fact the car is cheaper is moot. So yeah, the only metric of consequence is "can I afford it?"