Disadvantage: GA?

[gismo]

It seems I struck a chord with the mild rant against the airlines, with several follow on posts of commercial trips that went awry and GA would have been the easy path.

Now I'm wondering if there are any stories out there where a GA trip went south (and I don't mean to warmer climates), leaving the pilot and/or passengers wishing they had gone the airline route. Any takers?

 

[RobertGerace]

Sure.

You know how I'm always ranting about how I always go? That has screwed up some things.

1) With freezing rain forecast over Chicago I once had to land in Indiana, rent a car, and drive the rest of the way to my appointment. I made it on time, but boy did it suck driving back to Indiana to pick up the airplane.

2) Due to the same weather system, I had to cancel a meeting in Texas the next day.

3) On a trip to St. Louis, a weather system over that entire area forced me to fly a Cirrus at 4,000 (the MEA) with a 6,000 foot freezing level due West to Mississippi and then a cut north to St. Louis. The trip took much longer...but we made it.

4) On a trip from NC back to GA one morning, the combination of the new-to-me 310, my not having been to SimCom yet, a low ceiling, cold temps, and recent maintenance forced me to sit on the ground for six hours waiting for weather to clear. I know I could have just blasted off and found a layer, but I wasn't comfortable.

5) All the times I've gotten oil on my business shirt

6) I once ripped a $90 pair of pants in a C172.

I could go on and on, but NONE of the above is as bad to me as the guy coughing in my face as I was sitting cramped for 4 hours, watching 'flight attendants' eat a hot meal ONE hour into the flight, and having to buy a cold, stale sandwitch, starving, THREE hours into the flight, having bought and paid for a first class ticket, and riding in coach, because I got to the ticket counter 1 minute too late. ;-)

 

[LvPilot]

It seems I struck a chord with the mild rant against the airlines, with several follow on posts of commercial trips that went awry and GA would have been the easy path.

Now I'm wondering if there are any stories out there where a GA trip went south (and I don't mean to warmer climates), leaving the pilot and/or passengers wishing they had gone the airline route. Any takers?

For me, the issue is that GA is just not practical. Not to bore you with details, but my job is %100 travel. Every Sunday evening I fly out of LAS to a project site somewhere around the country and return home on Thursday evenings. I've been doing this every week for about 8 years .. although I only recently relocated from JFK/LGA to LAS. Lots of frequently flyer miles .. lots of stories to go with them .. but honestly, I can say that I haven't had too many bad experiences considering how many miles I fly per year. With a few exceptions, commercial airlines aren't that bad ... just really uncomfortable and not much fun! I don't think that I could use GA on a weekly basis and have the same frequency of on-time arrivals that I do with commercial carriers. Granted the cool, fun factor of flying myself around the country would be priceless … I imagine over time I would also be jobless due to the comparatively higher number of weather and maintenance delays that I would experience. But heck, if I won MegaBucks at Caesar’s and could afford to do it in something beefy enough to get me coast to coast, I’d sure give it a try!!



Dan

 

[Arnold]

Sure.

You know how I'm always ranting about how I always go? That has screwed up some things.

1) With freezing rain forecast over Chicago I once had to land in Indiana, rent a car, and drive the rest of the way to my appointment. I made it on time, but boy did it suck driving back to Indiana to pick up the airplane.

2) Due to the same weather system, I had to cancel a meeting in Texas the next day.

3) On a trip to St. Louis, a weather system over that entire area forced me to fly a Cirrus at 4,000 (the MEA) with a 6,000 foot freezing level due West to Mississippi and then a cut north to St. Louis. The trip took much longer...but we made it.

4) On a trip from NC back to GA one morning, the combination of the new-to-me 310, my not having been to SimCom yet, a low ceiling, cold temps, and recent maintenance forced me to sit on the ground for six hours waiting for weather to clear. I know I could have just blasted off and found a layer, but I wasn't comfortable.

5) All the times I've gotten oil on my business shirt

6) I once ripped a $90 pair of pants in a C172.

I could go on and on, but NONE of the above is as bad to me as the guy coughing in my face as I was sitting cramped for 4 hours, watching 'flight attendants' eat a hot meal ONE hour into the flight, and having to buy a cold, stale sandwitch, starving, THREE hours into the flight, having bought and paid for a first class ticket, and riding in coach, because I got to the ticket counter 1 minute too late. ;-)

A good friend of mine believes the most important safety device in the aircraft is a credit card. Now I won't debate with him the prioritization of safety items, but I can agree with him that having the credit card and knowing that you can always land and either, rent a car, buy a plane ticket, stay the night, or make other arrangements is in fact a good antidote to get there itis.

 

[AirBaker]

GA on long legs. ie SFO - JFK
GA in bad weather.
GA to a small airport with a mechanic that only works 9-4 M-F.

 

[Mark S]

For instance, I was supposed to go to Marietta, Ohio tomorrow. Wx looks good once I get out of North Carolina and Virginia. Right now, low ceilings, rain, snow and possible freezing rain. Freezing level starting out at 4000 feet, decreasing to the surface around Virginia. Really looks like it sucks up there and the only de-ice I have is pitot heat. Not even sure I would launch if I had de-ice at this point.

Looks like it may be a long day driving. Airline tickets over $800.

 

[jkaduk]

Not a trip south, but GA loses for us mere mortals who can't afford the machine required for > 4 people or > than 600 - 800 lbs.

 

[RobertGerace]

GA to a small airport with a mechanic that only works 9-4 M-F.

Amen! Hallalula! Pass the offering plate!

Situation: Fly 2 family members from Atlanta to Columbia, SC. Drop off. Return.
Setting: a CAVU Saturday afternoon
Flight Plan: IFR ( ), less than 2 hours round trip.

Actual trip: ALL FRICKIN DAY
Why: BLOWN NOSE WHEEL on a gentle landing at Columbia.

Length of time to fix: HOURS

- waiting for a callout mechanic
- devising a make-shift tow machine to get it off the taxiway

Cost: FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A SMALL TIRE AND TUBE!!

 

[wsuffa]

Amen! Hallalula! Pass the offering plate!

Situation: Fly 2 family members from Atlanta to Columbia, SC. Drop off. Return.
Setting: a CAVU Saturday afternoon
Flight Plan: IFR ( ), less than 2 hours round trip.

Actual trip: ALL FRICKIN DAY
Why: BLOWN NOSE WHEEL on a gentle landing at Columbia.

Length of time to fix: HOURS

- waiting for a callout mechanic
- devising a make-shift tow machine to get it off the taxiway

Cost: FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A SMALL TIRE AND TUBE!!

Pass that offering over here:

Situation: Commercial Training Flight. 8 landings at nearby uncontrolled field, return 25 NM to Stinson when done. 2 hours, max.

Setting: One of the nicest days we've had this year.

Flight Plan: Accident waiting to happen (no flight plan filed).

Actual trip: TWO frickin' days. Return by car, get car ride back to PEZ the next day.

Why: Fracture in rim on main wheel, causing blown main tire.

- waiting for Aircraft Spruce to ship wheel, tire, and tube by overnight.
- towed off taxiway by aircraft manager on bad wheel because plane couldn't be jacked high enough to get onto dolly

Cost: $900+ for new wheel, tube, tire, and overnight shipping. Overnight shipping cost more than mechanic time.

 

[grattonja]

Last spring, return trip from RUT in Vermont back to LNS in Centra Pa. Thunderstorms in Central PA. 1 and 1/2 days spent in Poughkeepsie NY waiting them out. Return final leg of trip at 1 am from POU to ABE to Smoketown. Got home around 2:30 am with a trial scheduled the next day.

Learned a lot though and would do it the same way again. 8 hours in a car is not a good trade off for 2.5 in a plane, even with the occasional "divert".

Jim G

 

[Henning]

It seems I struck a chord with the mild rant against the airlines, with several follow on posts of commercial trips that went awry and GA would have been the easy path.

Now I'm wondering if there are any stories out there where a GA trip went south (and I don't mean to warmer climates), leaving the pilot and/or passengers wishing they had gone the airline route. Any takers?

Delivered a nice C-421C from Long Beach to Minot ND in mid Feb several years back. The broker had a Stearman he needed to go to Barstow and being stupid and poor I took the job. Never again will I fly open cockpit planes in the middle of winter. Between the cold and low ceilings, it was a miserable trip, not worth the money. I should have just took my airline ticket and been home that day to sunny 75*.

 

[gismo]

Delivered a nice C-421C from Long Beach to Minot ND in mid Feb several years back. The broker had a Stearman he needed to go to Barstow and being stupid and poor I took the job. Never again will I fly open cockpit planes in the middle of winter. Between the cold and low ceilings, it was a miserable trip, not worth the money. I should have just took my airline ticket and been home that day to sunny 75*.

I know a couple pilots with Waco's that they take to Florida each fall and bring back in the spring. Last year they decided to come back a little early into sub freezing temps for the last half of the trip. One said he almost couldn't get out of the cockpit after landing at FCM and it was several days before he could straighten out his fingers again.

 

[ejensen]

You mean like spending 3 nights in Belen, NM waiting for a cylinder to be replaced then home instead of making Tucson.

Or a day and night in Creston, IA waiting out the backside of a low (pre-IR).

Or a LONG day in a pilots lounge loft above a chain smoker in Dillon, MT waiting for the valley fog to lift. And finally getting the FSS hints about special VFR clearance.

Wouldn't trade any of our adventures for the airlines. We still use when we have to. Wife hates it. Says the Mooney seats are bigger.

Eric

 

[kath]

Stuck for four days in New York, due to thunderstorms and overcast. (Spent a night on Toby's couch!)

Wouldn't trade it for anything!

--Kath

 

[wsuffa]

OK, here's disadvantage GA. No, disadvantage both.

I need to fly to Las Vegas Monday, return Tue. Last minute. This is a flight I like to fly, with a stop or overnight in Albuquerque.

Not going to happen.

Bush is in Abq overnight, and ABQ itself is off-limits both tomorrow and Tue. AEG is off limits Tue AM (departure time).

So, I need to either resked the meeting or fly SWA and undergo the procto exam because it's last minute and I don't fly SWA regularly. LAS is the WORST for clearing airline security, especially under these circumstances.

Disadvantage: both.

I'll probably resked.

Diana, this also means I won't be able to make it to MO this week.

Sigh.

 

[LvPilot]

... LAS is the WORST for clearing airline security, especially under these circumstances.
...

Bill,

I can't disagree with you about that. I have the joy of flying out of LAS every week. However, McCarran security has gotten marginally better over the past few months. I haven’t had an hour+ wait in a very long time … although the lines are still a bit unpredictable. It is still recommended to get there 2 hours ahead of time if you’re traveling during peak hours.

Dan

 

[Dan Deutsch]

LAS is the WORST for clearing airline security, especially under these circumstances.

Amen to that, Bill.

For some reason the last couple of trips out west I keep getting offloaded from Delta to SkyWest in LAS. Probably because I am trying to go to ONT instead of LAX and Delta doesn't do ONT well.

Anyway, not only do we have to transit LAS but it seems that we get funneled out to the street and have to start the whole damn process over from the check-in counter on. What a PITA.

Now the wife likes it cuz she can spend an hour or so pulling one-armed bandits but I just hate it.

Prolly enought o fight LA traffic and start using LAX to visit Dad instead of ONT. Grrrrrr...

 

[wsuffa]

Prolly enought o fight LA traffic and start using LAX to visit Dad instead of ONT. Grrrrrr...

Can you make John Wayne/Orange County work? I used to go in and out of there (DL used to have a direct flight from Cincy, and as luck would have it, it was the last DL flight of the day out of the LA area).

It's much, much better than LAX, and it's no farther from Ontario.

 

[Dan Deutsch]

Can you make John Wayne/Orange County work? I used to go in and out of there (DL used to have a direct flight from Cincy, and as luck would have it, it was the last DL flight of the day out of the LA area).

It's much, much better than LAX, and it's no farther from Ontario.

Good call. However now that I am here and Dad is there it will likely be an LAX transit to catch the Pacific flights as I go back and forth to Cincinnati.

Singapore Air has a great SIN-LAX non-stop on an A340-500. 19 1/2 hours westbound - Yikes! 17 odd hours eastbound. But the service is superb.

Ontario is so convenient as Dad is just up the hill near Cable Airport. I think I get a cheaper ticket if I don't have the ground leg in there (LAX - ONT by car). Oh, well only 40 minutes or so to ONT from LAX if the traffic is decent.

We did fly the Wilga into Orange County once. 85 miles per hour on a 5 mile final. We weren't too popular with the controllers

Cheers

 

[Diana]

Diana, this also means I won't be able to make it to MO this week.

Sigh.

Well, dang it.