drive or fly

[Dave Krall CFII]

I'm now regretting an earlier decision to fly commercial to Bakersfield CA next week. I had planned to fly myself, but when the friend who had wanted to fly along backed out due to spousal pressure I felt like the trip was a bit too long to fly solo comfortably and the 5.5 hrs gate to gate time looked attractive when compared to my Baron's 7-8 hrs in the air. But with the recommended 3hr waiting in line time plus the fun of the TSA unsecurity check spending the time in the Baron's looking mighy attractive right now.

Spousal pressure: One of Aviation's biggest and most irrational enemies.

 

[gismo]

Spousal pressure: One of Aviation's biggest and most irrational enemies.

To be fair, she would have to ride along too and while she's flown with me on shorter trips, this would be almost 4 times longer than any previous flights together and unlike her husband (and son who had his PPL and has signed up for the Air Force after college) she's not too fond of flying in any airplane. I was actually surprised when her husband (they're both friends of mine) said he wanted to go with me given his wife's general fear of flying.

 

[mikea]

I'm now regretting an earlier decision to fly commercial to Bakersfield CA next week. I had planned to fly myself, but when the friend who had wanted to fly along backed out due to spousal pressure I felt like the trip was a bit too long to fly solo comfortably and the 5.5 hrs gate to gate time looked attractive when compared to my Baron's 7-8 hrs in the air. But with the recommended 3hr waiting in line time plus the fun of the TSA unsecurity check spending the time in the Baron's looking mighy attractive right now.

I'm seriously considering eating the cost of my non-refundable tickets and flying myself to California for the first time. I have an inherit allergy to institutional stupidity. I'm not sure I could hold myself together for the 6 hours on 2 or 3 Southwest legs.

 

[Bill]

Spousal pressure: One of Aviation's biggest and most irrational enemies.

Our perfectly good IFR flight CHA=>JQF scrubbed last evening due to above. But hey, I love 6 hr car drives...

 

[mikea]

I travel for work (as many of you know), it varies between 10-15 weeks a year and 30+. Really depends on demands (as in, I' haven't been on the road since early June, but I'll be out two weeks at the end of this month and over a month in Sept/Oct).

Our company has a STRICT no Part 91/135 policy. 121 ONLY. Given the amount of regional travel I do, it would be far far far cheaper to buy a block of flight time from a 135 operator and be done with it. Right now, for any overnight trip, I am now looking at an extra 3 hours added on to my travel - 2 at the departure airport, 1 at the arrival (waiting for checked baggage, navigating through the post-flight influx of people, etc).

The Eclipse can't get here soon enough - but the TSA will find a way to regulate that.

I know the head of risk management (who sets these policies), and I'm on the verge of sending him an email . . .

Hey, I guarantee my company is bigger than yours but I would still be ornery and float the request for a review of the no GA flying rule in light of the current hassles. For one thing I do project cost estimates so I know what rate the bean counters use for the hourly cost of us in management. The dolalr value of the time saved would go into the argument.

What would happen is it would be shot down with a polite email only afew levels away. Then the whole company would get an email about the new policy in 6 months or so. Can't let it be known that it originated with a low rankeee such as me.

A while ago after hearing about the problem on Imus, I floated an idea on how we could help the wounded soldiers in Bethesda and it went up the ladder and got done. There were others in the company doing the same.

As for the flying GA on business policy, I have the unofficial "Don't ask. Don't tell." policy from the boss's boss. He's the one who has a twin.

It just occurred to me that I couldn't take a job that requires airline travel. When I started where I am I had exactly that job. I was away from home Monday - Friday most weeks building datacenters.