Just made the whole thing worth it...

Shawn

Shawn

En-Route
Joined
May 6, 2013
Messages
4,325
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
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Display name:
Shawn
Lighspeed Zulu 2 Headset...$800.00
Flight lessons and PPL training...$10,000.00
Accessories and Flying Gadgets during training...$1,500.00
Cessna 182...$58,000
Ipad Mini and Stratus 2 ...$1,500.00
Flying 182 across county...$2,000.00


Taking a multi day business trip from Nor Cal to Palm Springs turning a 7 hour drive into a 2.5 hour flight during LA rush hour traffic on both legs and NOT CARING...PRICELESS!

...and that is why I did it all!...ohh, all you little 4 wheelers below stuck in traffic...I feel for you.

There are day that I question my sanity for spending so much money getting to this point...then there is today!:rockon:
 
Have spent about $3,000 in avfuel alone this week. PIA to COE to Vale, OR, thence to SEA, thence WVI and soon ABQ to PIA.

Gov't shutdown locked us out of Yosemite but this was just not a problem to divert!
 
Shawn said:
Taking a multi day business trip from Nor Cal to Palm Springs turning a 7 hour drive into a 2.5 hour flight during LA rush hour traffic on both legs and NOT CARING...PRICELESS!

...and that is why I did it all!...ohh, all you little 4 wheelers below stuck in traffic...I feel for you.
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and that is indeed a great feeling isn't it!?!?!?

I traveled for work for about 8 years. Back and forth every week to Ohio or Georgia or Wisconsin or Alabama or South Dakota or...

Flying over cities during rush hour was always gratifying.

But more importantly, I could work until noon on Friday in, say, Cleveland and be home walking the dogs or sipping a beer in my easy chair by 5pm. Try do do that by any other means but G.A.
 
This is the level of freedom with GA I'm looking forward to.

I've got to drive up to Healdsburg this morning to meet some friends up in wine country, and I hate that drive up there. There's always a traffic backup near Petaluma on 101 and I get stuck (in a manual transmission car, too).

If I had my PPL and a plane, I could just fly from RHV (5 minutes away from me) to STS and rent a car for the day.

In fact, I hear planes overhead right now flying around RHV and I'm jealous, LOL.
 
timwinters said:
and that is indeed a great feeling isn't it!?!?!?

I traveled for work for about 8 years. Back and forth every week to Ohio or Georgia or Wisconsin or Alabama or South Dakota or...

Flying over cities during rush hour was always gratifying.

But more importantly, I could work until noon on Friday in, say, Cleveland and be home walking the dogs or sipping a beer in my easy chair by 5pm. Try do do that by any other means but G.A.
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Unless you are going from hub city to hub city it is amazing how well GA can even compete with the airlines for speed, even without a blisteringly fast plane
 
There are very few routes that I cannot come out even with the airlines when you compare front door to client or hotel travel times, and I fly a SLOW plane. The only ones I can't compete on are non-stop flights. Throw in the flexibility of leaving when you want and I still prefer to fly myself.
(I qualify these statements with the fact that your really should have an Instrument ticket if you expect to make it work.)

Jim
 
I have someone rant off at me on Thursday about the shutdown - a very liberal dem who usually rants at me about tolerance but this time decided to come after me - telling me how much they hope the FAA shuts down and air traffic control shuts down, and this way I can't fly.

I corrected her mistaken belief and said "I don't need no stinkin' ATC - I can fly pretty much anywhere I want - and it if they close down all of ATC its not going to stop me from getting around."

This surprised her - and I said that ATC is something the airlines need, not me. And that I can pretty much safely fly across the country and never talk to anyone in air traffic control.

She seemed positively unhappy that I was not being inconvenienced . . .

Hey Bruce - didcha at least fly over the Valley? No reason to get completely cheated out of the visit!
 
Shawn said:
Taking a multi day business trip from Nor Cal to Palm Springs turning a 7 hour drive into a 2.5 hour flight during LA rush hour traffic on both legs and NOT CARING...PRICELESS!
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Awesome!!!
 
In my head my "justification" and "rationale" to buy the plane was because I travel so much that I could use it as a form of transportation...but I really knew it would be all about $100 hamburger runs, Bay Tours, and flying with friends.

In reality, turns out the thing I am indeed enjoying the most is the freedom on the transportation side....just being able to hop in the plane for a trip to Disneyland, Las Vegas, up to Sacramento for business...that is what has been the best part so far for me!

...and I am an EXPERIENCED traveler...flying literally every week last year and a 6 hour road trip in the car was like going to the the grocery store for me, no big deal. Now every time I am in a TSA security check point I die a little inside cuz I am not in my own plane!
 
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Mine happened today taking my two sons for a $100 burger.

My 11 year old was scared before the flight (first time in a small plane) but felt confident enough during preflight to not veto the flight.

My 8 year old realized he didn't have to use oxygen despite a family member's hysterical fear his minor heart condition would hurt him even at 2000 feet. So he realized he is not as fragile as the family member professed.

Both gained added confidence in me and that I know what I'm doing.

And we all had fun viewing the world from above!

That made my investment so far worthwhile!!
 
A controller shared with me that they're in the essential services group and must work, but not in the group getting paid. Nothing like having highly trained slave labor.

That's got to take the cake of what I've heard as non-essential in the whole government "shutdown" games.

FEMA gets paid. Congress gets paid. Controllers don't.

Unbelievable. Either you're essential or you're not. That in between silliness is stupid to put it way too mildly. It's supposed to be illegal to not pay for services to protect life and property even during a shutdown.

Also surprised this hasn't already been hashed out by the Union during previous contract negotiations. Talk about worthless.
 
Shawn said:
Lighspeed Zulu 2 Headset...$800.00
Flight lessons and PPL training...$10,000.00
Accessories and Flying Gadgets during training...$1,500.00
Cessna 182...$58,000
Ipad Mini and Stratus 2 ...$1,500.00
Flying 182 across county...$2,000.00


Taking a multi day business trip from Nor Cal to Palm Springs turning a 7 hour drive into a 2.5 hour flight during LA rush hour traffic on both legs and NOT CARING...PRICELESS!

...and that is why I did it all!...ohh, all you little 4 wheelers below stuck in traffic...I feel for you.

There are day that I question my sanity for spending so much money getting to this point...then there is today!:rockon:
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That's not bad. Try having an agreement with your wife that whatever you spend on your flying mistress, you pay her as well. ;)

But cutting an 11 hour drive into three, and landing on your ranch with your shotgun, in the same State ... PRICELESS!. :rockon:

Yes, that was a shameless plug for how ****ing big Texas is. :D
 
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My typical mission is under 165 MN NM, and it's about perfect for what I normally fly, and yes, it saves me a ton of traffic stress when there are farmers out trying to get harvest done and miles of impatient drives behind them.

Plus, I trust the airplane over my car :lol:
 
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He is BSing you...I flew with a controller last night. They are getting paid.

denverpilot said:
A controller shared with me that they're in the essential services group and must work, but not in the group getting paid. Nothing like having highly trained slave labor.

That's got to take the cake of what I've heard as non-essential in the whole government "shutdown" games.

FEMA gets paid. Congress gets paid. Controllers don't.

Unbelievable. Either you're essential or you're not. That in between silliness is stupid to put it way too mildly. It's supposed to be illegal to not pay for services to protect life and property even during a shutdown.

Also surprised this hasn't already been hashed out by the Union during previous contract negotiations. Talk about worthless.
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Didn't congress pass a bill saying that all gov workers will get retroactive pay after the shutdown? So they are getting paid even though some of them are not working...what is the point of this "shutdown" again?
 
kujo806 said:
Didn't congress pass a bill saying that all gov workers will get retroactive pay after the shutdown? So they are getting paid even though some of them are not working...what is the point of this "shutdown" again?
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If you want to start that discussion, it really belongs in the Spin Zone. Not here.

Let's leave this thread to the original topic.
 
I had a 2 hour meeting Friday in DC. Turned 10 hours of driving and a hotel + dinner bill into a $500 172 trip to Freeway airport. Back home by 4PM
 
Kelvin said:
He is BSing you...I flew with a controller last night. They are getting paid.
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Not what one of the ZDV controllers told me. She said they were getting "paid in IOUs". Will check and see if that changed.
 
kujo806 said:
Didn't congress pass a bill saying that all gov workers will get retroactive pay after the shutdown? So they are getting paid even though some of them are not working...what is the point of this "shutdown" again?
Click to expand...

kujo806 said:
Sorry. I guess my point is that they are getting paid.
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Just for the sake of the facts, the House passed a bill to give retroactive pay, and the White House indicated Obama would sign it. The Senate said "now isn't really the time for that." So back-pay isn't guaranteed yet, but it happened in the previous gov't shutdowns and given these indications it's very likely it will happen this time as well.

But as far as "getting paid", it's retroactive, after the shutdown ends. So whether a gov't employee is "excepted" (ie working) or not, they're not getting paid for a little while. So employees living paycheck to paycheck are going to feel it, for a little while at least. (The exceptions being congress and the president, as their salaries aren't salaries but "mandatory government spending" or something. But as they're not living paycheck to paycheck, that exception doesn't really matter.)
 
Oh. Was he making the point that back-pay is typical, or is his buddy actually getting paid?

Confirmed this morning that ZDV controllers are not. Sure. They'll get back-pay most likely, but I got the impression his buddy thought he was truly still getting a paycheck.
 
Kiddo's Driver said:
There are very few routes that I cannot come out even with the airlines when you compare front door to client or hotel travel times, and I fly a SLOW plane. The only ones I can't compete on are non-stop flights. Throw in the flexibility of leaving when you want and I still prefer to fly myself.
(I qualify these statements with the fact that your really should have an Instrument ticket if you expect to make it work.)

Jim
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Completely agree with this. About a month ago my son had a hockey tournament in Vancouver. We decided to let him fly with his team up there on the airlines while my wife and I flew in our plane. Dropped him on Thursday afternoon at SFO, drove back down to SJC and started our trip. He landed in Vancouver at 9:30pm; we landed in Bellingham, WA at 9:35pm (Our plan was to go to Boundry Bay on Friday morning because the FBO was closed at 8:00pm) We could have gone to Vancouver International Thursday and been there by 10:00 pm or so. If we had, we'd probably have beat him to the hotel, because Canadian customs is usually dead simple for GA.

We flew home with our son. Left right after the last game and took off around 3:00 pm. The rest of the team's flight wasn't due to take of till 7:30pm. We were home, in bed by 10:15pm. The team's flight was delayed and didn't leave till 8:00 pm from Vancouver. They had to hold North of SFO for some reason and ended up having to land in San Jose to refuel before finally getting to SFO at 12:15 am! Count in the baggage and customs time and the drive back from SFO, and most of the kids didn't make it home until around 2:30 am. I couldn't help from being quite a bit smug the next day at the rink.

Travel to SoCal tournaments is ALWAYS faster in our plane than with the airlines. Takes about 2 hours in our plane. With the airlines, it's an hour prior to the flight for baggage and TSA groping, a hour 15 minute flight and 30 - 45 minutes of baggage claim. GA beats that every time.

Went to Auburn CA the other day on business. 45 minute flight from the Bay Area. Probably 3 1/2 hours in rush hour traffic if I had driven. 1 1/2 hour round trip by air vs 6-7 hours by car. Worth it!

These planes are magic carpets.
 
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