Survey: Biggest Waste of Money in Aviation

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JustinPinnix

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Justin
So, I was fumbling through the holiday gift guide of a popular mail-order aviation supply company. It got me thinking, what's the biggest waste of money in aviation?

For me it has to be the handheld radio. I bought one of these suckers after my 2nd lesson and spent enought money for 6 hours of plane rental time on it. Five years and 550 hours later, I've yet to actually need it for anything.

I still carry it on IFR flights, but for a primary student it's useless, unless you're flying something that doesn't have a radio.
 
Um.... a handheld radio and gps are like term life insurance, a complete waste of money until you need them, at which time they're worth FAR more than you paid for them. I got a lot of value from listening to my handheld at nearby airports when I was a student - I learned what to say (and what NOT to say) on the radio that way.
 
What Timothy said, seconded.

My handheld was a piece of ballast, complete surplusage, until a week ago today, at which point it became a vital piece of equipment, my only means of communicating. Burning smell and smoke, electrical short to ground, master off and no radios.

Glad I had it, glad it was charged, and I renewed my intent to buy an appropriate portable GPS Real Soon Now.

Money (and not all that much, in the aviation scheme of things) well spent.
 
Comm failure VFR: Go land at an uncontrolled field, such as the one where my avionics shop is.

IFR: OK, the handheld is the best option, if you bothered to have an external antenna installed so it will actually work in the plane. I have also heard of people using their cell phones to call the tower. There's always the IFR lost-comm procedures that we are all quizzed about on every BFR.

I'm not disagreeing that they are worthwhile investment if you're flying in IMC. Otherwise I would have sold mine and not continue carry that 4 pound battery-eating mutha around. But the particular ad I was reading said something to the effect of "every pilot needs one of these, IFR or VFR, primary or backup". I think that's bad advice for a primary student or VFR-only pilot.

If you just want to listen to air traffic, there are much cheaper alternatives. IIRC, Sporty's sells a receive-only radio for $50 vs the $300 that a transmitter will cost you.
 
Most of the time, I feel it's all the charts I purchase and throw out when the next cycle begins. I use a LOT of chats. Make a lot of cross country trips and need the high and low enroute charts and the approach charts plus A/FD. At some point, going electronic will be well worth it when the price gets a bit better.

Best,

Dave
 
JustinPinnix said:
Comm failure VFR: Go land at an uncontrolled field, such as the one where my avionics shop is.

IFR: OK, the handheld is the best option, if you bothered to have an external antenna installed so it will actually work in the plane. I have also heard of people using their cell phones to call the tower. There's always the IFR lost-comm procedures that we are all quizzed about on every BFR.

I'm not disagreeing that they are worthwhile investment if you're flying in IMC. Otherwise I would have sold mine and not continue carry that 4 pound battery-eating mutha around. But the particular ad I was reading said something to the effect of "every pilot needs one of these, IFR or VFR, primary or backup". I think that's bad advice for a primary student or VFR-only pilot.

If you just want to listen to air traffic, there are much cheaper alternatives. IIRC, Sporty's sells a receive-only radio for $50 vs the $300 that a transmitter will cost you.
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Hi Justin
Your thinking is flawed about if you lose a com radio in VFR. I had this happen in a club plane not 15 miles from PTK where Im based. I had my handheld, talked to tower and everything went ok. There really was only one other option and that was to fly 30 miles north to D95. We have a shop based at PTK do all of our avonics work. I had a stuck PTT on the pilots side and I did land at a non tower field to drop off a friend and we tried to fix it there, no luck so I called the clubs mainatance officer and he asked if I had my hand held with me. I did and I flew back to PTK using that. Why would I fly 30 miles north when PTK was ony 15 to the west and I could get in there. I also had a alt fail in my own piper 140 and had my hand held if I needed it. At some point you will have a radio fail and will be damn glad you have a hand held. I also use mine to listen to PTK tower while Im around the house or at the airport bumming around. It is great for a new student to listen to tower while on the ground.
 
I think I've "wasted" more money on in-ear headsets than anything else. Way back in 1980 or thereabouts I bought a custom molded set of earpieces along with a telex boom mic that clipped onto the left earpiece at Oshkosh. It looked like a great idea and promised to be "far more comfortable than any other headset". This With the weight of the mic the earplug (molded from hard plastic) hurt so bad I couldn't wear it more than 15 minutes at at time. I'm sure I still have the pieces somewhere, but haven't seen any of it for a long time. About 4 years ago I bought a Clarity Aloft headset that consisted of a spring steel band that goes over your ears and behind your head which holds the mic boom and drivers. The in-ear parts were soft foam and area actually fairly comfortable, but the band kept getting hung up on my shoulder belts and headrest. Plus, contrary to the company's advertisements, the headset is not as quiet as a good ANR headset. I do use this headset in the Porterfield which has no headrests and the shoulder belts don't go higher than my shoulders so there's no interference with the headband. Finally, this year at Sun&Fun I bought LightSpeed's new Mach1 in-ear headset which came with a coupon for "free" (I still had to pay an audiologist to do the fitting) custom molded semi-soft ear plugs. On my first attempt to use it I found that the earplug that supported the mic boom and drivers hurt my ear (sound familiar?) and the noise attenuation was minimal. After another visit to the audiologist I learned I wasn't inserting the earplug correctly. With the proper insertion and a better arrangement of the mic boom, I was able to get it to be comfortable enough to wear for a couple hours without pain, but the noise level was still several dB higher than my LightSpeed Thirty 3Gs so I haven't been using it much. Between the three I'll bet I've spent close to $1500 and consider most of that a waste.
 
Try marshalling aircraft at a small fly-in single-handedly without a handheld...
 
flykelley said:
Hi Justin
Your thinking is flawed about if you lose a com radio in VFR. I had this happen in a club plane not 15 miles from PTK where Im based. I had my handheld, talked to tower and everything went ok. There really was only one other option and that was to fly 30 miles north to D95.
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Was D95 the only other airport nearby or the only one with an avionics shop? From the rest of your story, it sounds like the latter, since you did land somewhere else to check the PTT.

Our club frequently flies broken-radio airplanes into a class C airport for repair. They call the tower on the phone before departure and are given a special squawk code and an approach clearance. They are greeted with light gun signals.

Certainly flying with a handheld is easier in this case. I'm just pointing out that it's not the only option. Losing a radio in VFR does not constitute an in-flight emergency.

So, back to my original point, you guys are right. It's not a total waste of money. However, it should take a back seat to getting good instruction, a good headset, proper charts, and glasses if your vision is not 20/20.

So, what was #2 on my list: Kneeboards!

Wife bought me a $60 lighted one. First off, it jammed my controls so I had to switch to my left leg. Less than a year later, the batteries exploded rendering it unusable. I use a $3 clipboard from Office Depot these days.
 
JustinPinnix said:
Was D95 the only other airport nearby or the only one with an avionics shop? From the rest of your story, it sounds like the latter, since you did land somewhere else to check the PTT.

Yes D98 was the closet airport that have a avonics shop.

Our club frequently flies broken-radio airplanes into a class C airport for repair. They call the tower on the phone before departure and are given a special squawk code and an approach clearance. They are greeted with light gun signals.

PTK is Class D airspace and I could have called the tower and gotten in there.

Certainly flying with a handheld is easier in this case. I'm just pointing out that it's not the only option. Losing a radio in VFR does not constitute an in-flight emergency.

I agree a lost of a com radio in VFR is not a emergency

So, back to my original point, you guys are right. It's not a total waste of money. However, it should take a back seat to getting good instruction, a good headset, proper charts, and glasses if your vision is not 20/20.

I agree with what you state above, get good instruction, good headsets and I carry a extra pair of glasses in the flight bag.

So, what was #2 on my list: Kneeboards!

Wife bought me a $60 lighted one. First off, it jammed my controls so I had to switch to my left leg. Less than a year later, the batteries exploded rendering it unusable. I use a $3 clipboard from Office Depot these days.
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Regards Mike
 
JustinPinnix said:
There's always the IFR lost-comm procedures that we are all quizzed about on every BFR.
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Which is fine, if all you lose is your comm radios. In a complete electrical failure, you get to ded reckon your way toward VMC and hope you reach it before you run out of fuel, while ATC has to clear traffic around you using only your primary target. Hint - in IMC, perhaps you might switch to a VFR altitude so you may have better vertical separation, but that may not be required - I expect ATC will clear a substantial lateral and vertical block around your position.

In this case, having battery operated nav (GPS) and comm (transceiver) substantially increases your chance of survival. Not only can you probably tell ATC what happened and what you're doing, you can use the GPS to attempt an emergency instrument approach if you don't find VMC and you are low on fuel. PAR approaches are few and far between nowadays.
 
TMetzinger said:
In this case, having battery operated nav (GPS) and comm (transceiver) substantially increases your chance of survival. Not only can you probably tell ATC what happened and what you're doing, you can use the GPS to attempt an emergency instrument approach if you don't find VMC and you are low on fuel. PAR approaches are few and far between nowadays.
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No disagreement about handheld nav. I use a Garmin 496, which also has tons of other non-emergency functions. If you lose power, the lithium battery will keep you going for something like 8 hours.
 
JustinPinnix said:
No disagreement about handheld nav. I use a Garmin 496, which also has tons of other non-emergency functions. If you lose power, the lithium battery will keep you going for something like 8 hours.
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That's the reason we have a 496 to act as a backup to the GNS 430 in the R44. Another reason to carry a handheld comm radio is that you may be able to use it to talk to traffic overhead in the event of an emergency landing. I have started carrying a 406 mhz PLB while flying as well (Robinson, in its infinite wisdom, does not offer 406 mhz ELTs in their ships). :(
 
An Icom A21 saved my butt in the NYC Class B when I had a Comm failure. I'll keep mine thank you very much.
 
ladyaviator said:
The biggest waste are the $60-80 flight bags :rolleyes:
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HMMMPH.
Mine was $100.

I still have the carcasses of two others.
 
lancefisher said:
I think you mean some Flight instructors.:yes:
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Of course. There are some instructors that I would pay good money for their presense.

But if I think about money I've spent on aviation and the money that was a waste it's going to be in poor instruction. I had to undo a lot of things after I got my license to learn. Plus airplane checkouts (in airplanes I already know very well) are a waste of money IMO.

The best instruction I've received I didn't pay for.
 
JustinPinnix said:
...what's the biggest waste of money in aviation?
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Marion Blakely!

Early this year, I had my first and (so far) only lost electrical so I was inspired to buy a handheld. Later, I started selling them on the side. The school has also had a fairly new plane with a mic switch go bad and would intermittently key on its own. So, they had to fly the plane down to an avionics shop into a controlled field within Class B using a handheld.

As crowded as Atlanta is, a handheld is a good piece of insurance.
 
mikea said:
HMMMPH.
Mine was $100.

I still have the carcasses of two others.
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And I spent $200 (osh sale price) for the large leather flight bag from Pilot Mall, and it's been worth every penny. Holding up great, and looks better as it ages. I expect I'll be able to pass it on to my daughter when SHE decides to fly.

Generally when it comes to products, I think you get the best value by buying either the cheapest POS (which you'll replace often), or spending the extra money and buying the highest quality stuff (which you'll have for a long time). This does not of course apply to things which become obsolete, like consumer electronics (although my Technics SL1200 turntable...).
 
i like my handheld, use it all the time in the glider, helps me keep the crew driving in the right direction. i like it for a backup in IFR too.

People who stop lessons, then start again, then stop again, then start again, etc. etc. are wasting the most money in aviation, IMO.
 
Buying 100LL at KTEB
 
I can see the handheld radio itself being useful, but years ago I bought one with a VOR feature. This was before the days of GPS. I think I figured out how to use it one day then promptly forgot. I never used that feature again even though I still have the radio. It lives somewhere in my car.
 
My biggest waste of money by far has to be the first headset I bought. DCs. If I had bought the Lightspeeds I have now to begin with I'd have saved a lot of money.

Beyond that, its the charts that have NO change to them, but are replaced anyways.
 
DeeG said:
The FAA????
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There's a whole lot of GA going on in Europe under their regulators, if you don't like the FAA.
:no:

Nobody likes the FAA until they are the only group fighting to keep your local airport open against the NIMBY's, or the only ones insuring that the people who work on your plane actually have any of the skills to do so.
 
TMetzinger said:
Um.... a handheld radio and gps are like term life insurance, a complete waste of money until you need them, at which time they're worth FAR more than you paid for them. I got a lot of value from listening to my handheld at nearby airports when I was a student - I learned what to say (and what NOT to say) on the radio that way.
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They had handhelds when you were a student?:p
 
Parking at $ignature.

Anything sold at Wal-Mart that you buy from Sporty's instead.

Replacing zillions of unchanged approach plates. Sectionals tend to have a lot of changes and aren't replaced nearly as often, so I can live with that.

Flight simulator junk. When I have time to fly, it's gonna be in a real plane! If I don't have time to fly, well... yeah.
 
Wow...I LOVE my handheld radio.

I take it to airshows and fly-ins and listen. My wife loves to be "in the know" when we are someplace like that, it really livens up the show/fly-in when we can hear the aircraft.

At times I will also get weather at the local aerodrome instead of turning on the battery in the aircraft to get a quick update.

Then there is the emergency factor.

I just do not see how a handheld is a waste of money. *shrug*
 
Paying to have to have the compass rose calibrated by a compass approved repair station so your compass can swung by the compass approved repair station.
 
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