Hi Philip,

Just wanted to say that, as a jewish pilot from the west coast (training for instrument), I enjoy reading your blog! Congratulations on your helicopter check-ride!

Michael: In terms of making it my parents’ house in DC for Thanksgiving dinner, I saved negative 24 hours. Door-to-door I didn’t save much time getting to New Jersey, compared to driving, because I ran into so many friends at Hanscom. I had to stop into my old flight school for IFR charts. My mechanic was there (world’s nicest guy). A couple of my flight instructor friends were there. I got involved in a conversation with a charming Panamanian woman, the mother of a flight student, about the time that I spent in Panama taking helicopter lessons. Then Alex had to visit his girlfriends at Jet Aviation before we departed.

The Teterboro to DC leg compared very poorly to driving or commercial air. I intended to leave on Thursday morning but the weather was a combination of rain, clouds, embedded thunderstorms, gusty surface winds (up to 50 knots, supposedly). I was debating whether to go until I saw pilot reports from Boeing 737s about “severe turbulence” at 7000′. A light plane like mine gets pushed around a lot more than a B737; the dog in the back seat would not have been happy. So I went into Manhattan for T-Day dinner with friends in Greenwich Village and flew on Friday morning instead. The weather was perfectly clear. We departed Teterboro at 1000′ direct to the George Washington Bridge and then flew down the Hudson River past Central Park, the tall buildings of Midtown, the aircraft carrier Intrepid, Wall Street, and just to the east of the Statue of Liberty. After clearing the Verrazano Narrows bridge I started a climb to 6500′ and cruised down to Frederick, MD in about 1.5 hours. Upon arrival I did a “renter’s checkout” at a helicopter school there while Alex chilled in the office. So that was a big savings over driving (4.5 hours?) or flying commercial (Frederick is a 1-hour drive from BWI or Dulles).

I think that I’ll save time on Monday. The plan is to take a friend for a helicopter ride out of FDK at 10 am then fly to Norfolk, VA with Alex to meet a friend at the airport for lunch then fly to Gettysburg, PA to stay with friends overnight.

Basically the only times that I’ve saved time with my airplane are when I was visiting someone or something at an airport or when going somewhere such as Nantucket or a small town in Alaska that is not connected by roads.

In defense of airplanes in general I should add that I didn’t get my plane to save time. I got it so that I could have a good view of things of the ground from 500-1500′ in the air. A business executive or rich person could save time with a professionally piloted airplane of moderate speed (e.g., a Pilatus or TBM turboprop up to a small turbojet). If you fly yourself, however, you just spend too much time flight planning, preflighting, tieing down, schmoozing, etc., to beat a car or commercial airline.

In actual hours saved, how much time did you save by flying your own plane vs. 1. driving or 2. taking commercial flights? Factor in layoevers, refueling etc. if possible.

I was facinated! no kidding.

Sitting back in my nice warm arm chair down here in Mississippi, I could feel the tension. crawling thru the clouds. I had no idea what it is like flying with only trust and rules, instead of instinct and eyes.

I don’t even DRIVE after 4pm, (in my 85 Toyota PU) which barely goes over 55mph….but it is good enought for the Taliban…so should keep me moving in the quiet breakdown lane for a few more years….fly safe.

from a little bit Blue, in a very Red state.

There was lots of nasty weather across the US according to the BBC Weather summary for 25 Nov: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/news/25112004news.shtml

Aviation forecasting is an interesting subject – particularly icing conditions, though perhaps outside the scope of this weblog.