Airplane versus Minivan
As I plan and pack up for Alaska I have had a couple of offers from guys who wanted to come with me from Boston to Anchorage (we leave Wednesday). It turns out that the Cirrus SR20 is not that practical for long trips unless you are either very thin or totally friendless. Full fuel is necessary for some of the long legs in the remote regions of Alaska, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories where airports are widely separated and airports that sell fuel are uncommon–mostly you only get fuel at airports that are accessible by road or ship. With full fuel my old Diamond Star would carry 570 pounds. The Cirrus has a longer range but the penalty is that it only holds 520 pounds fully fueled and its performance at gross weight is marginal on warm days or at high elevations. You need a lot of runway and to make sure that you don’t need to outclimb any terrain.
The airplane isn’t any fun without Alex in the back seat. Alex needs his Science Diet Nature’s Best, which isn’t widely available, plus some other accessories. Dog+food is about 100 lbs. total. The plane needs a towbar, canopy cover, and tie-down ropes at 20 lbs. For navigation one needs paper charts and approach plates for a total of at least 20 lbs. Survival equipment is required by statute (until 2000 or so the kit was required include a gun and ammunition) and a full tent, mattress pad, and sleeping bag is really a good idea for forced landings as well as impromptu camping when hotels are full or not dog-friendly. That’s about 35 lbs. together. You want some electronics in the airplane, such as headsets, EPIRB (the emergency locator transmitter that Cirrus includes in the airframe is an ancient 121.5 MHz design, which is not very effective for getting rescued), and maybe a little Iridium phone. That’s maybe 10 lbs. put together. If I want to take a camera and some clothing and my 195 lb. carcass it looks as though I will have only about 100 lbs. left over for a human passenger. If I want to take a little folding bike that comes down to 70 lbs. spare capacity.
How does a minivan compare? A 2005 Toyota Sienna has a “curb weight” of 4120 lbs., 2000 lbs. more than the Cirrus. Its gross vehicle weight is 5690 for a ”payload” of 1570 (the curb weight includes full fuel).
Dave
June 11, 2005 @ 4:38 pm
And of course the GVW of the car is more of a guideline… I go over GVW in my CRV all the time when I’m carting things around with no ill effects.
Bill McDonald
June 11, 2005 @ 9:02 pm
Consider FedEx ing some of the Dog Food and items needed for Alaska to your destination to cut the weight and give you some more margin. Might also want to consider sending some dog food to some en-route stops in case the trip makes Alex hungrier. There’s a whole dog culture in Alaska, check with internet sources, I bet you can all types of dog food if you know where to go.
Bill McDonald
June 11, 2005 @ 9:13 pm
http://naturesbest.sciencediet.com/buy/index.asp
where to buy Science Diet Nature’s Best
3 in Fairbanks, dozen in Anchorage, 1 in Sitka
Philip Greenspun
June 12, 2005 @ 10:12 am
Bill: I’m not worried about buying dog food, or anything else, in Anchorage, land of Walmart, REI, etc. But it will take me two weeks to get there so that means taking at least 8-10-lbs. of food. I don’t expect to find a Petsmart in Inuvik (north of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories).
Michael
June 12, 2005 @ 12:18 pm
I’m not trying to scare you, but worst case scenario, your plane goes down in a remote place like Inuvik. Or worse, en route to a remote outpost like Inuvik. What do you do? Do you have a satellite phone? Live off Science Diet for a few days or so?
Bill McDonald
June 12, 2005 @ 4:05 pm
Michael – That’s why he’s taking Alex. Make sled and harness for Alex, mush back to civilization…
Philip Greenspun
June 12, 2005 @ 5:38 pm
Michael: the survival kit should be adequate for a month or so as long as there is fresh water nearby. I have an EPIRB and the airplane has its ELT. I will be filing flight plans. I think the authorities would find me pretty quickly. In very remote areas like that I tend to follow roads or rivers so that it is easy for search and rescue to find me in the event of a mishap.
Dave
June 12, 2005 @ 6:25 pm
When I read “That’s why he’s taking Alex”, I thought maybe you meant dogs is good eatin’ if you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere!
Jason Borschow
June 12, 2005 @ 8:22 pm
Phil,
I’m sorry that the weight and balance realities of the SR20 made it difficult to take almost any type of passenger along (including my 155lb frame, plus say 25 lbs of luggage/etc.). That only leaves one option: ONe very hot, very petite twenty-some year old to really help you survive if your plane goes down . . .!
Peter Gottlieb
June 12, 2005 @ 10:04 pm
A more apt comparison would be a Honda Civic to the SR20. If you want a better comparison to the minivan, perhaps a Cessna Caravan or Piper Cherokee 6 would do?
Johnny
June 13, 2005 @ 4:20 pm
Perhaps a TR182 or C206. Are they that much slower than the Cirrus? I know the TR182 has a all glass cockpit now.
Mark M
June 13, 2005 @ 8:39 pm
If you are very good in this life and rack up A LOT of karma, you will come back as Philip Greenspun’s dog in the next.
Mark Brooks
May 11, 2007 @ 8:30 am
I have flown with my SR-20 in Northern Canada ( C-GOPX, 2002 ) and with full fuel, full kit and a co-pilot we are at max gross wieght. The real killer is the aft center of gavity… thats were the real issue is and the reason you do not want to overload the Cirrus. Try removing the rear seats for extra wieght savings.
Check out my blog on last years flight north:
http://www.fctx.com/blog/_archives/2006
Happy flying!
– Mark