Commuting with Mooney instead of commercial?

[gsengle]

Will they let me on with my pocket knife? Will they let me on the plane without making me take off half my clothes during the process?

I didn't say it was nirvana either. Although I can live without a pocket knife for a few hours.... but most of the cage match nonsense isn't a factor when you're in business or first...


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[gsengle]

So, I could sell the Ovation and use the cash to upgrade to Business Class on the next 200 round trips?  That's waaaay too logical.  

Yep. But at the end, no plane... :-o


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[aviatoreb]

6 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

Will they let me on with my pocket knife? Will they let me on the plane without making me take off half my clothes during the process?

If you want you can even fly your mooney naked and carry guns and large bottles of shampoo and shaving cream in your luggage.  And maybe a nice iguana in a cage.  Ah the freedoms of ga.

[cujet]

I commuted F45 to SAV ( 300+NM) every week from June through the end of Oct last year. Thunderstorms got in the way a couple of times, mostly causing 4-8 hour delays. 

Even so, the drive is 7 hours, and the airlines 6. My flight time was 2.2. 

What it allowed was arrival Monday morning without fail, and Friday night on time returns with 80% reliability. And complete weekends to work hard, change helicopter engines/avionics and so on. 

If I had driven, I'd have only Sat afternoon, night and Sun morning at home. The rest of the time would have been on the highway. Same goes for the airlines. 

While I saw no benefit personally, my boss really got the benefit of my airplane and the 2 days per week extra "work" time it provided him. 

[gsengle]

It's a good point that there is a sweet spot distance where the drive would really suck, the airlines don't cut off much time and the flight is maybe 3 hours or less...


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[Stephen]

4 hours ago, gsengle said:

It's a good point that there is a sweet spot distance where the drive would really suck, the airlines don't cut off much time and the flight is maybe 3 hours or less...


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Agreed, I am doing something similar to the OP to the same destination (probably for the same business reason) but I think more in the sweet spot...the flight in still air is 1.5 hours, 2 hrs in a headwind but saves 6+ hrs of driving or airline time. My situation is that it is a 6+ hr drive and similar (or longer) airline flight due to scheduling convolution of getting from small airport (KUIN - Quincy, IL nearest served by airlines) to KXNA (Fayetville/ NW Arkansas Regional).  OP wouldn't probably fly a GA aircraft into XNA, KROG and KVBT would be more reasonable. KROG is where Walmart keeps their corporate fleet and where most of the vendors fly their jets into.  My building list of risk mitigation strategies are as follows with more to be added:

1) Fly the route numerous (goal 20 times) with a CFI friend (and intentionally with other CFI's...diversity of education) to develop nuanced familiarity with the route, WX, aircraft ops, en-route alternates, controllers, procedures etc. "Model the flight" - pretend I am going every week (I still live in NW AR so don't currently need to commute) and do the flight planning. It allows one to start to get a feel to simulate and evaluate my judgement on go/no-go decisions with my CFI's whilst nobody's (_|_) is in the air at risk.

2) Understand that in icing, storms and other bad weather my aircraft is a flat NO-GO and communicated that to employer *in writing*...so they are crystal that weather > business schedule. They personally fly into KXNA for weekly work so they get the airline delays stuff for WX/MX, but I was intentional to clarify that my smaller aircraft will not have nearly the capabilities of the airlines so my dispatch rate will not be as high. During late fall through winter, this will be *mostly* driving, rarely flying.

3) I have a in person "have to be there" meeting on Thursday mornings so I plan to be there Wed - Fri. I met with our business stakeholder and explained the nature of the commute and got Webex added to the meeting and have arranged for an alternate to cover me. So neutered the "have to" an optional status at several levels. I will plan to fly my WX choice of Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning or Thursday AM outbound and my best choice of Thursday afternoon, Friday morning or Saturday to get home. ....often it will be faster to drive vs wait. I have rented a house in AR so I am under no pressure for hotel issues and those don't figure into my flying. 

4) Be prepared to drive and if in doubt ...drive. Bought a '97 Vett for $9500 (it has been my daily driver for a year and a half), it is a blast to drive in town/highway and gets 32 MPG at 75MPH...cheap and efficient very mooney-esque. If you have to drive 6 hours...might as well enjoy. It will be my 4WD F-150 in the winter. Really the attitude needs to be that Plan "A" is to drive (much like some of the other posters making Expedia/SWA airline reservations) and plan "B" is to fly if it indicates safe. Also there is the "stash" car technique. $500 beater cars with liability only insurance kept at KCOU and KSGF with solar battery tenders.  Cost almost nothing and create options to drive the last 2 hrs going either direction. 

5) Make sure you "quality" alternates wired that are horizontally and vertically dispersed. On the South end of the route, KXNA, KFSM, KSGF, KTUL are in the list, on the north end KUIN, KIRK, KCOU. 

6) Hangars on both ends. Dispatch rate is improved by controlling the enviromentals around your aircraft. 

7) Well equip & maintain the aircraft and deeply train on the equipment. 

8) 

9)

10)...etc etc

I know that that may seem excessive and expensive, but that it allows me to keep my AR job pays for the plane in < year in income differential. I will mean a butt-ton of driving for me but I get a Mooney out of the deal and definitely get to deepen my skills. But the takeaway to the OP is that doing this type of things has a ton of constraints, preparation and expectation leveling that need to be built in. 

 

- Stephen

[wishboneash]

To me, with the Mooney (typical J numbers), it is a 3 - 3 rule. On average, driving is 3 times slower than a Mooney which is 3 times slower than commercial. Going into remote spots, GA is even more attractive. The threshold to switch depends on how long I plan to spend at destination, or total length of trip, availability of destination transportation/facilities, weather etc.

[cujet]

17 hours ago, wishboneash said:

To me, with the Mooney (typical J numbers), it is a 3 - 3 rule. On average, driving is 3 times slower than a Mooney which is 3 times slower than commercial. Going into remote spots, GA is even more attractive. The threshold to switch depends on how long I plan to spend at destination, or total length of trip, availability of destination transportation/facilities, weather etc.

Always liked wishbone ash! 

Anyway, in my example above, I know you hinted at "remote spots" but GA is not always 3x slower than the airlines. Depending on the choice of GA aircraft, and the airports involved and so on. 

I spent a summer commuting between Naples, FL and Denton, TX. Beat the airlines every time at 182Kts. Nothing remote about either location, or my above example of PBI (F45) to SAV. It's just that airlines sometimes don't have direct flights between 2 points. 

Longer flights, such as Florida to Montana, or Florida to California are better served by the airlines. I've done the cross country trips many times in a number of different GA aircraft from helicopters to G650ER's. I've formed an opinion that 180Kts is my magic number, the point at which GA travel is fully worthwhile. For all the obvious reasons. 

[Stephen]

In my case I will beat the airline block time by a at least 2-3x. 

[carusoam]

600 mile trip... Minneapolis to Bentonville.

180 knots...

3.3 hours... (a half day of work)

Twice per week...  (adds a whole day to the work schedule)

If you are driven and are going to make the trip any way you can...

- car

- GA

- commercial plane

A Mooney is a great tool to have.

Best regards,

-a-

[wishboneash]

5 hours ago, cujet said:

Always liked wishbone ash! 

Anyway, in my example above, I know you hinted at "remote spots" but GA is not always 3x slower than the airlines. Depending on the choice of GA aircraft, and the airports involved and so on. 

I spent a summer commuting between Naples, FL and Denton, TX. Beat the airlines every time at 182Kts. Nothing remote about either location, or my above example of PBI (F45) to SAV. It's just that airlines sometimes don't have direct flights between 2 points. 

Longer flights, such as Florida to Montana, or Florida to California are better served by the airlines. I've done the cross country trips many times in a number of different GA aircraft from helicopters to G650ER's. I've formed an opinion that 180Kts is my magic number, the point at which GA travel is fully worthwhile. For all the obvious reasons. 

You brought up a good point if connections are involved when it comes to airline travel! Plus all the inconveniences and dealing with luggage/other passengers is no fun.

[Ned Gravel]

I use my personal aircraft to fly to business destinations.  (That is the sort of wording that keeps Transport Canada from accusing me of using my PPL for commercial purposes.)

I publish a graphic on my website that states:  If I can fly my aircraft to business locations within this circle, I will use my aircraft if at all possible.  Beyond the circle, I will fly commercial.  Dispatch rate depends primarily on good weather forecasting and understanding that delays are inevitable.

The page is https://www.motiva-training.com/have-mooney-will-travel.  The graphic looks like this.

 

[Ned Gravel]

On 5/8/2017 at 0:56 AM, aviatoreb said:

The safest ga pilots learn to be a little bit flaky.  I'll see you Saturday!  Or Sunday!  Or maybe Friday. I'm not sure.

We used to say:  If you have time to spare, go by air.

[Hank]

24 minutes ago, Ned Gravel said:

We used to say:  If you have time to spare, go by air.

More time yet, go by jet.