"Edward Todd" wrote in message
...
Offer a new C182 that runs on diesel for $60k purchase or rents for
$30/hour
and the world would beat a path to your door.


As a "poor' pilot, I will add this. So much of the problem is also
"destination costs". So many new pilots get their ticket and scrape up
enough cash to fly in the local area for fun every now and then in a
rental. But to fly XC means car rentalk at the destination. And that is
why I rarely take the family anywhere in a plane. I could squeeze out
the rental money for the plane and balance it with gas savings from not
using the car and time saved, etc,. But when I have to add in the car
rental expense ... it just doesn't work. This is a big reason so many
new pilots get tired of just doing local site seeing flights after a
while and stop flying all together.

I have to agree with you here...

I'm not a dirt poor pilot, but in my case my time resources are not
limitless.

One of the things that puts limits on my flying is that I can not afford to
get stuck somewhere. I work Thursday to Monday and fly commercially every
weekend. And just like everybody else, I still have to find the time to pay
the bills, etc except that I don't come home from the office every night
'cause I'm on the road each weekend in a hotel.

When I get home on Monday I'm usually cooked from flying all day (how's that
for irony...?) so that leaves Tuesdays and Wednesdays for flying. If I can
fly on Tuesday, I can afford to take a longer flight because I could (I
hope) get home on Wednesday.

But, if I book a plane on a Wednesday, then I HAVE to be back on the ground
on Wednesday because I will have a commercial flight to catch on Thursday or
I miss work and I don't get paid (or, seeing as I'm self employed, the
possibility of getting canned is very real if I miss a gig due to getting
held up somewhere.)

I find myself more or less alternating between a "practice flight" one week
and a more challenging (1.5 to 2.5 hours each way...it's relative) XC the
next.

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ