Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute

On Jul 16, 8:57*pm, "Jim Stockton" me@nowhere wrote:
" With fuel prices, that would be a significant difference. --
Jim in NC

Following that I would suggest Airtran to DFW. They can handle almost any
weather that you couldn't and a ticket is about the same as 25 gal of avgas.
Alot more practical and a lot less likely to make a smoking hole due to got
to get there pressure. If you want to fly a homebuilt do it, just don't try
to reliably commute in it.
My 2 cents worth.
Jim Stockton

Many people use both spam cans and homebuilts to commute. There is no
reason that a homebuilt would be any less reliable than any other
aircraft if properly constructed. Either way, it must be considered
that commuting with any private aircraft is highly dependent on
weather factors. Considering the miserable record of commercial
airlines over the last few years, I wouldn't consider private aircraft
commuting any less reliable than commercial.

I have commuted by commercial airlines many years ago with great
success but times have changed. First, my commute was between to
fairly close cities with major carrier service and hourly flights
between the destinations. I wouldn't consider trying it today. I had
to do the commute for about 18 months a couple of years ago and found
it much quicker to just drive the 260 miles. A longer commute as
discussed by the originator of this thread would not be possible to
drive but private aircraft would take about the same about of time
that I spent driving. That from a time standpoint would be less than
required for commercial even if you were guaranteed catching a flight
that met your schedule.

The biggest problem by far would be finding a commercial schedule that
would meet the requirements for timely commutes. Unless the origin
and destination are major cities with routine and frequent direct
schedules between them, commuting by commercial airlines would be more
time consuming that it was worth. I see no reason why a 700nm commute
by private aircraft including a mission capable homebuilt would not be
a highly reliable choice.

.. --

. If you want to fly a homebuilt do it, just don't try
to reliably commute in it.
My 2 cents worth.
Jim Stockton

I built my airplane to use as a business tool for travel as a
field service technician. I used to travel out of Atlanta, KATL in my
passenger days. My experimental, amateur built airplane was more
reliable, cheaper, and was faster than the airlines if you considered
door-to-door travel time. On a typical one hour airline flight I
averaged about 75mph. I averaged about 125 mph in my plane, door-to-
door. In six years my dispatch reliability has been 100%. I can't
say that for going commercial. It all depends on what and how you
build, and maintenance.

Denny

On Jul 16, 9:57*pm, "Jim Stockton" me@nowhere wrote:
" With fuel prices, that would be a significant difference. --
Jim in NC

Following that I would suggest Airtran to DFW. They can handle almost any
weather that you couldn't and a ticket is about the same as 25 gal of avgas.
Alot more practical and a lot less likely to make a smoking hole due to got
to get there pressure. If you want to fly a homebuilt do it, just don't try
to reliably commute in it.
My 2 cents worth.
Jim Stockton

If I can't fly myself the commute becomes impossible. My home is
almost 2 hours drive from KATL and the place I would be is 1.5 hours
from KHOU. My trip one way is 3.5 hours before I am on an airport
property. Factor in security, loading the plane and flight time and
one way is now 7 hours. Doing that twice in a weekend leaves me with
almost no time as I am dependent on carrier schedules. I can afford
the avgas but I can't afford the time.

While the RV series and many Composite designs are great, don'g
overlook the W-10 Tailwind.

I believe an O-320 powered one has beaten many RV's of higher power in
the recent OSH races. Using an O-200 or O-235, they are almost as
fast....just don't climb as well in the Rockies. Which you don't need
on your route.

Construction is about as straight forward as you can get and very
economical. Modifications by Jim Clement have really improved the
first "approved" two seat homebuilt. And there is a tri-gear version.

"es330td" wrote in message ...
My mission requirements are a 700 nm range with reserve and a flight
time under 4 hours facing occasional IMC weather as I will be flying
between GA and east Texas. I'd also prefer something with as low a
fuel burn as possible for cost savings.



BD-4

"Blueskies" wrote in message
...

"es330td" wrote in message
...
My mission requirements are a 700 nm range with reserve and a flight
time under 4 hours facing occasional IMC weather as I will be flying
between GA and east Texas. I'd also prefer something with as low a
fuel burn as possible for cost savings.



BD-4
That actually was a very good cross country performed, although I never rode
in one and have no idea of the roll stability or lack of same. In fact, all
I know of its handling is the statement of an owner, about 25 years ago, who
siad: "It will spin, DON'T!"

Peter