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Ari
This is a thread about why I don’t really care how much my insane flying hobby costs, I will choose to afford it as long as I can.
A couple weeks ago, when it was -25F or colder, my car blew up its water pump. A couple days later, I checked the coolant in my wife’s car to be sure it wouldn’t freeze when I drove it to work on an even colder day coming up that week…and somehow managed to lose the cap. I can work remotely for about 75% of what I do and I have a list of date ranges when I have no in-person commitments between now and summer, so other than weather and a must-return-by date I can just pick up and go when I’m in one of those windows. With one car in the shop and the other waiting for a part to be safe to drive more than the bare minimum, I decided to get out of Dodge for a week and work from my parents’ house in Arizona.
My wife, 60-pound dog, and I flew south on January 20 and back north on January 28. With a one-hour stop southbound and a 50-minute stop northbound, our block time all-in was 7:24 down and 6:58 back. We hauled a couple of electric scooters with us (they’re not useful here when the sidewalks are lost in the snow and ice) and a coffee table back north for my mom (don’t ask). On this end, it’s 5 minutes to the airport and, while I didn’t track the time leaving, when we returned it was 52 minutes from touchdown to walking in the door at the house, including getting another airplane out of the way in the hangar with a dark, icy apron, unloading all our stuff, and making a detour past my office to pick up the new radiator cap for the car. On the other end, we used a crew car to get to the house and retrieve mom’s car since she was out of town, which amounted to about an hour total shuffling around from landing the plane to counting the stars in the back yard. All-in, it adds up to between 8 and 9 hours from leaving one house to relaxing in the other one.
Our airline service consists of United, Delta, and Allegiant. I can’t afford all the extra fees Allegiant charges to get the real airline experience (plus, they arrive on the wrong end of Phoenix for my needs). Due to all United flights going through Denver, they have a lower dispatch reliability for North Dakotans in the winter than GA does. Neither airline is going to work for our dog, even if I were willing to subject her to checked baggage, because it’s all regional service here. The boarding kennel is $30/day and, for many reasons, I try to avoid that for more than a weekend at a time.
For my next window of opportunity a few weeks from now, Delta’s itinerary is 13:00-18:00 down and 10:25-17:00 back for $1,250 per nonrefundable economy seat. Plus it’s a 2-hour drive to the airport on this end and about 45 minutes on that end. Add 1 hour for parking and TSA, 1 hour as a minimum safety buffer for driving in the winter, baggage claim, and some Uber/Lyft expenses on arrival in AZ. We have to leave the house by 9:00 a.m. to get to mom’s house around 7:30 p.m. (11-1/2 hours with the time change) and leave her house by 9:00 a.m. to get home around 8:00 p.m. (10 hours). Worse itineraries (get home at 3:00 a.m. on a school night, leave home at 1:30 a.m. to go to the airport, etc.) save no more than $100 per seat.
Airlines: $3,000 total cost, 21-1/2 hours total travel time, no dog, no electric scooters, and no coffee table.
GA: Better price as long as the plane costs $240/hr or less to fly (for only fuel about $1,200 less than the airlines), 17 hours total travel time (4 hours less than the airlines), happy dog, electric scooters, and happy mom with her ridiculous coffee table.
I won this round.
A couple weeks ago, when it was -25F or colder, my car blew up its water pump. A couple days later, I checked the coolant in my wife’s car to be sure it wouldn’t freeze when I drove it to work on an even colder day coming up that week…and somehow managed to lose the cap. I can work remotely for about 75% of what I do and I have a list of date ranges when I have no in-person commitments between now and summer, so other than weather and a must-return-by date I can just pick up and go when I’m in one of those windows. With one car in the shop and the other waiting for a part to be safe to drive more than the bare minimum, I decided to get out of Dodge for a week and work from my parents’ house in Arizona.
My wife, 60-pound dog, and I flew south on January 20 and back north on January 28. With a one-hour stop southbound and a 50-minute stop northbound, our block time all-in was 7:24 down and 6:58 back. We hauled a couple of electric scooters with us (they’re not useful here when the sidewalks are lost in the snow and ice) and a coffee table back north for my mom (don’t ask). On this end, it’s 5 minutes to the airport and, while I didn’t track the time leaving, when we returned it was 52 minutes from touchdown to walking in the door at the house, including getting another airplane out of the way in the hangar with a dark, icy apron, unloading all our stuff, and making a detour past my office to pick up the new radiator cap for the car. On the other end, we used a crew car to get to the house and retrieve mom’s car since she was out of town, which amounted to about an hour total shuffling around from landing the plane to counting the stars in the back yard. All-in, it adds up to between 8 and 9 hours from leaving one house to relaxing in the other one.
Our airline service consists of United, Delta, and Allegiant. I can’t afford all the extra fees Allegiant charges to get the real airline experience (plus, they arrive on the wrong end of Phoenix for my needs). Due to all United flights going through Denver, they have a lower dispatch reliability for North Dakotans in the winter than GA does. Neither airline is going to work for our dog, even if I were willing to subject her to checked baggage, because it’s all regional service here. The boarding kennel is $30/day and, for many reasons, I try to avoid that for more than a weekend at a time.
For my next window of opportunity a few weeks from now, Delta’s itinerary is 13:00-18:00 down and 10:25-17:00 back for $1,250 per nonrefundable economy seat. Plus it’s a 2-hour drive to the airport on this end and about 45 minutes on that end. Add 1 hour for parking and TSA, 1 hour as a minimum safety buffer for driving in the winter, baggage claim, and some Uber/Lyft expenses on arrival in AZ. We have to leave the house by 9:00 a.m. to get to mom’s house around 7:30 p.m. (11-1/2 hours with the time change) and leave her house by 9:00 a.m. to get home around 8:00 p.m. (10 hours). Worse itineraries (get home at 3:00 a.m. on a school night, leave home at 1:30 a.m. to go to the airport, etc.) save no more than $100 per seat.
Airlines: $3,000 total cost, 21-1/2 hours total travel time, no dog, no electric scooters, and no coffee table.
GA: Better price as long as the plane costs $240/hr or less to fly (for only fuel about $1,200 less than the airlines), 17 hours total travel time (4 hours less than the airlines), happy dog, electric scooters, and happy mom with her ridiculous coffee table.
I won this round.
