Flying your own plane to work

Who flies to work instead of drives?

  • I use my airplane to commute to work regularly

    Votes: 15 17.4%

  • I only use my airplane for work trips but not for commuting on a regular basis

    Votes: 33 38.4%

  • None of the above

    Votes: 38 44.2%
  • Total voters
    86
jd21476

jd21476

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Jan 17, 2018
Messages
715
Location
San Diego, CA
Display Name
Display name:
jd21476
For about the last 8 months I have been flying my own plane to work. I live in Southern California and the traffic is terrible. I had a PPL so I decided to buy a plane for commuting back and forth about the 100 miles from San Diego to the Riverside area. It would normally take me about 2.5 hours with traffic and sometimes up to 4 if it was a holiday or raining, etc. Now with the plane it takes me between 28 and 35 minutes once I'm wheels up.

My wife (who is fully supportive) always is amazed that I do this and asks me if anyone else does this. I always tell her of course they do but I have never actually met anyone else who does.

So, who else flies to work?
 
jd21476 said:
For about the last 8 months I have been flying my own plane to work. I live in Southern California and the traffic is terrible. I had a PPL so I decided to buy a plane for commuting back and forth about the 100 miles from San Diego to the Riverside area. It would normally take me about 2.5 hours with traffic and sometimes up to 4 if it was a holiday or raining, etc. Now with the plane it takes me between 28 and 35 minutes once I'm wheels up.

My wife (who is fully supportive) always is amazed that I do this and asks me if anyone else does this. I always tell her of course they do but I have never actually met anyone else who does.

So, who else flies to work?
Click to expand...

I flew to clients semi regularly... Mooney.

Then flew for a regional airline. Drive to base, 5 hours, flight 1 hour...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
jd21476 said:
For about the last 8 months I have been flying my own plane to work. I live in Southern California and the traffic is terrible. I had a PPL so I decided to buy a plane for commuting back and forth about the 100 miles from San Diego to the Riverside area. It would normally take me about 2.5 hours with traffic and sometimes up to 4 if it was a holiday or raining, etc. Now with the plane it takes me between 28 and 35 minutes once I'm wheels up.

My wife (who is fully supportive) always is amazed that I do this and asks me if anyone else does this. I always tell her of course they do but I have never actually met anyone else who does.

So, who else flies to work?
Click to expand...

Don’t know any personally. But I used to work some when I was a Controller. We had a regular Customer who flew a Malibu from Big Bear L35 to Santa Barbara SBA and back daily. There was a guy who did it in some Piper PA##, 28, 32, can’t remember. Don’t remember destinations. He’d just call us to get traffic advisories through our sky and then terminate. This was up around Lemoore NLC.
 
jd21476 said:
Now with the plane it takes me between 28 and 35 minutes once I'm wheels up.
Click to expand...
That once you're wheels up part is the rub for most people. Both my parents spent a lot of time in hospitals toward the end of their lives. Many times those hospitals were in Philadelphia which was an hour forty five minute drive away. It was about a 30 minute flight in the Mooney but I only did it a handful of times because driving was almost always quicker door to door.

If your plane is close to the house and your destination is walking distance from a small uncontrolled field, you might be able to beat door to door times, but its rare that this is case for most people.
 
I have thought about this over the years. Door-to-door times must include travel to the airport, preflight (planning and inspection), start-up and taxi, enroute fight, taxiing at the destination, and travel from the airport to the destination. My rough estimation using an airplane with a TAS of ~120 kts usually makes it a wash at about 120 miles on the ground. Less than that, drive. More than that, fly. This assumes about 15 minutes to/from the airport on the ground, ZERO pre-flight issues (adding oil or fuel, cleaning the windows, airing up a tire, etc) and ZERO traffic delays on the ground.

Of course none of this takes into account the expense. :)
 
Juliet Hotel said:
That once you're wheels up part is the rub for most people. Both my parents spent a lot of time in hospitals toward the end of their lives. Many times those hospitals were in Philadelphia which was an hour forty five minute drive away. It was about a 30 minute flight in the Mooney but I only did it a handful of times because driving was almost always quicker door to door.

If your plane is close to the house and your destination is walking distance from a small uncontrolled field, you might be able to beat door to door times, but its rare that this is case for most people.
Click to expand...

Im about 10 min from my home airport and then 10 min from work on the other end. California traffic is terrible up the 15 and 215 so I beat my drive by at least an hour or more even if I take extra time doing the pre-flight.
 
I used to shuttle between the Bay Area and Central Valley for work, and I would fly 3 to 4 days a week.
 
I did at one point. But as my commute was across wide open rural prairie, the plane didn't really gain me anything. It was something I did 'because I can'.

I am currently planning to re-start doing this. My current weekly commute is across the DC metro area. 2:42 without traffic, 35 minutes in the Bonanza. 5min to the airport from my home, 12 minutes from the airport to work. I'll see how well it works as this is not the land of pleasant SoCal weather and my destination is surrounded by hills (we call them 'mountains', but they are hills) and has some rather interesting minimums.
 
I did it for years. But, I also had my own airfield/hangar at my home at the time. I currently own acreage, but this acreage isn't really suitable for an airstrip. I've considered a 'copter for that reason, but helicopters don't inspire me like airplanes.
 
Last edited:
my now-retired buddy did for a while. he kept a beater at the destination airport to get from that airport to his office.
 
Not a daily commute but my work has me traveling all over the state and most of my mission are flying to meetings and job sites vs driving even for just the 100 mile hops up to Sacramento from home.
 
Im an A+P. I work at an airport and I have a T hangar at an airport 6 minutes from my house and I have a Grumman Tiger. It takes 1 hour 45 minutes to drive. 25 minutes to fly. 1 hour door to door. Its great to fly to work but its costly and weather always has to be VFR all day for me at least. That said. Its about the only time I fly the plane. If you have a plane you need a reason to fly. Planes without a mission end up on trade a plane. You can only eat so many $200 hamburgers at airport restaurants. I use to have a Grumman AA1A that used auto gas. It was much more econmical. Maybe should have kept that.
 
I did this with a Mooney for over several years and put more than 3000 hours on the plane. Had several facilities and also had to go district and corporate hq quite often.
Ft Myers to Key West or MTH - 4 to 5 hours driving - 50 minutes flying (door to door--live on an airpark and facilities were on the airport)--didn't have to stay over-go home at night
Ft. Myers to FXE - about one hour door to door as office was less mile from the airport- 3 hours driving, again, didn't have to stay over
Ft. Myers to MEM - about 4.5 hours flying--no direct airline flights which generally took 5 to 6 hrs
 
I was given the okay to buy my first plane by my financial partner for this very reason. I was hired for a contract the company had at a place 91 miles and 2+10 away via mostly two lane roads. It takes me 30 minutes from my home door to crossing the hold short. It was another 30 minutes to the work desk once the wheels left the deck (airport office for this contract) I went out and found a plane that could deal with almost anything, except convective activity and ice. Bought the plane, worked out the pre-buy issues, made myself familiar with it, and then the company promptly lost the contract.

But I still have my plane. :D

As for door to door comparisons, travelling by air is so much easier on us mentally. We do lunch with our son on a regular basis, and fly there vice drive, even though it adds 30% or so more time to the trip, at probably three times the cost.
 
Door to door often will be the same, though the aircraft experience is so much nicer. My big worry would be the weather closing in and forcing me into a difficult decision. I've made a much nicer solution to the commuting problem. I live within a few miles of where I work and walk every day. No traffic, and I get good exercise out of it as well.
 
steingar said:
Door to door often will be the same, though the aircraft experience is so much nicer. My big worry would be the weather closing in and forcing me into a difficult decision. I've made a much nicer solution to the commuting problem. I live within a few miles of where I work and walk every day. No traffic, and I get good exercise out of it as well.
Click to expand...

Well.... Yeah.... Thats the sensible thing to do. Stop talking sense to me. You may make me sell my plane !
 
I used to fly back-and-forth to work. But it was weekly, not daily, and was when I worked two or three states away from home. A 3 to 4 hour flight beats the hell out of an 8 to 10 hour drive!
 
When I was working temporarily in the DC area, I commuted home to Central NY on weekends. Since my home airport is only 5 minutes from the house I could do the trip door to door in a little over 3 hours unless headwinds were strong. Otherwise a 6-7 hour drive.
 
SoCal is the perfect place for this. I did 8 years either from HHR to AJO/RAL or down to MYF.

My commute flights were always 15-30 minutes "once wheels up" also, and that compared with the best driving case being 45 minutes, so it was often a wash. What is unique to SoCal is that, unpredictably, the drive can be 2-3 hours each way. Fridays, rain, fuhgeddaboutit. The plane is predictable.

I did it in a Bonanza and I owned a 100LL farm, so I was able to ignore the costs of air-commuting. If I had to pay everything out of pocket, a smaller plane in the 8-10gph class would have certainly been the choice. The 5-10 minute savings of the fast plane comes at like double the cost.

It's fun to give coworkers a taste of the commute, then not offer up again -- they never ask for some reason. "oh it took you 3.5 hours to get to san diego? lol" is a wonderful bit of spite-chat to have with your inferiors. :D
 
I have a few clients 150 miles away so I fly whenever I can. Normally driving is 3 hours door to door. I can fly it in 1:45 door to door. Besides, flying is WAY more fun.
 
3.5 miles to work, I bicycle in good weather and take the car in bad.
 
My office is 50 feet away from my side door. But have planned to fly for meetings but weather didn’t work out that day
 
Are you instrument rated? I don't live in SoCal anymore, but when I did I was always stuck on the ground waiting for the solid overcast layer to break open. I was always wishing I was instrument rated at the time. I would not have been able to fly to work without getting fired for being late all the time. I commend you for being able to do it.
 
schmookeeg said:
SoCal is the perfect place for this. I did 8 years either from HHR to AJO/RAL or down to MYF.
Click to expand...

I might end up doing something like that in a few years - just a little further. Bay Area down to HHR. I always thought a four cylinder Mooney would be a good choice for such a trip.
 
I have done it before, it took a sub 15min drive and turned it into 45min with the pre and post flying stuff lol
 
smv said:
I have thought about this over the years. Door-to-door times must include travel to the airport, preflight (planning and inspection), start-up and taxi, enroute fight, taxiing at the destination, and travel from the airport to the destination.
Click to expand...
Sure... but some of that (oil, gas, preflight inspection, engine heater, route planning) I can do the night before. I guess I could drive halfway the night before too, but that makes driving even worse.

Yeah, on a ~ 120 mile trip at 120 kt it's probably about a wash for me, time-wise. We've proven that a couple of times when my wife drove and I flew; she'll be home around the same time I am or a little before. All things being equal, though, I'd still rather fly than drive.
 
lsaway said:
Are you instrument rated? I don't live in SoCal anymore, but when I did I was always stuck on the ground waiting for the solid overcast layer to break open. I was always wishing I was instrument rated at the time. I would not have been able to fly to work without getting fired for being late all the time. I commend you for being able to do it.
Click to expand...

I'm only VFR but I assume you were flying from Montgomery Field and they tend to have the morning marine layer. I fly out of Gillespie which is to the East and doesn't get hit with the marine layer as often. In the last 8 months I have only been delayed once and decided to drive another time.
 
jd21476 said:
I'm only VFR but I assume you were flying from Montgomery Field and they tend to have the morning marine layer. I fly out of Gillespie which is to the East and doesn't get hit with the marine layer as often.
Click to expand...

I flew out of POC. Always seemed to have an overcast layer. I was so jealous of the guys getting VFR on top clearances. I eventually did get my instrument ticket. It was always a rush popping out of the top of the layer. I remember how smooth the air was above. .
 
Not daily. It if I have a day trip or overnight trip I’ll fly to work. Saves me maybe 30-45 min but still beats driving
 
The previous owner of my plane commuted to his weekend gig at an airport (Air National Guard). The distance, 130 miles in the countryside where traffic was light, was really too short to make it worthwhile, but it gave him a chance to fly. He got special permission from the ANG to park his plane on their ramp, so that ground transportation was not needed.
 
If you could somehow have a spare vehicle parked at the destination airport, I could see it being more practical, unless you could walk from the airport to work. Other than that, the ground transportation aspect seems the most difficult and I doubt most people work within walking distance from the airport they intend to land at.
 
I was in the USN Reserve for >20 yrs. Lived either in Ft. Lauderdale, FL or Pompano Beach, FL. My reserve sites were mostly Master Jet Base Cecil Field, Florida and NAS Jacksonville, FL. As a Flt. Surgeon for MAG 42, Det A and VP 62 I had to either drive 290 miles or fly <200 in my Seneca II. While running a full time practice of medicine in SoFlA. I kept a beater Chevy S-10 in the North Fla. fields, (no a/c). Sometimes the weather was too hosed up but most oF the time a 1.5 hr flight would get me there vs. a 5 hour drive. Other than having to put up with “Oh Sh#@t, here comes the admiral” and/or an occasional security escort because the military field did not get the flight plan, it was always better to fly up. It was definitely a fantastic time in my life, “only in America”. And yeah, I signed on the line that stated “you will follow orders up to and including giving your life”. And was recalled to active duty for Desert Storm. I was honored to do it and would do it again tomorrow. God Bless America.
 
I've known several people who have done that. One used to fly into the Silicon Valley pretty much daily from wherever out east he lived. The famed Dave Rogers (of the impossible turn fame) used to commute in from the Eastern Shore everyday. There's an air traffic controller (he might be lurking here) who used to commute into ORD in a 150 when he was a controller there.
 
I commuted daily from my Ranch strip to Hughes Aircraft Tucson. 40 minutes including walking to my strip and a short drive to Hughes vs. 2 hour drive but AVGAS much cheaper then. Hughes (Raytheon) is on the airport.
 
Ryanb said:
If you could somehow have a spare vehicle parked at the destination airport, I could see it being more practical, unless you could walk from the airport to work.
Click to expand...

I own my cars outright, so when I replace one I always have a 'spare' that I can keep with liability only insurance. The current 'spare' is a 12 year old Accord which I will tow up to the hangar I have on the 'work' end of the trip. It's good enough to get me home if weather doesn't support flying the return leg that day.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top