When to fly vs drive?

Another factor with the aluminum tube is delays at an airport a long ways away can delay you while you sit in CAVU weather. I have seen this happen frequently.
 
EdFred said:
20 mins to airport, 20 min to departure, so I'm already 40 minutes towards my destination (which is never in the direction of the airport)

So it becomes an equation on whether to drive or fly based on the time leaving my house vs the time to my destination.
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20 mins + 20 mins = 0.666666hr. Let's add another 20 mins for takeoff, climb, pattern, taxi and shutdown for a total of 1hr.

Bill Jennings said:
Don't forget tying down, covering the plane, renting a car, and then driving to the destination.
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Let's say this is 15 minutes, so total overhead from flying is 1.25 hours.

Bill Jennings said:
If I can drive it in three or less, I can match or beat flying and I save on gas/car rental/ airport fees, etc.
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3-1.25 = 1.75 hours in cruise and your M20J cruises at 170mph which gives a distance of 300 miles (I rounded). You'd have to be going 100mph in the car to meet/beat the M20J. I suppose that's do-able in Montana, West Texas or on Germany's Autobahn but not so practical elsewhere.

Now if your sig said you flew a Beech Mouse...;)
 
asicer said:
20 mins + 20 mins = 0.666666hr. Let's add another 20 mins for takeoff, climb, pattern, taxi and shutdown for a total of 1hr.



Let's say this is 15 minutes, so total overhead from flying is 1.25 hours.



3-1.25 = 1.75 hours in cruise and your M20J cruises at 170mph which gives a distance of 300 miles (I rounded). You'd have to be going 100mph in the car to meet/beat the M20J. I suppose that's do-able in Montana, West Texas or on Germany's Autobahn but not so practical elsewhere.

Now if your sig said you flew a Beech Mouse...;)
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Your math is a bit off because you are counting backwards.

3 hour drive is probably about 180 miles(if mostly on highway). This is not really enough distance to spread the wings(pun intended) in anything fast. That's about an hour flight in a Mooney(or more, because airport to airport could be 250 miles). The 1.25 h that is the overhead is the big killer, and in my experience it's usually longer than that because there are always some delays that you didn't anticipate.

So yes, it looks like you would save time on Mooney vs 3 hour drive, but by the time you get there it is probably a wash..
 
genna said:
Your math is a bit off because you are counting backwards.

3 hour drive is probably about 180 miles(if mostly on highway). This is not really enough distance to spread the wings(pun intended) in anything fast. That's about an hour flight in a Mooney(or more, because airport to airport could be 250 miles). The 1.25 h that is the overhead is the big killer, and in my experience it's usually longer than that because there are always some delays that you didn't anticipate.

So yes, it looks like you would save time on Mooney vs 3 hour drive, but by the time you get there it is probably a wash..
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It's not off. 180 miles at 170mph (M20J cruise speed) = 1.1 Hobbes. 1.1h cruise + 1.25h overhead = 2.35h total. That's 0.65h faster or nearly 40mins faster than the car.
 
asicer said:
It's not off. 180 miles at 170mph (M20J cruise speed) = 1.1 Hobbes. 1.1h cruise + 1.25h overhead = 2.35h total. That's 0.65h faster or nearly 40mins faster than the car.
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Yes, as I said, there is some saving. These can be 40 min or 20 min or anywhere in between with potential delays. For most people it's not that much(10-20%) given the inconvenience of lacking the car at destination.

My point was that it's not as much time as your original calculation which gave how much distance you can cover in 3 hours with a Mooney(300 miles or about 6 hour drive). That would be certainly far better than driving because it's far enough to offset the overhead. Hence I said it was "off" from the author's view.

FYI, I'd still rather fly than drive 3h... even in C-172 that I rent which would really be practically the same time.
 
Anything over 4 hours.

I live in KC but I often visit family in the Dakotas or head down to the Ozarks. Getting to central SD is a 7 hour trip by car and about 2 1/2 via highway C172.
 
I think a lot depends on where you are. In busy metro areas, that I-5 backup scenario can be real. I just spent 5 hours driving 180 road miles (120 air miles). This normally would be 3.5 hours each way driving.

It sure would have been nice to jump in a Cherokee 6 and fly for an hour. If I add the 1.25 hour overhead discussed, our one way travel time would have been 2.25 hours instead of 5 hours. With two three year olds, that's a game changer.
 
I guess we do the same as most have already said: 3 hours or less driving = drive.
Over 3 hours driving we fly if possible (all factors considered).

We routinely fly from South Georgia/North Florida to North of Atlanta. Flying turns a 6 hour miserable drive into a pleasant 2 hour trip. The best part is looking down on the traffic gridlock in the ATL as we zip along high over head. I dearly HATE driving and the waste of my time doing it so to me, such moments justify us owning an airplane. Of course this is not counting the smokin' view.
 
Lately, for my wife and I, it's become "fly or don't go?" The exception would be if the airplane is broken (or one of my partners is using it), and in that case the default is probably "don't go," with a possibility of driving if we really need to.

Airlines are almost an afterthought unless we're going international. I'll fly myself to the coasts before I get on another airliner (unless for work).
 
Where (where are you going, Detroit, Los Angeles?)
When (is time a constraint?)
Why (is it business?)
Who (other passengers?, thier needs?)
How much ($$ is cost a factor?)

I routinely commute about 300 miles one way. Not that far, but I have to go through a Big Metropolitan area with really bad traffic issues. It can take between 6.5 to 10 hours if its really bad. flying is 1.75 hrs.

Vehicle ? Prius versus F-250? (are you hauling anything?)

Its ususally just me, and i have a small pickup as my daily driver. 20mpg at best.
Flying will cost about 300$ round trip, just for gas. about 2x driving.

I hate traffic, so I weigh that heavily. No traffic in the sky and ATC is much better to listen to on the radio than Rush Lumber.

I dont commute more than 2x a month so $$ isnt a huge deal breaker. Im retired, so no schedule and now only fly when weather permits. Nothing pushing me into filing an IFR plan. I now only do so to keep current.

Flying is fun. A convenience, not much of a $$ burden and its safer than driving.
 
No flying or driving today -- both self-explanatory:
 

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About 3 hr is the cutoff for me. 5-8 hr drive is the sweet spot for really making flying a light single appreciated. Flying usually cuts the drive by a factor of three, but you have to add an hour or more back to account for preflight, tiedown, and ground transport. Once you get beyond a 3 hour leg in a light single, commercial flight starts looking better unless the destination is in the boonies. If you've ever needed to go to Central Maine...well, it's a long drive and by commercial air "you cahnt get theah from heah"

Of course during ice season all bets are off.

Cheers.
 
I am driving from Homer, Ak to Gallup, NM just to not have to go through TSA.....

Ok not really, the wife and I want to have one last summer adventure and driving a small car through Alaska and Canada should just about do it.
 
My family and I frequently fly a trip that is about 2.5 by car. I really don't save any time by flying the plane, with unloading and loading the plane, preflight, the drive to the airport, etc... What I do get is the advantage of shorter travel stages.

So my wife can watch our 2 year old and our dog run around outside the hangar while I preflight the plane and load the luggage from the car into the plane.Then fly for 45 minutes and she can watch them again while I get the rental car situated.The total time might be the same or even more, but the shorter travel stages and enjoyment of flying more than make up for the difference.
 
A 6-hour round trip by car to/fro the nearest bona fide American urban center is straight up crushing to us. I can make the trip in an hour each way by Piper, and by the time I land I'm much more refreshed. Ditto for the flight back. Physical driving may be cheaper, but it's more much fatiguing. A non-economic difference that matters when the trips are done for recreation. Thence, they too become a "fly or don't go" affair, even after acknowledging it's cheaper and not much longer by car.
 
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