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Flying alone is a total waste

The other day I saw some video’s of a guy flying alone to several destinations (to fly-ins). In my opinion flying alone is a waste, unless you’re doing a training flight with t&g’s and stalls, which is not so attractive to your passengers.

I always try to fly with someone, either a friend who’s also a pilot or passengers. It just makes it more fun to share an experience.

What is your opinion on my thesis?

jkv
EHEH

I could not agree with you more.

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

I do not agree.
I really love to take my family, or the kids only, or a friend on a nice flight – but I also really love to fly alone and to leave EVERYBODY down there :-)
I don’t do yoga or meditation, but to me flying alone is a very good way of relaxing

I would probably re-phrase it and say “only flying alone is a waste of time”. I also occasionally do small trips alone. In some cases, I prefer so, in some other cases, I just don’t seem to find appropriate persons to join in.

But yes, sharing the experience is half the fun of flying. I also like the challenge of making flights as enjoyable and “uneventful” as possible for non-pilot passengers. I believe I am quite good at that by now.

But in my experience, many pilots only fly alone. Some because they are flying so little and are totally “absorbed” from taking care of themselves and the aircraft, some because they are worried about claims from non-family passengers if they mess up. I particularly disagree with the latter. Just get proper insurance and make sure you don’t do anything utterly stupid (“grobe Fahrlässigkeit” in German) and you are fine.

I think we are somewhat obliged as GA pilots to do our own personal contribution and try to spread the flying bug whenever we can. Otherwise, it is all going to die.

People who only fly alone also tend to be those who will give it all up after a few years.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 26 Oct 11:05
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

I fly alone, because I want/need to get to places. It happens very rarely that someone elase wants to go there too.

United Kingdom

In my opinion flying alone is a waste

Complete nonsense! I would say you haven’t really flown alone, unless you are flying a single seater. You and the aircraft, nothing more, no extra seats, no extra controls. No one to “teach” you how to do things but the aircraft itself, it is a feeling like nothing else. You have missed maybe 60-70% of what flying is all about if you never have flown a single seater in my opinion.

The first time I flew a single seater was a glider, almost half a century ago. With powered aircraft, the Piper Cherokee is the only one I have flown. That aircraft is a bit intimidating. It looks like a big brute and very different from most others, and has a 540 in the nose. When I hit the throttle for the first time, it was scary, but the moment the wheels left the ground, I felt the big brute was a nothing but a gentle, but powerful, bear and I felt at home instantly.

This is why I am building a Onex, a little single seater aerobatic aircraft, that hopefully will fly next year

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

My opinion, for what it is worth ( I think forums are better used to exchange experiences and other factual information – opinions are cheap, and plenty, and impossible to tell a good one from the rest, unless one knows the poster personally) :

If one flies because one loves to go flying, it doesn’t matter an inch who else is on board. I will occasionally take up a friend or relative, to do them a favour. But most of my flying is done alone. This is partly because my craft is limited weightwise, with two on board I can legally take very little fuel*, but mostly because it is not easy to find company who are AND attractive company* AND available at the same moment AND interested to take the same trip.

  • surely there are many who fly my kind of craft illegally, and many are the recommendations to do so, a few even at this very same forum, but that’s at my own captain’s discretion
  • I have particularly bad experiences with taking up other pilots, who will always have comments like what I should have done differently, or not done at all, or what I neglected/forgot to do, and about how pilot ZYX does this particular manoevre so much more elegantly, or plane ABC is so much more suited to this kind of flying, or what not. Bunch of whiners, generally. I am willing to take comments, and learn from them, but then from qualified pilots or instructors, not from a chap I saw touching down in the last three quarters of the runway last weekend.
Last Edited by at 26 Oct 11:58
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

I can see the discussion is started. ;-) Good to see the discussion going…. This was my intention ;-)

It’s only my opinion and I rather not fly alone on trips (Nonetheless I flew alone on some occasions to pick up some friends from another airfield, this year).

I don’t judge anyone flying always alone (if the aircraft permits to bring along passengers ;-) ), but for me it rather stange that you never bring along people on flights. I like to bring friends and relatives and tell them why we pilots are so passionate about flying.

I fly alone, because I want/need to get to places. It happens very rarely that someone elase wants to go there too.

Of course I you use flying to go places for business, I can imagine you will fly alone.

jkv
EHEH

I understand flying as a sensual experience and the flights i enjoyed MOST were all alone. I am not talking about the the great travels I made with others, those were great too – but when it’s about experiencing the sensations of flight then nothing is better than flying alone.

But I am a person who plays guitar for himself too, over headphones mostly, and having an audience is not the most important part of it for me. I also write stories nobody has ever seen and although I have published four books, I did not write them for others – i mainly wrote them for myself.

That is taking us to delicate areas, Flyer59, we will have to watch our p’s and q’s!

The comparison between flying and playing music is perhaps not very relevant: as a musician, I rarely practice alone, actually I have to force myself to it – but will gladly dig up the accordion in company, musicians or not. Certainly there is something sensual about music, in fact there ought to be that about everything one does in life. One of my most sensual activities is cooking!

But ought we really to elaborate about sensual experiences alone or not alone..?

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium
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