…you can make a case for a TP twin or single vs airlines. Kind of.
Bought late tickets to our yearly Swedish vacation. Very late = expensive. My family of 3 ticket price an insane $5200 (and that’s with one infant below 2 years who rides for free). And because I had to change return date, had to pay a $350 changing fee and the difference in fare, another $320 on top. Total cost, $5870. A later Commander/Merlin/MU-2/Cheyenne 400LS/PC12/TBM would have done the same 4700nm return trip in about 15hr each way, total of 30hrs. It would have burned 1800gal doing so. At a cost of $6300 at $3.5/gal. That’s only about $500 more. And next year, if I have to buy last minute tickets again, my son will be over 2 years old and I’d have to pay full ticket price for him, another $2K probably. In that case the turbines would “save” $1500 compared to airlines.
Just saying. Go buy a plane – money to be saved!… 
Ha ha Adam it is really funny and enjoyable sometimes what a rose tinted view on airplane ownership you have. 
AdamFrisch wrote:
15hr each way
Probably the average time spent in airport security, so faster, too! Shame about the fuel stops on the way.
Adam, if you don’t count fuel, it’s even more attractive!
Even if money is not an issue, an aircraft of the class mentioned would be torture for the family and not just on a 4700NM trip. I have a 4-weekly 1700NM trip and I’ve been pondering for years if it could be done at all times with my own aircraft and what kind of aircraft that would have to be so it not only works for me alone but also for the family the 3-4 times a year they join me. Well, even a TBM isn’t going to cut it, the entry level (barely workable) would probably be a CJ4. That’s not something I think I should be owning or flying myself.
It is very hard to beat even the sh*ttiest airline with GA. Even when completely ignoring the cost.
achimha wrote:
Even if money is not an issue, an aircraft of the class mentioned would be torture for the family and not just on a 4700NM trip.
Why would that be? There are quite a few post on various forums that state this and that about GA were not suitable for the family. I don’t really understand. I fly frequently with my family (2 adults and now 8 years old daughter) and nobody complains or has any issues. With a pressurized cabin we would fly higher but for the time being we stick to FL120. Once our daughter can manage the cannula we can go up a bit.
A very good comparison. Other benefits include not being exposed to bugs from a few hundred other people…
Yes… range is the problem and GA just doesn’t have it. But even most bizjets don’t have it. You have to pay ~ £7M for a jet which can do it nonstop.
Other benefits include not being exposed to bugs from a few hundred other people…
While I love to fly myself this is a strange argument against airliners and for GA. It’s only about 50 times more dangerous but I’m not exposed to some bugs that most humans with a healthy immune syste have no problem with. Haha … ;-)
How about admitting that FUN is the only valid reason?
Just the freedom aspect of it would sell it for me. The fact that I can stick a bicycle in there, baby car seat, have the wife bring whatever she wants, skiis, whatever. And a change in schedule doesn’t trigger expensive changing fees and fare difference pricing etc. But yeah, with a small child it would probably get pretty taxiing sitting in the bumps in a loud cabin for long periods.
You are a Romantic, just like many of us – and that’s great! But we sometimes think that the rest of the family has the same idea of “freedom” as we do while their interpretation of “freedom” is very different. A toilet, a coffee, no noise … arrive fast and much safer. That’s okay for me, whenever the family doesn’t want to go in the Cirrus they take the airline and I’ll take the plane.
I’m not so sure about all that. When we travel in the SR22 as a family we do it in the same way as when we take the car. Unlike flying with an airline we just arrive, load our stuff and go.
With the airline we need to stick to a schedule (stress), queue up in lines (stress), be searched (hassle), get told what to do (stress) and wait (boredom). Once aboard, more being told what to do (hassle, annoying), endure all the other people on their once per year flight that have big or small challenges with the boarding process. The cabin service is something we don’t really look forward to. And even in business class it’s kind of an interruption and the food isn’t really special compared to a regular restaurant.
The airline wins in terms of range (4 hrs in the SR22 doesn’t get me as far as with the airline) but looses on all other points. An upgrade to a faster aircraft would potentially solve that but it’s not in the budget (TBM) and at some point one looses access to many small airfields (jet).
