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  #31  
Old 11-25-2010, 03:40 AM
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David Shelton David Shelton is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Belvidere, IL
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The following graphs are from a NASA Langley report, ?The Third Wave of Aeronautics: On-Demand Mobility.? The top graph shows that personal airplanes are never the most affordable way to travel. In general, our cars are the cheapest option for shorter trips and the airlines are most economical beyond 330 miles.

The second graph accounts for the ?value? of our time. If our time is very precious (greater than $80/hr), then personal airplanes make sense for some shorter trips.

Conclusion: It?s difficult to argue that our $100,000 airplane saves us time or money? but what the heck? it?s so much more fun!



In any event, I fly whenever possible because I find it convenient and enjoyable? simply land at the nearest airport, pull a street-legal motorcycle out of the belly pod, then ride away with a cute girl on the back? I can?t imagine a better way to travel.

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  #32  
Old 11-25-2010, 03:54 AM
Bob_pipedream Bob_pipedream is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 87
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Nice bike,

I am thinhing of adapting a Honda monkey bike for the RV6. I can use an alloy frame and get rid of useless stuff like indicators (flashers). People use them in London for car hire firms and put them in the boot of cars, so should fit ( I have checked).
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  #33  
Old 11-25-2010, 07:24 AM
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Ironflight Ironflight is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Dayton, NV
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Default Current, Real-world Example

OK, so Louise and I are sitting in Minnesota for Thanksgiving with my family. We came up on Tuesday from Houston, and the weather was great all the way. Weather on Monday and Wednesday up in Minnesota and Iowa was predicted (and turned out to be) very nasty for flying, driving, etc. We plan to return on the weekend, and the forecasts are showing good Wx along the route - but windy on Sunday.

So, how did we come? We DROVE! In this case, it was very important to be here, the travel window was small, we both hate riding airlines (ESPECIALLY during holidays) our regular dog-sitters are traveling...and we like to get the two Huskies (the kind with fur, not wings) up to the cold country for at least a few days each winter - we feel we owe it to them for making them live on the gulf coast with a permanent fur coat....The Honda Civic gets unreal mileage, the roads are good, the drive is 19 hours, so we each have to drive less than ten, and we go straight through, so the night time is not "wasted". It works out fine.

Would I rather be sitting here with the Valkyrie or Mikey out at the airport? Sure! But then the dogs would be in Houston, rather than at the Canine Country Club outside of the Cities, we'd be hawking return weather (we both HAVE to be back on Monday morning), and we'd be looking at a freezing cold return flight in airplanes which have not been optimized for arctic conditions. In this case, the highway just made sense, even though the weather turned out flyable . No two cases are alike - the best thing is having options!

Like the NASA study indicates, you could rarely make the argument based on economics alone. We aviate becasue we WANT to aviate!

Paul
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  #34  
Old 11-25-2010, 07:50 AM
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scard scard is offline
 
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I'm amused that it took a NASA study to come up with some fancy charts to determine that we have to want to fly, without taking our shoes off, for it to make personal economic sense .
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  #35  
Old 11-25-2010, 09:37 AM
tjo tjo is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: La Center,wa
Posts: 210
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It's too bad airplanes cost so much. I'm not going to provide any support at the moment, but it is my belief that if the gov't would stay away from choking GA, a good RV-style factory built and backed airplane should cost no more than about $35-$40K retail and run on fuel that is available at mogas prices. Also, if it were this available, airports and hanger space would be plentiful.

Can you imagine the products that would be available for safe economical flight if airplanes were as plentiful as they would be if they cost that much off of the factory floor! Most of you will likely think I am insane, but still, that is the way I believe it should be, and would be if it were not for the meddling of organizations that are afraid of the picture that I just painted. I apologize in advance if this takes the subject off topic.

Tim
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  #36  
Old 11-25-2010, 05:05 PM
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Snowflake Snowflake is offline
 
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Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
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I'd love to take my RV on a business trip, we have an office in Tucson which I expect would be a nice two-day flight from Vancouver (BC) (but I haven't looked). Trips to the Tucson office are usually for the week, so flying down saturday/sunday and back the following saturday/sunday would be great.

The only real roadblock to doing that, though, is me. I'm not IFR certified, so i'm highly weather-restricted. And since booking commercial flights needs to be done a few weeks in advance, well before I could commit to making the same flight my RV, i'm pretty much forced to choose commercial because it's a guaranteed (well, as much as possible) option.
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  #37  
Old 11-25-2010, 08:46 PM
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Webb Webb is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Jackson, MS
Posts: 1,262
Default Go RV

Although coincidental, every time I fly commercially, it never seems to fail that I catch a cold.

I have yet to catch a cold after a trip in my RV. I've never gotten food poisoning from a trip in my RV but did after a commercial flight. I've never listened to a baby scream due to an ear infection in my RV.

Miss a day or two of work because you're sick and all arguments seem to go out the window.

Besides that, I have yet to be bored when I go RV. I also get the chance to maximize time with family and go on MY schedule.

I also don't lose as many vacation days by taking the best travel deals and have spent less money on hotels because of scheduling.

Taking all cost into consideration, unless I'm going across the country several thousand miles, the RV is less expensive.
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  #38  
Old 11-26-2010, 12:18 AM
PCHunt PCHunt is offline
 
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Location: San Diego, CA
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For me, I draw the line when I go to Australia. Airline is OK to Australia. Otherwise, in CONUS, RV-x is it for me!

(A bit of tongue-in-cheek, but you get the drift.)
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  #39  
Old 11-26-2010, 09:06 PM
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rzbill rzbill is offline
 
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Location: Asheville, NC
Posts: 2,692
Default Ejector needed.

Not coincidental. Compressing and conditioning air costs fuel. Doing it is minimised by design, moreso on the newest aircraft, air recirculation is the preference. I have yet to see a comercial filter that will deal with the snotty guy in the next seat as well as the James Bond button I am installing on my stick

Quote:
Originally Posted by Webb View Post
Although coincidental, every time I fly commercially, it never seems to fail that I catch a cold.

I have yet to catch a cold after a trip in my RV. I've never gotten food poisoning from a trip in my RV but did after a commercial flight. I've never listened to a baby scream due to an ear infection in my RV.

Miss a day or two of work because you're sick and all arguments seem to go out the window.

Besides that, I have yet to be bored when I go RV. I also get the chance to maximize time with family and go on MY schedule.

I also don't lose as many vacation days by taking the best travel deals and have spent less money on hotels because of scheduling.

Taking all cost into consideration, unless I'm going across the country several thousand miles, the RV is less expensive.
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  #40  
Old 11-27-2010, 06:35 AM
David-aviator David-aviator is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Chesterfield, Missouri
Posts: 4,514
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Substituting the RV experience for commercial travel can not be a factor in deciding to go this route. There are too many days (and nights) when it is totally impractical to do so and that' s when lives are in jeopardy. It just won't work when you have to be somewhere.

Aside from all that, commercial travel has become such a pain in the butt, some are bound to factor it in and sometimes it makes good sense to do so. But do be careful doing it.

I will never forget the night coming into JFK in a warm comfortable well equipped B707 when a Cherokee out over the Atlantic on V4 was icing up. He was going down and all ATC could do was vector him toward Long Island. The ceiling was about 300'. And then all was silent. The next morning on the news it was reported a light airplane had landed on a beach the night before. The pilot was very lucky to say the least.

Five or six years ago a RV-6A iced up flying by St. Louis going to Oklahoma for the holidays. It was forced down and ended up in a snow covered field. The pilot's wife and a small child strapped down in the bag area were all OK. It too was a very good ending to what could have been not so good.

First hand knowledge of such events makes one rather ultra conservative with regard to the transportation capabilities of a small airplane. There are things you can plan on doing but there are many you can not do safely. Being stuck in inappropriate weather is a heck of a way to die and there are lots of weather situations where these machines are totally out of their league. That's why the RV experience can not be considered a reliable mode of transportation, especially for holiday travel where most people are on a schedule of some sort.
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