We don?t have fuel at the airpark where we live, so one of the realities of our flying lives is to pick up fuel at neighboring airports in a smart fashion. For instance, local flying hops are sometimes planned to hit a cheap fuel stop on the way home. Other times, we know a trip is coming up, and if it is going to be a long day (and we don?t want a fuel stop in the first few miles) we want to make sure we end up at home with nearly full tanks. At the same time, I am the son of a depression-era parents, and hate paying a penny more than I have to when buying anything ? including Avgas, which we tend to use at a prodigious rate (lots of flying hours?)! As a result, I am frequently asking the question, ?where is the most sensible place to buy fuel today??
This seems like a simple matter ? fly to the nearest airport for gas, or look at Airnav for the cheapest price ? right? Well?maybe. The nearest airport with fuel is 4 miles away, but is generally a dollar a gallon higher than the place 30 miles away. If I am going to go flying ANYWAY, doesn?t it mosey on over to the cheap place and mosey on back? While much of the time, it doesn?t make a real difference (we all know it doesn?t pay to drive across town to save a few cents per gallon, but we hate paying the higher prices!), sometimes, it sure can. The real problem I have is in completely and accurately describing the ?problem? I am trying to solve. Cheapest overall? Most fuel? Best price per gallon based on the amount you have when you get home? The engineer in me wants to quantify everything, but if you can?t accurately describe the question, the answer will be ambiguous.
In an attempt to try and at least clarify the problem, I built a little spreadsheet that considers a flight to go and get 20 gallons of gas. It considers the price at each airport, the distance to the airport, and a set of variables such as fuel burn and ground speed that are held constant for each case. I added up the fuel for the round trip plus the 20 gallons, and produced a ?total gallon? column. Another column is ?Fuel remaining when you Get Home? (of course that is always going to sort with the closest airport at the top). I found that if there was enough difference in fuel prices in the local area, the total fill up cost can vary significantly from the ?nearest to closest? sort. This of course, was just a quick and dirty look at the problem ? I?d be interested to see if anyone else has thoughts on this ?rainy day? problem?.
This seems like a simple matter ? fly to the nearest airport for gas, or look at Airnav for the cheapest price ? right? Well?maybe. The nearest airport with fuel is 4 miles away, but is generally a dollar a gallon higher than the place 30 miles away. If I am going to go flying ANYWAY, doesn?t it mosey on over to the cheap place and mosey on back? While much of the time, it doesn?t make a real difference (we all know it doesn?t pay to drive across town to save a few cents per gallon, but we hate paying the higher prices!), sometimes, it sure can. The real problem I have is in completely and accurately describing the ?problem? I am trying to solve. Cheapest overall? Most fuel? Best price per gallon based on the amount you have when you get home? The engineer in me wants to quantify everything, but if you can?t accurately describe the question, the answer will be ambiguous.
In an attempt to try and at least clarify the problem, I built a little spreadsheet that considers a flight to go and get 20 gallons of gas. It considers the price at each airport, the distance to the airport, and a set of variables such as fuel burn and ground speed that are held constant for each case. I added up the fuel for the round trip plus the 20 gallons, and produced a ?total gallon? column. Another column is ?Fuel remaining when you Get Home? (of course that is always going to sort with the closest airport at the top). I found that if there was enough difference in fuel prices in the local area, the total fill up cost can vary significantly from the ?nearest to closest? sort. This of course, was just a quick and dirty look at the problem ? I?d be interested to see if anyone else has thoughts on this ?rainy day? problem?.