hankrausch
New member
I have some business next week in San Diego. Not too interested in taking a commercial flight, partly to all the rigamarole with security, but also because one just feels like a "tool" these days in the commercial flight system.
I have pretty much the (near) smallest plane one can have, a Piper Tomahawk, which I have flown VFR across the country before--took 3 days-- but this is just too dicey to plan on for a business trip where one has to be there.
So here is my "system", which has worked for me before and which I am posting as an alternative for those interested: Sat/Sun fly 1162 nm (From DC area) to Amarillo, TX, rent a car Sun afternoon and then it is 1000 miles of straight interstate driving which puts me into LA Monday afternoon--on the return, arrive at Amarillo Sat AM and back across the 1162 nm to DC by Sun evening.
Of course this is all dependent on good wx--outbound, this is easy to track and abort, inbound I admit this is a crap shoot as there is no good way to predict the wx for 8 days in advance for the return Amarillo-DC leg.
Abort option--outbound, one can pick up a $389 rail pass which gives you 8 "legs" on Amtrak--leave Friday in DC at 4 PM, arrive 8 AM Monday in LA--returning leave Friday 8 PM and arrive Monday 12 noon. For those of you who have not taken Amtrak lately--it has changed, and is a really civilized way to travel!
Abort option for the return, I will admit, is not pretty--wait til wx clears and show up at work late, or ditch the plane in Amarillo (or some point in between) and rent a car, then plan on geting back in a week to pick up the plane.
One of the things that makes this work is renting a car with the same pickup/drop-off point for a week costs the same as 5 days--and if one flies commercial to the West Coast, one almost always rents a car for 5 days anyway. Also, this puts you on the West Coast for 3-1/2 working days which is pretty much all you get if you fly commercial Mon-Fri, (unless you take a redeye, which I won't).
The cost vis-a-vis commercial is pretty much a wash--one week of rental car plus lots of fuel tickets vs the same rental car, a commercial ticket, and less fuel tickets.
Just offering this as an alternative & to show people it can be done, realize it doesn't work for everyone!
Hank Rausch
I have pretty much the (near) smallest plane one can have, a Piper Tomahawk, which I have flown VFR across the country before--took 3 days-- but this is just too dicey to plan on for a business trip where one has to be there.
So here is my "system", which has worked for me before and which I am posting as an alternative for those interested: Sat/Sun fly 1162 nm (From DC area) to Amarillo, TX, rent a car Sun afternoon and then it is 1000 miles of straight interstate driving which puts me into LA Monday afternoon--on the return, arrive at Amarillo Sat AM and back across the 1162 nm to DC by Sun evening.
Of course this is all dependent on good wx--outbound, this is easy to track and abort, inbound I admit this is a crap shoot as there is no good way to predict the wx for 8 days in advance for the return Amarillo-DC leg.
Abort option--outbound, one can pick up a $389 rail pass which gives you 8 "legs" on Amtrak--leave Friday in DC at 4 PM, arrive 8 AM Monday in LA--returning leave Friday 8 PM and arrive Monday 12 noon. For those of you who have not taken Amtrak lately--it has changed, and is a really civilized way to travel!
Abort option for the return, I will admit, is not pretty--wait til wx clears and show up at work late, or ditch the plane in Amarillo (or some point in between) and rent a car, then plan on geting back in a week to pick up the plane.
One of the things that makes this work is renting a car with the same pickup/drop-off point for a week costs the same as 5 days--and if one flies commercial to the West Coast, one almost always rents a car for 5 days anyway. Also, this puts you on the West Coast for 3-1/2 working days which is pretty much all you get if you fly commercial Mon-Fri, (unless you take a redeye, which I won't).
The cost vis-a-vis commercial is pretty much a wash--one week of rental car plus lots of fuel tickets vs the same rental car, a commercial ticket, and less fuel tickets.
Just offering this as an alternative & to show people it can be done, realize it doesn't work for everyone!
Hank Rausch
Why pay $640,000 for a plane when a $20,000 one can do the same thing? :wink2: