Hello all, first post here. I am in the beginning phases of exploring becoming a pilot for commuting purposes, and I had some general questions about the optionality and feasibility of what I am wanting to accomplish.
The gist of the questions here is trying to figure out the most economical, flexible, and reliable option for making 45 min long flights back and forth every other weekend and for holidays. The options that I have become casually aware of so far are 1) buying something like a Cessna 172, 2) joining a local flight club, 3) using a larger fractional ownership platform, 4) using aircraft leasing programs, 5) are there good programs dirextly with FBOs, 6) is it common to co-own an aircraft with one or two other people in a partnership like capacity, 7) sale/lease back.
The whole reason I am looking into this now is I am going through a divorce and will be living and working in a different city than where my 3 young kids will be living. I have dreamed about flying for a long time anyway. I'll now have the time to do the training, and I have the financial means to do this now.
95% of my flying would be ~45 minute trips between Dallas TX (probably Addison Airport) and Houston/Katy (probably Houston Executive Airport) for seeing my kids every other weekend. This is a luxury, not a necessity. I am just cutting 3 hours out of the 4 hour driving commute. If the kids were not living an hour away from the two commercial airports in Houston, the decision process would be quite different.
I am estimating that I'll be doing between 20 to 40 of these round trips a year (kind if depends on how often weather will leave me having to use ground transportation). I do need to have some flexiblity on days and times to work around unpredictable work stuff and stuff with the kids.
I want to minimize the cost here as much as possible because I still have to maintain living situations in two cities with 2-3 cars total. But I also don't want to sacrifice optionality and availability while working around my schedule. I would not mind avoiding the administrative stuff involved with ownership though.
So this all boils down to if there is some magical solution where I could have reliable access to relatively nicer aircraft that are more capable in anything other than ideal flying conditions for an approachable difference in cost compared to owning something like a Cessna 172 for these kinds of needs. And I can be open minded and patient to make it happen if there are some legitimate ways to accomplish this.
I am just so early in the process, quite uneducated on the options, and I am unsure where to start and how to narrow things down so I can start diving deeper into my research. Thanks in advance for the help!
The gist of the questions here is trying to figure out the most economical, flexible, and reliable option for making 45 min long flights back and forth every other weekend and for holidays. The options that I have become casually aware of so far are 1) buying something like a Cessna 172, 2) joining a local flight club, 3) using a larger fractional ownership platform, 4) using aircraft leasing programs, 5) are there good programs dirextly with FBOs, 6) is it common to co-own an aircraft with one or two other people in a partnership like capacity, 7) sale/lease back.
The whole reason I am looking into this now is I am going through a divorce and will be living and working in a different city than where my 3 young kids will be living. I have dreamed about flying for a long time anyway. I'll now have the time to do the training, and I have the financial means to do this now.
95% of my flying would be ~45 minute trips between Dallas TX (probably Addison Airport) and Houston/Katy (probably Houston Executive Airport) for seeing my kids every other weekend. This is a luxury, not a necessity. I am just cutting 3 hours out of the 4 hour driving commute. If the kids were not living an hour away from the two commercial airports in Houston, the decision process would be quite different.
I am estimating that I'll be doing between 20 to 40 of these round trips a year (kind if depends on how often weather will leave me having to use ground transportation). I do need to have some flexiblity on days and times to work around unpredictable work stuff and stuff with the kids.
I want to minimize the cost here as much as possible because I still have to maintain living situations in two cities with 2-3 cars total. But I also don't want to sacrifice optionality and availability while working around my schedule. I would not mind avoiding the administrative stuff involved with ownership though.
So this all boils down to if there is some magical solution where I could have reliable access to relatively nicer aircraft that are more capable in anything other than ideal flying conditions for an approachable difference in cost compared to owning something like a Cessna 172 for these kinds of needs. And I can be open minded and patient to make it happen if there are some legitimate ways to accomplish this.
I am just so early in the process, quite uneducated on the options, and I am unsure where to start and how to narrow things down so I can start diving deeper into my research. Thanks in advance for the help!
