jake
@jl
Little morning flight over the lake to retain proficiency. I’m planning my first long flight with my family down to Austin later this year; it will be cool to actually use my license to go somewhere this year
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Sheldon Trotman
@sheldon
This is sick! This will sound like a dumb question but…do you rent the plane or is this your plane?
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jake
@jl
It’s a really good question - I’m part of a flying club that provides access to well-maintained planes for a monthly fee + hourly rental price based only on flying time (not the total amount of time the plane is being rented). For General Aviation, clubs and partnerships are usually more cost effective
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Sheldon Trotman
@sheldon
Aahh that makes so much sense. I always wondered how people can still fly without owning it…so if you will, I have another set of seemingly dumb questions 😂 What happens to the plane when you land? Do you call ahead to rent hanger space too? Does someone hold it or are you required to fly it back to the start?
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jake
@jl
You can rent hangar space, but as long as the weather supports (and it usually does if your flying general aviation, otherwise you’re probably not going to risk it) you can just tie the plane down on the ramp and walk away. Fly -> park plane and lock up -> rent car -> hop in plane and fly home when done
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Sheldon Trotman
@sheldon
Wait what?? So you are telling me, like in your case flying to Austin, you can just call into the flight tower at the AUS airport and say “hey I’m about to land” and they just let you chain the wheels of the plane to some open spot at the airport and you just leave it there like it’s a bike?
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jake
@jl
More or less, although flying into a big airport is a pain in the butt. In the US though, there are over 5K public airports, most of which are untowered. Austin has several smaller airports specifically for general aviation planes and corporate jets that make it pretty trivial to do exactly as you described.
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Sheldon Trotman
@sheldon
Oh wow! Never knew this was a thing
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