[feistypharit]

I’m in the same boat, except instead of driving, I decided to get my private pilots license. being able to hop in a plane whenever you want and not worry about traffic or tsa. I always thought it was super expensive and never knew what good it was to fly into a small airport with no car, however, now that I almost have it, I realize it’s a whole community. It’s not an easy process to get and somewhat high maintenance, but can be quite rewarding.

However, it’s not cheaper than commercial. Expect about 10k for the license. Renting a small plane is about $175/hour. Owning a plane only makes sense if you plan to fly more than 100 hrs a year.

You need to fly at least once a quarter and have faa checkride every 2 years.

The small planes are very weather dependent.

However, the first time you fly solo you really feel amazing!

[Ao7bei3s]

I'm curious, don't you have the same problem with rental planes as with rental cars that while the cost of the pure travel time might not be so bad, what really gets you is that after you get somewhere, it just sits there, still costing money until you get back days later?

I know that engine on time is particularly expensive for airplanes whereas for rental cars it's no factor, but I would also expect the pure rental time to be expensive for airplanes if you use it to go on trips as opposed to standalone flights ending back at the home airfield?

[bombcar]

Many rental planes are rented for engine on time only. You can’t push it too far (take the plane for a year for two hours of flight time) but you can do weeks. I’ve done it.

[kashunstva]

Despite a lot of ratings myself, I have still have had to cancel a fair number of trips because my plane lacks known icing protections. I’m comfortable shooting an approach to minimums but icing is such a capricious and limiting problem for light aircraft.

[happyjack]

You stole my comment! I fly my Cessna 206 about 200 hours a year.

If there's bad weather ... I just wait it out or schedule my event the tail end of the trip. I won't fly commercial unless it's international now.