Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By Cub
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845151
Iceman wrote:
proteus wrote:The extra drive time is a bit of a pain, especially if you forget something.


I don’t expect that I’m the only person who has found themselves to be more than half way to the airport (30 miles away), and then gone ‘bugger, forgot the aircraft keys :roll:’.

Iceman 8)


Your aircraft has keys? :oops:
ChampChump, Iceman, Rich V liked this
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By Rob P
#1845160
Flight bag and aeros are an uncomfortable mixture.

Rob P
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845191
As I think I quoted in the previous thread mentioned above I used to allow one hour from slamming my front door at home to wheels leaving the ground, half an hour for travel and half an hour for A check and preflight .

However with all the new gizmos :- Garmin back up GPS, SD on iPad, SE2 and iPhone and Go Pro with mix of assorted cables and Bluetooth combined with my advancing years, the preflight element now takes an hour.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way! :wink:
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By AfricanEagle
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845358
My current trip to the airfield is under 20 minutes.
In the past, during my tailwheel training, it was a 4 hour round trip for forty minutes flight each time :pale:

I have managed to forget the aeroplane keys a couple of times, once I realised halfway to the airfield, once after I had opened the hangar. But being near I just went home to fetch them.

As for forgetting my flightbag ...
during the 1st Raduno (19 years ago), we took off in haste from Latina, destination Orvieto. I forgot to put my bag in the rented aeroplane so I did the whole flight (and return) with absolutely nothing: no maps, no kneepad, no headphones :roll:
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845372
AfricanEagle wrote:no headphones :roll:

OMG.

I've done one flight without headphones. It was in a C152 out of Grand Rapids in Michigan. It was a one-off, pre-PPL flight while on holiday. The absence of headphones wasn't the worst part of the flight, although that isn't something I'd want to repeat.

The worst was the instructor throwing up.

Here's a line you really don't want to hear from your instructor, while fighting off the nausea yourself from the smell permeating the cockpit:

"Yes, I probably shouldn't have reheated that chinese".
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By Rob L
#1845398
AfricanEagle wrote:....no headphones :roll:


I did my whole taildragger conversion without headsets (in the same aircraft that you have flown with me, AE :P ). I'm sure the Instructor shouting at me and me not hearing is why he got out at 5 hours and told me to get on with it! No intercom, no radio, no slip ball, no electrics, no starter, no nothing really, apart from seat-of-the-pants.

(This was pre type-differences training became a legal requirement in the UK)

Back to the topic: I drive about 20 minutes to where my UK aircraft is based; any more than an hour would be my limit, I think.

I have another one about 18 hours away, door-to-door, but that doesn't really count towards the OP question.

Rob
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By kanga
#1845543
I did nearly all my civil SPL training without headsets, and with erratic radios: Cessna 140, Piper Colt, 2 different FCs (and continents :) ). It was only the last bit up to GFT that the (3rd) FC provided headsets (Cessna 150).

Back to OP's question: surface times to FC or syndicate base have always been <30 mins by car, moped, pushbike or foot. I've obviously been lucky. :)
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By Rob P
#1846725
As a postscript to this thread.

Home to the airfield we were based at early last year - 40 minutes, much of it on the A11, a speed camera-infested busy dual carriageway.

Home to current base - 50 minutes. Worth the extra time for the more conducive and less gold-plated atmosphere, but getting to the borders of tedious, still using the A11

Now, on a whim I investigated a new route through a much prettier part of East Anglia, it takes me an extra five minutes (55 total) but is so positively enjoyable that it is actually preferable to the original forty minutes trip. There's one lovely stretch with three quite technical S-bends, fun when in the 'proper' car. also en route, a couple of nice villages and three or four hostelries. I am hoping the novelty doesn't wear off.

Rob P
Last edited by Rob P on Thu May 13, 2021 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By James Chan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1846737
Around 30-45 mins for me. Any longer than 1hr and any problems discovered at the aerodrome that affects my ability to takeoff and get to my destination becomes a more frustrating problem. Not just for me but for my passengers as well.

Obviously things can and do happen, but I'd rather know sooner at the end of a 30 min drive, rather than a 60+ min drive.