[JPSmith2476]

What sort of distances (or time) to airfield are people prepared to go flying?

My own personal is up to 1h30 or 70 miles at the moment.

Cheers

Jim

[Fellsteruk]

I guess it depends how much you wanna fly, personally I’d travel any distance but if it close to two hours I’d be wanting to spend the day or a half day flying to make the most of it or move house

I did have a 15min drive but since my school moved it’s more like 50mins each way. I could have stayed local but I liked the school and instructor and on reflection worth the extra travel for better learning environment.

[Nero]

My planning for post-PPL is around 1 hour and not north of the Thames

~ Scott

[Flyin'Dutch']

Your ability to go flying frequent enough to go flying and enjoy it is directly proportional to the distance to travel.

I have done everything from 5 to 90 mins single journey travel time.

At 90 mins a lot more ducks need to line up before you will commit to go and give it a go than when it is a hop across town.

Current single journey time is about 45 mins which is in reality as I will now accept as beyond that I just don't have enough time to make it worth my while.

[JPSmith2476]

It also involves economics, I have a (Coventry) local airfield that all of the clubs are upwards of £30 per hour (PA28) more expensive than the one I travel just over an hour for.

[Lockhaven]

I used to travel approx 1 hour 15 mins, now I am fortunate that travel to the aircraft has been reduced to approx 1 min, unless I make a cuppa on the way to the hangar then its 5 mins.

[Charles Hunt]

I once travelled to Italy and got airborne with African Eagle.

[MattL]

For students, if a school has a modicum of organisation (not guaranteed by any means) it is quite possible to schedule multiple trips per day and we do weather checks by WhatsApp etc with students we know have longer travel. I even have some students travel from Cyprus for chunks of training.

However a lot is context, if you are trying to fit in a flying slot/stressful drive into a compressed time slot in your life it can really drain the fun. But then so can going somewhere local where it just doesn’t suit your personality/likes. Some years ago I left instructing at one school 40mins away to go back to a previous one 2hours away.

I think you just have to assess how the overall experience works for you rather than put figures on it.

[johnm]

I tend to limit legs to around 2 to 3 hours but that's enough to get to Venice in 3 hops

[AndyR]

I once travelled to Italy and got airborne with African Eagle.

Stole my line

Likewise I rode my bike to middle of Italy to do the same. Round trip was 8 days

To fly something special I would travel long distances. For run of the mill training aircraft I used to travel 1 hour, these days it’s about 20 minutes.

[Morten]

From an earlier thread on this : viewtopic.php?f=1&t=105525&p=1561682

I was surprised how far some people did travel.
Since that thread my travel time has gone from 35 to 45 minutes... But I'm now at a strip instead of an airfield... the time from leaving home until airborne has gone down

[Rob P]

It has always been in the 30 minute to one hour window for me. 30 minutes was perfect giving some time for thought in each direction.

Rob P

[Iceman]

About the same here, 30 minutes to an hour for the airports from which I have flown on a regular basis: Redhill, Shoreham, Biggin, Fairoaks, Blackbushe, White Waltham.

Iceman

[proteus]

I was about 15 minutes and am now 1hr15 away. The extra drive time is a bit of a pain, especially if you forget something.

However, quality of life is vastly improved as there was a lot of hassle at my previous airfield and they would often not allow flying at certain times.

[Iceman]

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 ’.

Iceman