Author: apilotscompanion

The economics

When someone remarks on your new venture with a comment which goes something like “Cor blimey, that’ll cost more to run than your car”, your immediate thought is “Well I flippin’ hope so otherwise my car seriously needs replacing!” But it did get me thinking…

On a purely cost-driven, cold calculation of getting from ‘a’ to ‘b’, how does flying compare to driving? I was curious to see what the difference would be for a trip to – yes you’ve guessed it – Sandown, Isle of Wight (until I’ve done more trips, that’s the only reference I have)

So I worked it out and guess what? There was a fairly significant difference. No surprise there.

So then I looked at the time saved which, as anyone working out the economics of doing anything knows, also needs to be taken into account. These are the findings:

By car and ferry, taking the shortest route with no traffic (using Google Maps at about midnight)	approx 6hrs 40 mins
By air, from flight planning through to putting Charlie to bed at the end of the day	approx 3hrs 40 mins

But the time saved doesn’t really count here, because if you’re on minimum wage it’s not going to make much of a difference whereas for a senior partner in a London law firm…. well actually, they’d have their own private jet.

Anyway, even without the three hours saved on travel time, the fact that we weren’t sitting in a car, stuck on the motorway in all the traffic – now that’s priceless!

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The graphic below isn’t a paid ad or affiliate but I added it to bring this unusual attraction to your attention. As a visitor to Sandown you might find you really need to go….

Here’s the website

Tags cost, Isle of Wight, Museum, not driving, Sandown, time

General Aviation

We did it!

After the flight to the Isle of Wight and about five seconds discussion afterwards, we made our final decision and an email was sent that night confirming that we’d like to join the syndicate. We now have the keys, various bits of paperwork and the excitement of being in the ‘Charlie family’. So now is the hard work of getting everything up to date and being ready to go.

Whilst in the hangar, I got chatting to a lovely lady called Helen who was about to fly to Bournemouth. She’d taken a Flying Companion course, had ‘got the bug’ and decided to go for her PPL with 35 hours and her first solo now under her belt. I’m not convinced that that would be me, but she thought I’d enjoy the Companion course.

I had wondered if there was such a course, particularly having recently watched a programme about a guy who’d had to bring a plane in to land after his friend, the pilot, became incapacitated during a flight they were taking. The passenger had had no training but had luckily picked up enough over the years to be able to operate the radio. He remained calm throughout and was talked down by an instructor on the ground. That situation would be my worst nightmare!

Here’s a report about it from BBC Look North which includes footage from the RAF who were the ‘eyes in the sky’.

I must look into the course. If nothing else, it would be reassuring for both of us to know that, should anything happen, I’d have a fighting chance of getting us to an airport and landing relatively safely.

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I’m starting to pick up some of the jargon, even if I don’t know what it actually means. There was talk of a heading bug – I’m sure I’ll find out what that is and how it works, but in the meantime, here’s my version…..

My image of a Heading Bug — The Heading Bug

General Aviation

Shall we or shan’t we?

Decisions still unmade, a choice between Charlie or another aircraft – nearer to home but we knew in our hearts it wasn’t for us. We hadn’t even seen it, let alone given it a name!

The final part of the process, before we parted with any money, was to give Charlie a try. Now Will, having left flying a few years ago and despite all good intentions to regain and keep his PPL has unfortunately let it lapse, so all we could do was rely on another member of the syndicate to spend their Sunday taking us out. The plan was made to go to Sandown on the Isle of Wight.

After perusing multiple charts and maps, checking the aircraft and putting fuel in the tank, we were off. There wasn’t a huge amount of room in the back, but I didn’t expect the full hospitality service so that was fine. We were also limited to three people due to mass and balance – a bit of a shame as it meant the pilot’s wife couldn’t come, but the only alternative if we do want four on any trip in the future, will be to give everyone a couple of year’s notice so that we can all lose half our body weight!

It took about an hour to get to Sandown, through a few clouds, skirting round Salisbury Plain and over the channel at Lymington.

A meandering river heading towards the coast

Sandown Airport was quiet. Very quiet. But it did mean that the owner had the chance to show us round. Let’s just say that I can’t wait to go back next summer. Live bands, barbecue, camping, and, oh wow, if Carlsberg did showers…! As he explained, he wants it to be somewhere he’d like to go. It’s definitely a passion project. Next time I’ll take more photos (the blog idea wasn’t even a seed when we went) and I’ll hopefully get the chance to talk more to the owner about plans and lineup for next year.

Sandown itself is just a couple of miles away, around £6-£6.50 by taxi each way to the pier. There are a few taxi companies to choose from, but we went with A-Cabs (01983 866772), then wandered along the sea front for lunch at The Reef – I’d definitely recommend their fish & chips, though the bbq burgers looked pretty good too.

Highclere Castle, the location for Downton Abbey — Highclere Castle

Some of the highlights for me were:

The weather. We were really lucky as the following day it absolutely spanked it down with rain. In fact it was so hot we had to make sure we didn’t get sunburnt whilst eating lunch on the terrace.
Orbiting over ‘Downton Abbey’ (Highclere Castle) on the return flight.
The gorgeous sunset as we headed back towards home.

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And here’s a completely unrelated question to finish…. does Gloucester Services seriously expect people to crawl under the table to exit the shop !!???

Tags aircraft syndicate, Isle of Wight, Sandown