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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Mildly Interesting
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These people are rich, but they're not the wealthy. These are your doctor types, not your billionaires. Doctors are paid well for sure, but they should be paid well.
A lot of people hear or read "plane" and assume like a million dollars. You can quite literally buy a single prop piston engine small plane for less than $100k USD. Yearly cost to maintain can be as little as a few thousand if flights hours are low.
You can get a Cessna 172 or even some nice Mooneys for around $50k. Unlike cars, even really old ones are kept in good running order because parts time out and have to be regularly maintained. Even if you want to buy a newer plane, a lot of people in GA use fractional ownership. That $200k newish Cirrus SR22 is fairly likely owned by 4 people splitting the bill. GA isn't cheap by any measure, but it also isn't exclusively for the wealthy. Upper middle class can get into it without too much issue. The people we should be raising everyone to, not tearing down.
My 1961 plane burns 25mpg, carries 4 people, and goes 160mph. I own a car that gets worse fuel economy.
A Rutan Long EZ running autogas has a better environmental footprint than a Prius and is more than twice as fast
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2015/december/14/indy-car-speed-with-prius-fuel-consumption
Of course, takeoff and climb are typically at full power but to reach cruising altitudes for a single engine airplane doesn't take very long. It's a similar concept to a car on a highway onramp, except that airplanes actually get more efficient at higher altitudes.
It factors into overall consumption but it doesn't really blow the whole equation for efficiency. Pilots in training do takeoffs and landings on repeat for hours at a stretch between refueling.
GA is not just private jets.
Also, many of those planes are timeshared. Most of the people I know in those places share a plane with several other people or have small kit planes they built.
But, that's $100k for a hobby.
Like, you're almost certainly not using that plane to commute. You may use it instead of buying a commercial plane ticket when you go on vacation somewhere, but that's not saving you any money, it's likely costing you significantly more in storage fees, etc.
People who own planes aren't billionaire-rich necessarily, but they're still people who can afford hobbies that cost $100k.
Of course they're not using it to commute daily. You even pointed out in your first sentence: It's a hobby.
Someone else in this thread also mentions that many small aircraft have multiple "owners" who share it. Just like timeshare vacation property. Everyone who is part in it, shares the cost of maintenance. This makes it even cheaper. This counters your statement of:
It can in fact be cheaper going this route.
People who live in a community where you can store your airplane in a garage and then commute from your garage to the runway aren't going to partially own a plane. What would be the point in having that kind of a property but not being able to use it because you only got to see your plane one week per month?
Not every private pilot has a $100k hobby, but anybody who buys a house with a taxiway going up to it almost certainly owns their own plane, and their hobby is not cheap.
That's where you'd be wrong. Many are shared. Just because one of the owners lives beside the runway doesn't mean it's solely theirs. I'm not the only one to say this. https://lemmy.world/comment/3346098
Save money first and foremost. It's a win-win situation for all parties involved. And one week per month is a lot of time. You don't know what the arrangement is for those involved. The time share could be wildly different depending on each pilots desires.
They are multimillionaires but not the private jet money wealthy types.
The aircraft hold their value, and actually appreciate. The actual cost is about $10k a year. Lots of people spend far more than that on other hobbies.
Over half of all pilots in the US (200k) hold a commercial pilot certificate and use flying as their sole source of income or as a way to supplement their income. Commercial pilots makes $50k a year until they can become airline pilots which have salaries starting at $100k.
Idk, I would not go with "I am a doctor so I deserve money with which I can live a live that seems so unhinged to the median income earner that I not only can allow to have a big car with which probably only one human at a time is driving, no, I also have a plane whith which probably only me is flaying at once and I have access to my own airfield". They would still be on my menu right after the billionaires
That depends on the doctor. Not all are paid the same. Plastic surgeons get paid huge dollars for a lot of frivolous work. I'm with you there. But a brain surgeon or a heart surgeon... They deserve the big bucks. I don't care at all that they can afford a German car and a small general aviation plane. I care more about the working class not being able to afford a decent new car and the billionaire that has to decide which super car to drive that day.
Oh, so just the bourgeois who's cooperation is essential in maintaining the status quo and protecting it from change or consequence.
when was the last time you've actually spoken to a human being in person not counting your family?
What? Okay. Just because you don't agree with me, you don't have to make it a personal thing.
How dare you pay people who spent years at university and save people's lives daily well
Yeah, exactly. Fight the good fight, but know your enemy. Your enemy is not your doctor.