cellio | one of these classmates is not like the others

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Folks on the mailing list for the Sh'liach K'hilah program have been discussing travel plans for this July's session (mainly, I think, so that those who are flying can coordinate airport transport). One person posted that he'll be flying his personal plane.

His what? *boggle*

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From:

zachkessin.livejournal.com

You can also buy a used plane for 20K or so, and often folks who own planes will get together in groups of 2-4 and share ownership. So a $40k aircraft divided by 4 is not such a big deal. As for flight plans you just file them over the phone (1 800 wx-brief) and the majority of small airports in the USA don't have a tower anyway. Actually if you are flying VFR you don't even need to file a flight plan in the first place.

(I have a pilot's licence, but I'm not at all active in flying)

From:

cellio

Thanks. I had no idea it was so easy for "just plain folks" to fly.

VFR?

From:

zachkessin.livejournal.com

There are 2 "modes" of flight Visusal flight rules(VFR) and instrament flight rules(IFR). IFR lets you fly in and around clouds. If you fly VFR into a cloud it is really reall bad. IFR is much more complex as it involves a lot of procedures for aircraft to find their way without being able to see out the window and a lot of work from ATC. Airlines are always IFR. However small aircraft can fly without ATC just fine. You are responible for not crashing into other aircraft by looking out the window of the airplane and seeing them. A determined person can get a private pilot's cert in a few months for $5k, maybe a bit less if you work at it.

The FAA just aproved the new Sport Planes initiative, where it is even easier to build and fly very small aircraft. They are limited to about 115knots in terms of airspeed, and 2 seats (and a lot of other restrictions) but you may soon be able to buy a new 2 seat factory made aircraft for $50k.