Maybe. If I had this $450,000 airplane...
ADDED: I don't actually want to own a plane, even if I had an extra $450,000 to spend. But if one of my millionaire readers wants to hit the PayPal button for $450,000... well, don't impetuously give me $450,000 and think you've made a contract that obligates me to do any particular thing. I may eat an egg salad sandwich for $200, but I don't want anyone giving me $450,000 and then thinking they've bought the right to tell me what to do, with access to courts to enforce the obligation. Paying for the plane would only be the beginning. First, it might be taxable income, and I'd have to pay for a lawyer to advise me on the subject (unless TaxProf wants to give me free advice). Second, I'd have to get insurance and pay and pay for it. Third, I'd have to pay to keep the plane somewhere and to use various airports. Fourth, I'd have to use it to go places, with all the expenses of travel. Do you know how expensive hotels and restaurants and clothes are for a person with a $450,000 plane?
Therefore, I think I would need several million dollars before I could learn to fly. But if you love this blog and would love to see more travel and adventure blogging here and if you are very rich, you see the PayPal button over there. I say this, worrying that anyone who gives me several million dollars might feel entitled to intrude into my private — and mysterious! — life. I would really prefer more of a John Beresford Tipton character. A John Beresford Tipton who operates via PayPal. Isn't there some web geek turned billionaire who would find fulfillment giving $1 million PayPal donations to the bloggers he loves?
Anyway.... the inside of this Cirrus airplane looks and feels very much like a car (a very nice car). I thought the design was beautiful, and I enjoyed sitting in it — which wasn't my idea. The guy showing off the plane invited me to get in. His idea was to get lots of people to sit in the plane. Most wouldn't buy, but the company is surely correct to assume that there were a lot of rich people walking by here at a PGA tournament and that seeing the plane close up would plant the idea of owning it in the heads of some people who might actually buy it.
I think the plane was designed to make an ordinary car driver feel safe, at ease, and capable of flying. I can drive, so why can't I fly? The seats are constructed to adjust to your height, so as you pull it forward so your feet reach the pedals, the height of the seat changes according to an assumption about the length of your torso. I got into a discussion with the guy who was demonstrating the plane about leg-torso disproportion, and he admitted the design only took account of the average proportion. But he swiftly called attention to the way my eyes were at exactly the same perfect level as the eyes of the tall man sitting in the other seat, and had had me close the door to see how the comfy armrest put my hand in exactly the right place to hold the throttle. I've never considered learning to fly, but I had the real sensation that with a plane like this, I could do it.
ADDED: Hey, I got linked by Daily Aviator. Thanks. And a special hi to anyone who hasn't read this blog before.
Posts
64 comments:
You'd corner the market on flying lawprof blogging!
A flight simulator is better.
You don't freeze your kidneys in the winter, you don't have to use small airport coffee vending machines, and the scenery is better.
So what if they don't have the rudder quite right.
But go ahead, take the lessons, buy the airplane. Don't listen to me. Just don't be surprised after 1200 flight hours and many years if you find yourself saying, ``Well, here I am again, at 2500 feet over the Boonton reservoir.''
I recommend long distance bike riding for nice days.
Yes, Go for it.
Just don't make any nighttime trips to Martha's Vineyard.
Thankfully, people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder can't be pilots.
Go for it!! Flying is the most fun I have had with my clothes on.
Next time you're in Austin I'll be glad to give you a ride in my $75000 airplane.
A half million is pretty "cheap" in the grand scheme of private air travel. For comparison, each of the engines on my dad's 12-seater is insured for a little over $2 million. Since everyone knows he's a pilot, people are always asking if it would be cheaper to take a private jet someplace instead of flying commercial. The answer is no 99.99999% of the time. When it comes to the cost of private aviation, imagine the most you could imagine anyone possibly paying and then double it.
-kd
Oh, and if you're honestly interested in learning to fly, I know someone who teaches at Timmerman Field outside Milwaukee...
-kd
Am I going to make any broomstick jokes?
I could, but I won't.
I'm not THAT kind of blog commentator.
(It would be cheaper, though, and then there's Halloween...)
Whatever happened to "Global Warming"?
Or is one automatically exempt if one can afford to fly non-commercial private AND is a registered Democrat, like the erstwhile next President and current Nobel Peace Prize winning, Internet inventing, forty-fifth Vice President of the United States Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr., (31 March, 1948 - ) of Nashville, TN?
Any new inductees to the Mile High Club to report?
You know,Ann,
I've flown in planes all over the world and they can be pretty nice places -especially if you're flying NYC to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Manilla..., which I did quite often. For what that means is a 13+ hour open bar: more than a few of those "airplane bottles then a snooze, then a few more bottles (straight vodka is good) over and over ( I once drained the bar). But sometimes they have to wheel you off the plane in a wheelchair... and sometimes you forget to take your bags. Problematical.
However, the more I read these postings, the more I think you get your jollies from these -and your-
postings. Does that make it orgastic for you ? Perhaps. You see, I have had more of an education of and about psychiatry, the mind and the body than any psychiatrist ever gets -or is likely to get.
Flying a plane ? You look like that ridiculous Presidential candidate (Munsky ?) who was photographed riding with a tanker's
hat on -who lost the election.
Tom
jewsyonkersislam # 428 Ann Althouse: Closet lesbian ? Poor thing... and its all the fault of feminist nonsense.
Below is a series of postings by me on Ann's blog. Anybody who doesn't know Ann should check her blog. She is a Profesor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and is living in Brooklen Heights ( the lesbian mecca of NYC ) as she tries to write a book. It is my contention that she has fallen in love with me ( see my "rigorous" analysis of such... the proof lies mainly in her words to and about me). In additition to her words, there are comments by some of her readers about what I have written and done that are instructive and enlightening.
However, I am here replying to the comments of James.
He awards me points for my jyi # 427, but asks something to the effect that my life must be "miserable" if all I can do is post things that I know will be removed as soon as Ann sees them. So let me enlighten him a bit as I ask him what more he wants me to do.
For I have been permanantly and totally disabled frtom 13 years old when I was hit by a car, fractured my neck, lay in a coma for 40 days and awoke to find I was completely paralysed... For I have seen the face of "God" and lived (indeed, that "face of ' God ' " is with me always ). In addition, I managed to become a lawyer, I practiced law for nearly 20 years in the (south) Bronx and Westchester Counties... as a general practitioner with a concentration in Family and Criminal defense work, I am a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, I
have traveled the world -the Far East ( I spent a lot of time in China, Japan, Korea, the Phillipines...), the Mid East, Europe, South America ( Chile, Peru,
Bolivia...), North America... been to the Tropics and the Arctic... and, if you'd read my blog ( jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com ), you'd see what else I'm doing now.
As far as Ann, herself, she was a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Leonard B. Sand, probably around the time when Judge Sand was playing bully in Yonkers, forcing his social engineering ideas on Yonkers in the desegration suit. ( See jewsyonkersislam-legal/actions.blogspot.com )
1) Postings by me (tc) on :
Althouse "The divine Ms. Althouse." � Terry Teachout " "Formidable law blogger Ann Althouse." � Slate "
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
a) Back in New York, back in the work week
tc (me) said... Hey Ann, What work do you do -other than ruining the whole
world ? See below. Tom ( and I posted jyi # 426; for the rest,see my blog: jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com )
jewsyonkersislam # 426 " The Problem With No Name" by Betty Frieden:
Women
b) ( see below, for just as always before, my postings are removed shortly after I post them - but not before a few comments were made - including from the blogger herself, Prof. Ann Althouse from the Univ. of Wisconsin Law School who has inexplicably (femininely) fallen in love with me:)
tc said... (as noted above) This post has been removed by a blog administrator
( Ann Althouse herself, see below) 5:20 PM
Ann Althouse said...
What a dilemma! I have a policy of deleting everything tc writes, but that question: "What work do you do -other than ruining the whole world ?"
I'm trying to write a book, and I have writer's block, but that ... I want to write a book with that as a title!
( tc says... " What did I tell you...all women are crazy (cyclical). All you have to do is attack them often enough and they wind up loving you ". ) 5:37 PM
rhhardin said... What work do you do -other than ruining the whole world
I was always partial to ``Somebody Stole My Underwear,'' the cry of little brothers. 6:01 PM
Trooper York said... I would buy the tome: "The Girth in the Balance", Diet Tips from Albert Gore Jr. 6:11 PM
Ron said...
Whenever the Flying CooCoo Birds attack that should be our coded catchphrase: "sigh...oh Ann. You're ruining the whole world."
6:31 PM
c ) tc said... ( in a further posting relevant to the above)
To Ann - and any others who may read this before Ann removes it,
I posted my jewsyonkersislam # 426 ( " The Problem With No Name" by Betty Frieden:Women, etc.) and Ann has fallen in love with me (see below) and I dont think I've ever seen her. Of course, I'm on TV a couple of times a month before the Westchester County Board of Legislators and the Yonkers City Council so maybe she has seen me... And maybe that is why she has moved from Wisconsin to New York ?
Tom
Ann. You're ruining the whole world." 6:31 PM
Ralph said...
tc, don't feel like you have to empty your mind at us. Keep a little for yourself.
Most people like a conversation, not a monologue.
9:00 PM
Meade said...
..... Who else but God gave man Love that can spark mere dust to life! Poetry, uniting All-One! All brave! All life! Who else but God! "Listen Children Eternal Father Eternally One! Einstein, 1939, after Nazis & Commies united, proposed spacebombs that destroy all, unless we finally teach the Moral ABC's the real Rabbi Hillel taught Jesus to unite all in All-One-God-Faith. As teach astronomers Abraham - Israel - Moses - Buddha - Hillel - Jesus - Spinoza - Paine - Sagan & Mohammed, inspired every 76 years, 6000 years by the Messenger of God's Law, the sign of the Messiah, Halley's Comet: "WE'RE ALL ONE OR NONE!" "THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD!" "TEACH LOVE THY ENEMY!" "LISTEN CHILDREN ETERNAL FATHER ETERNALLY ONE!" Israel-Moses-Buddha-Jesus-Mohammed: ONE! ALL ONE! 9:55 PM
2) Posting on/at:
Althouse"The divine Ms. Althouse." Wednesday, October 24, 2007
For the Common Good.
a) tc said... Ah Ann, Lets see how long this piece of work survives (jyi #427). According to your last posting about me (see your own posting), I can see that you've fallen in love with me ( dont deny it, for no woman would believe it ).
As to the Clintons, I find it hard not to like Bill. But Hillary -as President- I detest. Tom
jewsyonkersislam # 427 silly, selfish and childish women; West. B.O.L,10-22-07, Hezi Arris Radio Show on WVOX FM,New Rochelle,etc.
(see jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com for the rest )
b) The above noted (#427) was posted and Ann removed it. So I posted it again and some comments about it follow:
James said...
Points to tc, .....
Something tells me this guy is probably supporting a republican candidate other than Wacko Ron ( if he means me [tc], I back no one but myself ) . Man, do you really have such a miserable life that you have to go around posting your bullshit on blogs, knowing it will be deleted immediately upon the administrator's return ( to tell you the truth, James, if you'd read my blog [jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com], you'd realize that everything I do has a purpose; and I do a lot, including reading, writing, singing, writing poetry, public speaking/singing, acting...) ?
I think I have the flu. I bet you it's the fault of those gay-loving feminists, eh tc ( I think its the other way around: women like gays because gays can talk to them like a woman does while still seeing the male point of view because they are confused by feminism -fucked up, down..., using the back door rather than the front, as they should ) ? 7:12 PM
As noted, I posted my # 427 once again and Ann removed it within 1/2 hour. But it is very funny. It is as James (above) opined, "Man, do you really have such a miserable life that you have to go around posting your bullshit on blogs, knowing it will be deleted immediately upon the administrator's return".
For my stuff IS "deleted immediately upon the administrator's ( Ann Althouse) return". But my purposes are so far beyond what James could conceive that... Besides, Ann Althouse has fallen in love with me...and that is worth the aggravation.
c) tc said...Ann, tsk, tsk, For your own good, you might as well admit that you love me. This is the third (fourth ?) time I'm posting my jyi # 427...and, very shortly, I'm sure, you will be removing it. You see, I've gotten under your skin and you cant get me out of your head. Tom
Yes, you SHOULD learn to fly. Everyone should. Not because it is hard; as Richard Bach wrote in his book "Stranger to the Ground", "Anyone walking down this street, from that ten-year-old with his schoolbooks to that little old grandmother in the black cotton dress, is able to fly an F-84F jet fighter airplane."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440206588/sr=8-1/qid=1193536172/ref=olp_product_details/103-1180911-4620622?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1193536172&sr=8-1&seller=
Flying is easy. And fun. And, regrettably, expensive, because of so many product liability lawsuits filed by lawyers who don't realize how EASY flying is.
Take a few turns and see if you like it. You can do ground school for about $200, and if it's easy, go for it.
You can get your VFR ticket punched through to solo for about 2-grand. You'll need some 40 hours after that, and IFR is a really good idea if you actually want to go anywhere.
Around here you can rent a 172 for about $80 per hour -- time on the meter.
All I'm saying is if you can get the PayPal button up to $450,000, I will take flying lessons.
Food for Thought
In days gone by, I’ve proved my worth
By zooming low across the earth.
I’ve buzzed the valleys and the mountain ridges,
I’ve dove my craft beneath the bridges.
I’ve looped and spun and rolled my wings,
I’ve sung the songs that pilots sing.
I’ve tried most stunts, it must be said,
Yet never learnt to use my head.
So here’s a toast - To you and me!
But you drink both, I’m dead...you see
Jesus! I'm not going to say anything about that prescription warning label above on the odd chance the Professor might delete it.
And Trooper, can't you say anything on your own? The James Bond shtick is worse than my broomstick joke, only much, much longer.
Oh it's an odd bunch you've got here, Professor. They're making ME look sane.
Seriously, you might want to take up flying, but you don't want to do it in that airplane. Overpriced, overpowered and overrated. Those things are in the category of "Doctor Killers"--easy to fly, aerodynamically clean, powerful, and VERY easy to get overconfident in. You need a nice little 172 and many, many hours with a hard-ass instructor. Makes you humble, which is the first quality you need as a pilot to stay alive.
Well, as we know, there's no sensation to compare with it.
Clang!, don't discourage Trooper's original work, it's good stuff.
Sucked into the Althouse Vortac!
If you hit my paypal button up to $100, I'll narrate a YouTube video about the model airplanes I've built!
Ralph--Sorry. I don't want to discourage him if you like that sort of thing. I get ADD with long-form blog comments. Looks like fan fiction to me. And I don't quite get all the inside jokes, despite having lurked here since the ice age.
Paul--The Althouse Vortac is seriously funny. I'd steal it if I thought more than 5 people would get it. Professor, you've got to get more famous in the aviation community, but, please, not in that aircraft.
I remember that everybody coughed up enough money to get the Professor to eat the egg salad sandwich. The donations weren't the only thing coughed up, as I recall. Well, I sure as hell hope this time around there isn't some sugar daddy type ready to lay $450K on the Professor so she can kill herself in that stupid, f**king 310HP airplane.
Professor--if Glen Greenwald sends you a very large check, send it right back, especially if it's from a joint account with Amanda Marcotte. If you insist on learning to fly in one of those airplanes, please let us know the name of your favorite charity well in advance.
There are cheaper and safer ways to enhance your image of glamour and adventure. Go skiing in Gstaad, and blog on the slopes. Take up scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and put up lots of underwater pix with exotic fish. You'd look great in a wet suit as you pull your mask off, shaking out your hair. (Stay calm, Simon) You could go to Iraq and blog about the Iraqi legal system, putting up pictures with you stepping out of a humvee in combat dress. The possibilities are endless. Just don't do the one stupid thing you could and learn to fly in that airplane.
Oh I have slipped the surely bonds of earth
and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun split clouds
and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of,
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind aloft
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up up the long delirious burning blue,
I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace
where neither lark nor eagle flew.
And there with silent lifting mind
I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
No! Don't learn to fly!
Should I learn how to fly?
John Denver.
John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Ann Al..............
My first airplane cost $600 ; the second $1200 ; the third $1800.
That was back before manufacturer liability for pilot error.
The legislative idea was market oriented : if manufacturers had to pay for consequences of their designs, then they would balance design cost against consequences costs and come out with optimal amounts of safety designed in. A tradeoff was envisioned at the perfect compromise.
Unfortunatly punitive damages then came in on top of it, to send a message. The message being, don't build airplanes.
It wound up optimal not for the nation but for lawyers.
to be sure, strict product liability killed private plane manufacturing. it's funny to see freshly printed owner's manuals for 30-40 year old airplanes, built before deep pockets and comparative negligence doctrines became popular.
But Ann, don't buy a plane, join a flying club and just rent when you want to use one. let someone else schedule the maintenance, overhauls, etc. As I recall, you pay only for the time the propellor is turning; there's no demurrage for using it for vacation, etc.
I definitely think you should learn to fly.
Start here:
http://www.fsinsider.com/Pages/default.aspx
Next, go here:
http://learntofly.com/
Once you have your private pilot's license, go here for your plane:
http://www.cessnaskycatcher.com/
You could have two of these for what you're gonna have to pay to get in that Cirrus - and every pilot knows that the real money spent in flying is in keeping your aircraft maintained, so you'll have lots left over for that.
Good luck! You'll never find a more rewarding hobby, and you can do it for a lot less Paypal hits.
I said "All I'm saying is if you can get the PayPal button up to $450,000, I will take flying lessons."
That doesn't mean I'd buy the plane. I think the plane could be worth it if you wanted to have a business of charging people a lot of money to fly them places. That might be pretty fun.
BTW, the inside of thie plane looks and feels very much like a car (a very nice car). I thought the design was beautiful, and I enjoyed sitting in it. Which wasn't my idea. The guy showing off the plane invited me to get in. His idea was to get lots of people to sit in the plane. Most wouldn't buy, but he was probably correct to assume that there were a lot of rich people walking by and seeing the plane closeup would have an effect. This plane was designed to make an ordinary car driver feel safe and at ease. With the door closed, there is an arm rest exactly positioned for holding the throttle. I've never considered learning to fly, but I had the real sensation that with a plane like this, I could do it.
I had the real sensation that with a plane like this, I could do it.
That's good, but dangerous marketing. See JFK, Jr references above. Not that experience is a guarantee of safety: my dad's best friend disappeared flying in Alaska, despite 40 years of flying, half with the Navy. The pilot who was behind him crashed and died on landing.
I've never considered learning to fly, but I had the real sensation that with a plane like this, I could do it.
No guy doubts he could fly.
With women, the only doubt is what they would get out of it ; which lack of interest then requires some other hook.
Camille Paglia has it as an escape from women, which it turns out to be in fact, if you check the demographics of a small airport on a typical overcast winter weekend ; but Paglia meant as a displacement of male interest in women.
(rental airplanes)--"As I recall, you pay only for the time the propellor is turning; there's no demurrage for using it for vacation, etc." This isn't generally correct--there is typically a minimum time of 2 or 3 hours per day. So if you're going somewhere for a day and return, you might be OK with a rental, but for longer trips, you really need your own plane. And there are a lot of good planes you can get for way less than a $450K Cirrus.
Althouse wrote: "I think the plane was designed to make an ordinary car driver feel safe, at ease, and capable of flying. I can drive, so why can't I fly?"
The simple answer is, you can. It's _easier_ than driving. (If you'd like to see a copy of my pilot's license, let me know.) Like anything else, it takes a little training, a little time, and a conscious decision to do it.
They may have a different take on "young," but you might consider checking
Are you talking about Oddjob?
They may have a different take on "young," but you might consider checking out http://www.youngeagles.org/ as a less-expensive introduction to flying. I (commercial, instrument) and my (ex) wife (private) both got licenses over a period of months for about $200 per month, and rented when we wanted to fly. Our son got his first independent ride (after flying with us) from the Young Eagles. Many of the airplanes used in the YAs are 20 or more years old, but still very safe! The first ride with them is free, and it introduces you to a very friendly and knowledgable organization.
$450,000? Way overpriced. For a cool $250,00 you can get a Czech Albatros multirole trainer/CAS bird. Subsonic, plenty of range, , good rough-surface capabability,twin jet engines, and loads of luggage space where they pulled out the cannon... Be the talk of the neighborhood!
A Cirrus makes a lot of sense for an East-coaster who travels along the seaboard. It is also very safe. But if you were in the West, you'd need a plane with longer legs, and that means basically a million bucks. These are overgenerallizations, of course. It's hard to saw what would work without knowing your mission profile. My former manager jumped his old Bellanca for a Cessna retract just because he can reach his relatives in one hop now (he is based in Raleigh, NC). He says it saved him a lot of time spent refueling.
*Driving* a lightplane around the sky is easy. Far, far easier than driving a car around anywhere populated. Operating a plane in the Air Traffic control system, and in weather, and in busy areas, is *not* easy.
It's perfectly possible to do the former without doing the latter. I find a couple hours flying to be the mental equivalent of a weeks vacation. Since I don't fly professionally or very often, it take close to complete concentration for me to feel like I am doing it well. It's a perfect separation from daily cares.
Go take a ride at a local flying club. Forget the Cirrus; that's like thinking you have to be able to buy a Porsche before it's worthwhile to learn to drive. And I second the comment regarding "doctor killers".
Don't forget this: What are the three most useless things in flying?
1. Gas you left in the truck.
2. Runway behind you.
3. Altitude above you.
Fly safe, stay in the soft *middle* of the air. The edges of the air tend to be hard and jagged.
richard mcenroe,
Interesting suggestion: the speed is a nice boost over your typical GA offering, but the range is a bit disappointing (only 540nm according to the always-accurate wikipedia.) I bet maintenance costs on such a rare bird would be a killer, though. The important bottom line, of course, is that the picture of Ann as a jet pilot is quite satisfying.
Fred,
I remember that saying as:
1. Runway behind you.
2. Altitude above you.
3. Ten seconds ago.
Kirk -- 540 nm gets you from LA to vegas with plenty to spare, or NY to Florida with maybe two stops for lunch and bladder checks.
And the Albatros has good parts and service availability thru the US importer...
"A Cirrus makes a lot of sense for an East-coaster who travels along the seaboard. It is also very safe. But if you were in the West, you'd need a plane with longer legs, and that means basically a million bucks."
That's bizarre and incorrect. That Cirrus has plenty of range, and with the turbo-charger it can go over the rockies with ease.
The Cirrus is really better suited to the west coast, because it is not certified for flight into clouds that might contain ice.
Flying is not for you. You have to confront reality when flying, denial and wishful thinking won't cut it.
The Cirrus is for pilots who are so scared of flying that they need a parachute.
For that kind of money, you need a Lancair Columbia.
As it has already been alluded to, airplanes are for pussies. You really want to fly?
Come with me
Learn to fly?
I don't know, but in the airplane...
You.Look.Marvelous.
I traded wash jobs for lessons at fifteen and sixteen. I found flying easier than driving a car.
Ann said she felt like she could fly one. She's right.
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