(no subject)

[birdwatcher]

Ticket to Hell is on Offer at Europe's Airlines -- а вот исключительно вдумчивая статья про авиацию. Там говорится, что сегодня все всегда покупают самый дешевый билет независимо ни от каких других факторов (хоть без еды, хоть стоя, хоть вверх ногами), а дай срок -- и во всех остальных индустриях так будет, например, во всех ресторанах будут подавать только консервы, и только самые дешевые. Это взгляд в корень. Чувство собственного достоинства - зыбкая и легко исчезающая вещь.

Comments

[averros.livejournal.com]

Mmm... Cessna 206 (Skyvagon), Cessna 210 (Centurion), Piper PA-32 (Saratoga/Cherokee Six), etc. There's a bunch of six-seaters which can land on 2600ft runway. (They're harder to hire because this is not a kind of a/c used for flight training, so relatively fewer clubs have them).

They'd go for about $200-250/hr and go 130-150mph. Plus you may need to hire a pilot ($50-$60/hr). Typically a/c rent for engine time (fuel included, this is called "wet Hobbs"), plus maybe some per-nights minimums (2 hrs or so seems to be typical).

There's a bunch of local flying clubs which rent a/c-s for non-commercial purposes; practically every small airport near a city has one.

Typical loading, preflight checks, run-up, etc, take about 20-30 minutes. No security whatsoever. Many small airports have businesses (called FBOs, or fixed-base operators) which can provide parking, refueling, get a rental car or taxi, find a hotel, etc).

The biggest catch with GA is weather. These smaller a/c-s are a lot more dependent on it.

[birdwatcher.livejournal.com]

Ну, видите какая свобода и разнообразие. Тем не менее, местные авиалинии существуют, где объяснение?

[averros.livejournal.com]

Use of GA instead of airlines is not something feasible or economic on large scale.

What I was talking about is use of non-public carriers (private clubs, and such). As soon as someone tries to offer an air-taxi services, he needs to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops - different (and more expensive) a/c maintenance and inspection, completely different set of operating procedures (a _lot_ more expensive; and amount of paperwork can easily drown a smaller company).

The air traffic control infrastructure is horribly overloaded and antiquated (it's federal, what else to expect). If the same amount of passengers which is carried by large a/c were carried in light a/c, the ATC would simply collapse under load (for a controller in the tower it doesn't make any difference if the a/c is large or small - if anything, dealing with heavy a/c is easier because they have better equipment and better trained crew).

Besides, bigger planes are significantly more economical, reliable, and fast. There's no real alternative to large a/c and large companies to run them.