Illusion of Utility

So any private aircraft offers an illusion of Utility. For instance: I got invited to a friends destination wedding in Aruba. Hot Damn! I'm flying to Aruba.

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I didn't even actually shop for a commercial ticket because this is just the kind of flight I've always wanted to do: I love to use the airplane for an actual purpose rather than just aimlessly boring holes in the sky. The downside of this is that you have to actually meet some objectives and when you fail there are some implications. The illusion is that you are going to save time or money by doing such a thing. That just doesn't happen. The amount of time I spend training and maintaining will almost always eclipse the time that would be spent driving or flying commercial. As for the cost its the same story: Commercial flights are dirt cheap. My costs just for a particular flight might compete with a commercial airline but once you figure that I've got to maintain and store the plane were' talking about way more dough than you'd pay for a commercial flight. That's not the point though.

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This is a love affair with flying, with gradually increasing commitment. The first commitment is your first takeoff: That is a commitment to land. Each flight is an entire life with which your own life is intertwined. If the romance of flying captures you then you become more comfortable with the idea of flight and you want to make it a bigger part of your life. From there, on the spur of the moment, you might start flying to see friends and have a quick lunch before returning home in the same good weather window. You might get more adventurous and do an overnight trip risking that the weather might be bad and scuttle your return. This may prompt you to learn how to cope weather. Gradually you build confidence with flying in the weather and you make longer trips, planned well in advance, bringing friends where they are putting their faith in you to not only for safety but to get somewhere and hopefully feel a bit of love for flying too.

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Flying has been a tremendous unifier for me. I have seen friends and family far more as a result of having an airplane at my disposal. This is truly priceless.

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Now flying to a friends wedding in Aruba is a commitment not only to show up but also not mark their union with your demise!

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As for the technical details this trip isn't anything too different: the legs are shorter than I've done before and to total distance away from home is less than I've done before. The difference is that I'll be flying over water most of the time after I leave Florida and I've got a myriad of administrative crap to deal with while gallivanting across the Caribbean, customs, non radar environments, controllers who only speak English for controllers. The flight plan is to get up early and leave Fort Pierce Florida by 6:30 AM, motor all the way across the Bahamas, land Provo in Turks Caicos for fuel and then motor my way across Hispaniola and then 300 miles of Caribbean sea to Aruba. Once I get there I'll be able to see Venezuela. This should be interesting!