patrick.net

Only problem with Santa Cruz is no airpark or airport close by. Salinas and Half Moon Bay have small airports. I'm thinking of Cameron Park, Pine Mountain Lake and few other places so I can taxi and fly from my hangar home into work a couple times a week.

SJ says

Only problem with Santa Cruz is no airpark or airport close by. Salinas and Half Moon Bay have small airports. I'm thinking of Cameron Park, Pine Mountain Lake and few other places so I can taxi and fly from my hangar home into work a couple times a week.

Watsonville has a pretty nice airport.

I'm a middle aged life-long SC Valley resident, a tech worker, and used to be a private pilot with instrument rating and commercial certificate. So I comment on this thread from multiple perspectives: this is not a practical idea for all kinds of reasons too numerous and too long to write about here.

Come to think of it, the idea is so impractical that I wonder if its made in jest.

rufita11 says

I've been looking in SCM for years. It's not easy finding the perfect secluded spot with cable internet.

What about satellite, e.g. HughesNet?

B.A.C.A.H. says

I'm a middle aged life-long SC Valley resident, a tech worker, and used to be a private pilot with instrument rating and commercial certificate. So I comment on this thread from multiple perspectives: this is not a practical idea for all kinds of reasons too numerous and too long to write about here

Say more please. I don't fly, but many of my techie friends here do. I have thought that it might be a feasible way to deal with the cost of housing here. the thing for them is that most of them just own houses here. Can you say more to me as a novice about what you think this is so unworkable?

I did not write it's "so unworkable".

I wrote that it's not a practical idea.

Nothing's "unworkable" if you throw enough resources (time, money) at it. Doesn't make it practical, though.

Too much to discuss about it here, you or SJ want me to say more, we can meet up at City Lights Expresso or some Starbucks some time (I work not too far from SJC airport).

@BACAH sure lets chat. I ran the numbers and why pay 5 million for a shitbox in the bay when Sacramento sells homes for 200k and plane costs 50k and few grand a year on maintenance?

If you fly 1 hour once a week to bay area fuel would cost 50-100 a week.

Plane costs 50-100k
Home: 200k
Aircraft Maintenance: 5-10k a year on plane

Bay area home: too much $$$$$$

SJ, sorry I don't have the mojo, nor the time, to go into detail here. If you wanna meet up to discuss we can do that some time.

Like you, over the years I've known lotsa tech worker pilots, including my own self at one time. I even knew one who used his Mooney plane to commute in. Till he died when it crashed. But his fate is not even part of my impractical discussion. (For him, it WAS practical. Till it killed him).

It's all the other what-iffs.

SJ says

Only problem with Santa Cruz is no airpark or airport close by. Salinas and Half Moon Bay have small airports. I'm thinking of Cameron Park, Pine Mountain Lake and few other places so I can taxi and fly from my hangar home into work a couple times a week.

Bonny Doon has an airport.

curious2 says

rufita11 says

I've been looking in SCM for years. It's not easy finding the perfect secluded spot with cable internet.

What about satellite, e.g. HughesNet?

I have to have minimum 3MB up and down. Satellite is spotty and cannot guarantee that speed.

@BACAH sure ping me offline and we can chat some more.

Hm, looks like I have to pay to do that. Pick a time and a place during a lunch break, most likely I can be there.

@BACAH tell ya what. I will buy you a coffee or beer or whatever to get your feedback and experience on this. I've been thinking and planning this out for a while so would appreciate your thoughts. I know some of the counter arguments like your medical could expire, plane out for week or two due to annual maintenance, weather, etc.

I don't mind paying for the coffee or even lunch, but I don't wanna sign up for the premium service to get the emails.

Well it sounds like you considered some of the impracticality.

Some people have a passion for flying. For them, it's not about the money it costs to fly, nor the tradeoffs of paying for flying versus other living costs like the housing. Heck, when I was in college I even knew a kid who was so ape-sh*t for flying that he had more passion for flying than for sex, at least that's what he told me. And he was a rich kid, too. Imagine that.

If you have a passion for flying, you won't be flying to reduce your housing costs. If you don't have a passion for flying, your scheme will take on a life of its own and soon enough become a burden and a hassle. Good luck selling the plane when that happens.

So maybe we don't need to meet up since you thought about counter arguments. But if you want to discuss, we can meet up during lunch break some time like a Starbucks or City Lights Expresso or Sweet Tomatoes.

Do you own an aircraft now? Do you hang around with people who do?

@BACAH, I love flying so I would kill two birds with one stone. I am planning to buy a plane sometime this year along with an airpark home. Work remote most of the time and have occasional fly-in to work. That is the game plan. I hang with pilots and folks at the local airports. Lets grab some coffee at City Lights Espresso. Have not been there before. You can email me at master85@hotmail.com since I also don't have premium service.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

Set up a big cannon in the front yard and have spouse shoot you out of it on work days.

Oh that's just too funny! Thanks for the laugh AF.

SJ says

If you fly 1 hour once a week to bay area fuel would cost 50-100 a week.

Plane costs 50-100k

Home: 200k

Aircraft Maintenance: 5-10k a year on plane

Bay area home: too much $$$$$$

You are forgetting the cost of a parachute and medical when it fails to open. How else are you going to get to the office? I bet there aren't a whole lot of places to land a private plane out in the bay area.

Helicopter would be helpful to land anyplace anytime.
Agree about faster plane like a turbo aircraft to fly high and with ice protection. South Lake Tahoe especially on Nevada side looks attractive no state taxes, etc.

mdiablo says

I'd look at going north. Cloverdale, Hopland, Ukiah, Willits area. Never lived there but some parts seem kind of nice, if you're into more of a rural lifestyle.

I like Healdsburg a lot but not sure how expensive it is. They do have an airport I believe.

Hi SJ, I dunno if you're still interested in meeting up, but if you are, I sent you a hotmail awhile ago.