Originally Posted by
AN2 Driver
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Yes, but the difference is that owning a car is something almost everyone does.
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People need to realize that today the average privately owned 4 seater costs less than a middle class car, sometimes starting at less than ANY new car at all. For what I paid for my aircraft, I could not have bought any new car and not a lot of used ones either. If one browses planecheck or other such sites, aircraft ownership can start at less than £15'000 for fairly decent airplanes, reliable travellers such as Cherokee 180's, 140's, Cessna 172's or vintage Mooneys such as mine.
Further, one needs to put the cost of the actual flying in relation to the use of the car everyone has. In my case, with a 140 kt / 8 GPH airplane, this will show that a flight over a given distance will burn LESS fuel and cost LESS money than if I were to drive the same route. I've argued this many times with some ready calculated routes.
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Show me the pilot that has their plane instead of their car. Almost all of us need cars to get to where the planes are.
And arguing the case of a plane as transport - when you get to the nearest airport to where you really want to be, what then? Taxis? Most airfields (except the large expensive commertical ones) seem to be no-where near any public transport, plus anything saved by flying would rapidly get eroded by getting from the airfield to where you really want to be, unless you are putting a cycle in somewhere.