One of the reasons many fly personal aircraft is to travel. Even simple, slow airplanes can be used for personal and business transportation, within limits, and they’re the preferred solution for many. And when trying to get from one location underserved by the airlines to another, there’s really no better solution.
There’s a downside, too: The flexibility and responsibility of flying personal aircraft on a schedule can mean the pilot tries to squeeze too much into a given day. A typical schedule might go something like this: A breakfast meeting at a hotel, then airborne by 10:00 a.m. local time. After a 250-nm flight, there’s a luncheon meeting, followed by a facility tour in the afternoon and a 4:00 p.m. takeoff for a 500-nm flight. After landing more than three hours later, check into another hotel, grab something for dinner and prepare for the next day, which likely will resemble the first one. Live, work and fly on a schedule like this—which ignores time-zone changes—and you likely will be a tired pilot by the end of the week.
