Gratuitous Indeed

Recently I had lunch with my friend and colleague Jeff Van West, Jenny Van West, a talented musician and Jeffs delightful wife, and 14-year-old Baxter, their youngest son. Baxter is an uncommonly bright and interesting young man with the not-uncommon black-and-white simplistic view of the world that is the purview of youth.

Editorial Staff

Saturday, December 30, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The author is prompted by a teenager to consider the "gratuitous" nature of his personal aircraft, leading him to concede that most personal flying is indeed excessive.
He argues that while personal aviation is gratuitous, it aligns with modern society's emphasis on convenience, time-saving, and recreation.
Despite acknowledging its excessive nature, the author defends his choice of aircraft based on specific mission requirements and expresses an unwillingness to give up flying.

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Recently I had lunch with my friend and colleague Jeff Van West, Jenny Van West, a talented musician and Jeff’s delightful wife, and 14-year-old Baxter, their youngest son. Baxter is an uncommonly bright and interesting young man with the not-uncommon black-and-white simplistic view of the world that is the purview of youth.

We’d flown our six-passenger, twin-engine, pressurized, 30-gallon-an-hour-burning Cessna 340 to the meeting. Baxter, a budding pilot, asked what kind of plane we had, and Jeff told him. Baxter, being unfamiliar with it, grabbed a cell phone and looked it up. After a couple minutes to research and absorb the information, he took me slightly aside and conspiratorially asked me, “Isn’t that gratuitously large for just two people?”