Hey guys! I wanted to let you know I just launched an "Insiders" Newsletter where once a week I'm sharing an important lesson I've learned in aviation, links to my latest content so you don't miss out, and links to any other interesting or helpful content I've found. I'm also working on a HUGE project I can't announce yet but I'm going to be sharing more behind the scenes info with Insiders first - Subscribe (it's free) at: airplaneacademy.com/insiders

Buying my SR22 was the best “thing” I’ve ever purchased. I fly for hours, get home, and want to go flying again. I love finding cool locations with nice FBO’s.

We bought a Cherokee 180 yesterday for my wife to get her ratings. I'm just a passenger. 5 hr car trips are only 2 hours by plane. Our kids are in college so she wants to go all over. We are both in a shocked phase right now that we are airplane owners.

I was a partner in a Cessna 172 for eight years, I mostly flew alone. My wife really enjoyed flying and we took a few trips, and also some family trips with our daughter. The Skylane is a fine airplane and a little faster than a 172 but the 172 is a very capable plane for one or two people, with a much lower fuel burn.

“Flying all by myself”, perfect 😎🤣

You are spot on! I had an early CFI who impressed upon me the importance of being a smooth pilot so as to retain passengers. He knew that most GA flying is solo, and that herky jerky flying skills will chase your friends away. They may not even know why, just that they don't want to go again.

This video was awesome. Ive never flown in anything but commercial airliners but i enjoyed hearing about your experiences and the freedom of small airplane ownership!👏🙌

Привет из Владивостока. Поздравляю с 100 тысячами подписчиков! Спасибо за видео.

This is really solid advice that a lot of people need to consider when thinking about buying a plane. But this same advice applies for a number of other things, like campers/RVs, boats, and anything else that one may purchase when adopting a lifestyle. I got my ticket 18 years ago thinking that ownership was just around the corner, and I here I am still not owning an airplane. Flown a bunch of others, but not my own. And for me at least, that was one of the smartest things I never did, because it would have plowed me under if I did that then. I have friends at my local airport who own planes and they very rarely fly them. One of them hasn't left the hangar in almost a year. My biggest fear is that I'll buy a plane and turn into those guys. I just don't need that. Nice video. Liked and subscribed. Looking forward to your other content. P.S. If you know anyone with a Vans RV-12iS E-LSA looking to sell, I might be interested.

Humbling video! I’m currently a student pilot with 20 hrs and this has motivated me to own a plane for sure. I love to fly and I’ve worked in aviation all my life but flying is just amazing! If you ever get bored fly to KAAO. You’ll see a lot of experimental and really cool jets.

People don’t want to hop in a cramped, hot, loud plane, smell gas and oil, endure turbulence, pay for expensive burgers, listen to stuff they don’t understand on VHF, help spot traffic, be warned about the dangers and worry about crashing and fires, and get sweaty ears and tossed hair from heavy uncomfortable headphones?

Thanks for the video. It's a very good way to look at things. I will be soloing this week and have been looking at planes and have had the same thoughts about over buying. I'm 58 and it's just my wife and I at home now. She will fly with me on occasion, but I see myself flying regularly by myself or with one friend. Money isn't a problem, but who wants to waste it. That's why I have looked at Lancair 360 and Sling four seaters.

I know everyone has different opinions on all of these topics but you took every word right out of my mouth. I sadly just sold my plane because I just didn't fly enough to justify keeping it. That's one topic I highly recommend adding to the list. You MUST fly your airplane even if you don't want to.

There are two expressions that I have found are spot on with airplane ownership. And I might add a third. 1) if only an airplane was easy everybody would do it, 2) nobody feels bad for an airplane owner, and I will add which fits your theme, 3) while almost everybody may think it is really cool to fly an airplane, most people do not want to go up in an ancient aluminum can. Charlie, I will tell you, that as the kids get older, you will find new exciting adventures. And now my son has his own certificate and, when the plane is not in the shop, we hope to go on many adventures.

Nice video. I bought an Ercoupe in 2004 thinking I could upsize when needed. Well, I never needed! About half of my flights are solo and most of the rest are with my wife or my kids. Getting under 5 GPH makes it possible to do lots of trips! I live 39 miles from Gaston’s and haven’t made it there yet! But I’ve flown to Memphis many times for lunch at Gus’s Chicken. The world of GA is so much fun and so interesting. I love taking a non-pilot on a cross country where they see the wonderful facilities available to us pilots. I feel so blessed to part of this amazing group of people!!

Great content as always sharing knowledge and fun

Oh wow, I've been watching this channel for a long time now and living in Houston surprised me when you started to mention Galveston, and then you go on to mention Conroe with a picture of Galaxy FBO. I work for Galaxy at the Houston location but have covered at Conroe once so this was a cool surprise

Thank you for the video!

Very helpful information

We bought a TriPacer cheap, are doing our lessons in it and will be doing weekend "mini vacations" in the region this summer. Our costs took a nosedive when we bought instead of renting for lessons and availability is what we say it is!

Excellent video Charlie. Lots of great tips. Glad you have discovered to beauty of northern Arkansas. It's truly a hidden gem many people never expect. Keep up the excellent work. Safe skies my friend 🇺🇸🛩️

Sulfur creek looks cool!

You're right on especially about the flying solo mostly. I thought I'd have more friends interested in trips but few takers and even more difficult when schedules rarely line up. But that doesn't slow me down from enjoying it. Landed in every state east of the Mississippi River and hope to finish the rest by fall. Flying solo sure beats not flying at all!

I've owned two planes with partners. I probably flew 80 to 90 percent of the hours on the planes. I flew 95 percent solo. So my advice is to do a partnership, you'll probably have very little time conflicts, yet pay only 25 percent of overhead.

Love you Channel and places! I am an Australian Based Pilot and just completed my FAA Foreign Pilot License. Cannot wait to experience the US GA environment. Will be in Dallas mid July so will try rent a plane and get up to white river!

I was quoted 83700€ for a brand new Carbon Design FM250 Vampire which is an LSA with a parachute. Analog gauges though. It's a good looking fast plane, only 2 seats though. But compared to a cessna it's literally 5x cheaper to use. That's no small margin. Never mind much safer because it's new, has a chute and has much better glider and climb. Annual inspection is something you can do. And you can run it on mogas. And you can even split ownership with someone else and then the financial burden is 10x less than now. It's like you have a superior plane for free. Try one, get one, ditch the cessna tractor.

Love the fly to destination review! We are based out of Grand Prairie. I only fly maybe 4 hours a month for the Airplanes and Coffee Fly-ins. I need to fly more and take my wife places. Gaston's looks perfect. Please let us know of more places.

Awesome video, makes me want to visit some of the remote airports. We flew to Petit Jean Saturday to check out their camping spots at the airport. They are very nice. It was a free flight because the tanks were already full of fuel. 😉

Great video! I agree with so many of your points. I don't fly nearly as often as I thought I would. I much prefer to fly with someone than to fly just by myself. I still love owning my airplane.

It blows my mind how many times you offered to just take people flying, just for fun, and no one took you up on it. I’d be down for that 100% of the time.

Beatiful video

I have been saving for 2 years for a plane, what I don't like about renting is you can not go anywhere just fly in circles. If you were to fly some where for a week on vacation you have to pay 3 hours every day it adds up.

Nailed it!

I too was burning 12 gallons/hour to fly alone in a 182 so I downsized.

I am probably the reciprocal. I rarely fly alone. It happens, but 95% of the time I have the family onboard. I am sure as your kids get older they will love it just as much!

Charlie-Do you know anything about flying clubs? I kinda look at that like 1-step below owning one myself. Trying to research a few of these but I don’t know much about them as this whole process in new to me

Soft field destinations are a real benefit of ownership, many rental agreements require paved runways only. And of course, the ability to fly someplace stay as long as you like and fly back when you like.

If your looking for some company on flying I'm always looking for a great excuse to go flying I'm just east of your location at kggg love your videos and love for flying. Stay safe enjoy your flights

If you "need" a passenger in the Houston area, okay I'll do it. I recently got my Private Certificate, looking at going for the IFR and then commercial soon. I'm still on the fence for buying my own airplane.

I’d love to come fly with you one day

I'm contemplating the purchase of an airplane to get back into flying after a forty year hiatus. Back in the day, I only rented. These days I have more options. I am considering a leaseback arrangement to a flight school for the time that I am not flying the plane. Has anyone had any experience with that, good or bad? Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

I just got a 2 seat NX Cub and that second seat is often empty. Not sure what I would do with 3 additional seats.😂

Same goes when you are buying a car. The most of the time you are driving a lone and people are buying way to big cars.

I like flying alone! Light! More performance

How do you tackle the mission that requires more seats than your airplane has. That’s my challenge…5 years ago I should’ve pulled the trigger and bought the Cherokee 6 I was looking at. Now the prices for those are 2-4 times what they were back then and I can’t afford it. So now I’m looking at larger 4 seaters but I will occasionally need the fifth seat. It’s really frustrating to buy an airplane knowing it won’t meet my families needs.

Aviation is "my hobby", which doesn't translate into my spouses or family/friend's hobby. I know you think that's impossible, but it's true! Most folks are willing to go fly, as a thrill I think, but not something most folks go out of their way to go again. My spouse is just too nervous and quiet, and not much fun as a passenger. Oh well. LOL. So, after I had taken everyone I knew flying once or twice I end up flying alone a lot. Oh, by the way, lots of folks want to be "friends" who all of the sudden want to go flying. That gets old as well especially if they are not someone you like don't being around. Oh, and I'm a light sport aircraft owner, so many American's simply don't fit, especially older fella's. The best passenger is a person who has a genuine interest in aviation and flying. Maybe they can't afford flying right now, or have medical issues, but are willing to help on tasks like changing frequencies and looking up stuff in foreflight. My experience is the cockpit is pretty busy with a lot of radio chatter so an aviation enthusiast or another pilot is the best type of passenger. General public friends, nah not so much.

I fly alone most of the time. My daughter flys with me when she can

Got my ppl beginning of last month and wifey is already disinterested in xc trips for my instrument time building

Good video with valid content, but I can't help thinking that you've addressed this topic before.

All those adventures you talk about halfway through, I honestly can experience to some degree, in an immersive, high fidelity home flight simulator. I can “take off” or “land” anywhere in an airplane of my choosing (C-172, SR22, Cub, Baron and King Air twins, S-76 helicopter, SF50 or Citation X bizjet) from any airport someone mentions or at random, anywhere in the world, check out the geography, VFR or IFR in any weather or time of day (“actual” or simulated), become familiar with the airports, navaids, routes, and approaches, do all the cross country flight planning, navlog, and dead reckoning I want, even throw in an engine outage or forced landing. All from the comfort of my couch (or even on vacation), with air conditioning or heat, zero risk, much of the challenge, excitement, and brain food, all for about $5 a month. I’ve “flown” in and out of airports and mountains and valleys in Columbia, Nepal, France, Austria, Norway, England, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, Alaska, Hawaii, probably all the other 50 states, the Caribbean, Peru, Puerto Rico, Australia, and countless islands. It’s satisfying enough that I’m not sure that actual flying is always worth it. You can view ADSB traffic nowhere in the world, use an EFB, listen to online ATC, etc. Zero possible pilot deviations. Zero maintenance. Zero extended downwinds. Just saying. 🤓

You will end up Paying it all too so be able to Pay for all trip

Hhhhmmm…I’m curious what this young man does for a living…???..( with the utmost respect )…🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸