Washington Post
Staff Writer
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page B01
The rising cost
of fuel has found a new victim: the recreational aviator.
Pilots are cutting back on flying time. Flight
instructors have fewer students. More and more Cessnas, Pipers and other
single-engine and propeller-driven planes are staying grounded. General aviation
is taking a nosedive, according to flying enthusiasts.
Terry McKinney, 59, of Springfield
flew his blue- and gray-striped Mooney M20C from Manassas
Regional Airport to Morgantown,
W.Va., to visit family about seven times last year. An upcoming trip will be
only his second this year. He cites the price of fuel, now $4.69 per gallon at
Manassas, as the reason he's made fewer flights.
At his airport, fuel prices have climbed from $3.29
per gallon in January 2005 to $3.95 in January 2006 and $4.49 in January of
this year. They're still on the rise.
"I probably cut back half of
what I normally do," said McKinney, a 15-year flier. He used to fly at
least once a week but has slowed to once or twice a month. Each time he takes
off, he ensures that his two, 26-gallon tanks are full. His last top-off cost
more than $110.
The 220-mile drive to Morgantown would take about
four hours and cost perhaps $23 to $24 with a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon.
The flight to the same destination takes an hour, flying at 140 knots (roughly
160 mph), and burns about nine gallons of fuel worth more than $42. And his
1964 Mooney is pretty economical, McKinney said.
Flying is not exactly a cheap hobby anyway. Airplane
insurance runs McKinney $1,100 a year. Maintenance can cost up to $3,000
annually. This year he also spent $6,500 on a new propeller and $700 on a new
transponder that allows him to be identified by air traffic controllers. Not to
mention the cost of parking his plane at the airport: $80 a month.
Because of higher fuel costs, tighter federal
regulations on flights in the Washington region's air space and the possibility
of new airport user fees for takeoffs and landings, recreational pilots
"are getting squeezed out," McKinney said.
To save a few bucks, Bristow pilot Tim Lewis shops
around for cheaper fuel for his experimental, single-engine Van's RV-6A. For a
recent trip from Manassas to Iowa,
he checked fuel prices on the Web. "I made fuel stop decisions, in part,
on what the fuel prices are," said Lewis, 45. Of course, he also
considered weather and looked for good runway approaches. "You can usually
spend another one or two minutes flying to make the decision to stop at airport
A instead of airport B."
The cost of fuel has cut business this year at the
Freeway Airport flight school in Mitchellville
by 20 to 30 percent, said Marcel Bernard, chief flight instructor. He said he
expects flight lessons during the normally busy summer season to be cut in
half. Freeway is selling 100 low-lead fuel at $4.77 a gallon.
Bernard flew his family to Florida
recently. "It cost me $800 in gas. I have to really rethink doing
that," he said. For the same price or less, he wonders whether he could
fly his family there on a commercial airline.