Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Singer Island Plans

Mary and I decided on a four day get-away to Singer Island Florida.  I am sitting here sulking since after running my numbers I could have saved @ $630 flying myself.
My savings are strictly based on fuel consumption only and I took an average price of $5.75 a gallon for the trip.  Looking at my first leg south, fuel at KHYW - Conway, SC is $5.03 a gallon. The return trip out of F45 - North Palm Beach County would have me forking over $6.00 a gallon.  A rough estimate on fuel would be 160 gallons for 08Romeos round trip. The average of fuel multiplied by the avg cost per gallon works out as follows; 160x$5.75=$920.  Airline tickets are $1548 for two, round trip tickets.

I understand there is maintenance associated with the flight and reserves for engine, avionics, annual and so on. My numbers for per hour operating costs based on flying 10 hours a month are $134.87/hour. So I guess I can look at it with the "all in" strategy and figure round trip 16 hours at a mind blowing $2158. Body shiver....yikes!
Figuring in the time of year and possibility for icing I guess the $630 fuel only savings can be swallowed a bit easier. I won't have to concentrate on wx or flying, I can enjoy the sunshine and time away with my Bride.

We scheduled a meet up with a realtor so we can look at properties after checkout on our last day, our flight home doesn't leave until after dinner. It's time for us to start looking for that winter hideaway.  Actually, with all this snow this season we have been reconsidering our Ocean City MD retirement home and thinking about the home address in Florida with summer digs in OCMD.

4 comments:

Steve said...

Nothing wrong with taking the logical approach, pilot urges be damned. Have a fun trip!

ddf said...

I've attached weather information to those cities that look appealing to one of my home pages. The gulf coast side of the state is where we are looking. Maybe this year?

Gary said...

Steve, we would love to fly but the potential for ice doesn't make for a relaxing get-away.

ddf, we'll explore the gulf coast at some point. Good winter baseball there and that's a plus.

Geoff Nelson said...

Nothing wrong with your plans. I can definitely appreciate wanting to MAKE SURE you get to your beach vacation! We had to cancel our Thanksgiving trip to Dallas because of ice concerns. I don't mind thunderstorms too much. To me it's all about being able to see and avoid. I won't go near anywhere if icing is even slightly possible.

Finding a condo in S. Florida sounds cool!