Hobby to Start...see the picture?

My dad always wanted to fly. He joined the Army and he couldn't be a pilot because he was colorblind. My grandfather also wanted to fly...same problem.

(pic is in public domain on unsplash)
What hobby have you always wanted to do but never started - What appeals to you about it and why have you not had the chance to get involved with it. (@liftslikealady told me about this contest)

Flying is super expensive...when you talk about flying, you don't talk about miles per gallon, you talk about gallons per hour. Per https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2012/august/01/fly-like-a-fighter-minimum-fuel an F-15 can burn through "23,000 gallons per hour, or 385 gallons per minute."

I'm not colorblind, but I'm also not rich...fuel for planes can range in the US from $5-$8/gallon. According to https://www.sherpareport.com/aircraft/fuel-burn-private-aircraft.html 58-100 gallons per hour can be expected for a smaller private jet. At $5/gallon, that's $290/hour on the cheap side. Find a smaller plane like the Commander 114 and you can burn through about 14-15 gallons per hour, https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/aircraft-fact-sheets/commander-114

Still at 14 gallons, that's $70/hour just in fuel costs, let alone the cost to rent the plane. In my area, that's another $60/hour from the time the wheels leave the ground to the time they hit the ground. $130/hour when I earn much less than that is pretty hard to justify...especially when you figure it takes no less than 40 hours, and usually 60 hours to get a private pilot's license. Even then, you can't charge anyone to fly with you until you get enough hours for a commercial pilot's license, as I understand it, and you need 190-250 hours in the air to get the CPL https://pilotinstitute.com/how-many-hours-to-become-a-pilot/

250 hours at $130/hour is $32,500. That's a lot of money for a hobby.

It appeals to me because flying is fun. I also love driving. I have to imagine that flying would be just as fun. It can also be rewarding. Pilots that fly the large planes commercially have to put in at least 1000 hours, though much of that is usually accumulated by someone else paying you to fly as an instructor or for hire. Pilots for the major airlines can earn $200-$400/hour.

In 2020, "the average airline pilot salary for 2020 was $186,870" https://epicflightacademy.com/airline-pilot-salary/ I have 2 kids who want to be pilots. When we looked it up, pilots were in the top 15 highest paid positions in the US...number 14: https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/top-highest-paying-jobs/

No wonder this guy looks so happy:

(pic is in public domain on unsplash)

I want this to be my hobby, then turn it into an income...one step at a time. I just joined an organization that will help me get there and I just got hired by a University that teaches aviation...perhaps someday, I'll be the student instead of the teacher, but until then, I'll just keep hodling until crypto pays for my flying hopes and dreams 😎