Dan Johnson, the pilot blogger behind ByDanJohnsons.com, a sport pilot and LSA website, has recently written an interesting essay for General Aviation News where he observed that there are two types of pilots: Those who fly to “get up” and those who fly to “go long.”
The pilots who “go long”
Dan wrote that so-called “go long” pilots are those who want to go some distance in their aircraft. These are the cross country flyers, or if they are pilots based in a small country like the UK, they fly to destinations outside the country.
In Dan’s case, he has logged hundreds of hours of cross country flying all over the USA and beyond for a variety of reasons. He also noted that by his rough calculation comparing flying with driving, flying was up to three times as fast for about twice the cost in fuel.
The pilots who “get up”
On the other hand, Dan then wrote that he is also a “get up” type of pilot. In other words, he gets bored and uncomfortable just flying for hours at a time in a straight line. He also added that he does not need to fly particularly fast either as he enjoys actually having the opportunity to “see the planet from above.”
Moreover and based on conversations that he has had with other pilots at airshows over the years, it would seem that many pilots are actually “get up” pilots as many flights take off and then land back at the same airport.
So what kind of pilot are you?
Dan ended his essay by writing that if you are the type of pilot who wants to go places, fast is good because speeds of 200 mph will “gobble” up the miles for regional travel. However:
The trouble is that when going national in our great big country, 200 mph still isn’t that fast. Even in a jetliner at 500 mph, America is a vast expanse that takes hours to cross.
Hence, we want to ask our pilot readers one simple question: What kind of pilot are you?