I Really Want to Learn to Fly a Plane...

Recently, the big squirrel took me on two plane rides. The first time we circled over Irvine, and the second time we flew from Santa Ana (SNA) to Ramona and then back.

Refueling the plane

The view from the plane is really beautiful, and there are many sights that you absolutely cannot see from the ground. It’s completely different from what you see on commercial flights, because on a small plane you have a full view from the cockpit. Moreover, commercial flights cruise at 30,000 feet, while small planes fly between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, so you can see many details on a small plane that you can’t see on a commercial flight. Google satellite maps can only show the view from directly above, but the view from a plane is three-dimensional. There are many photos at the end of this article.

The sea under the sunset

Private planes are a very convenient mode of transportation

And planes are really fast. The straight-line distance from SNA airport in Irvine to Ramona airport northeast of San Diego is 61 miles, and the driving distance is 90 miles. Even without traffic, it takes one and a half hours one way. But it took us only one and a half hours to fly from SNA to Ramona and back. Because the cruising speed of a small plane is about 101 knots, or 116 miles per hour, and considering that planes fly in a straight line in the air, it’s basically twice as fast as driving on the highway, and even more so if there’s traffic.

You can check every flight record on FlightAware, because every plane reports its location in real time. On the iPad, you can see the planes around you in real time. Some planes seem very close, but you can’t see them with the naked eye, so the ability of the naked eye is very limited.

From SNA to Ramona, 42 minutes one way
From Ramona to SNA, 44 minutes return

If you can fly a plane, it’s really convenient to go to many places. For example, it takes an hour and a half to get to Santa Catalina Island by boat, but only 20 minutes by plane. It takes only 45 minutes from Irvine to San Diego, which is twice as fast as driving. Of course, for short trips like these, the end-to-end time may not have a big advantage, because you have to drive to the airport, and it takes half an hour to pull the plane out of the hangar, check it before flight, taxi and prepare for takeoff.

For example, from our base in Diamond Bar in LA to our base in San Carlos in the Bay Area, if you take a commercial flight, you usually have to go to SNA or LAX to catch a plane. It takes 1 hour to get there, 1 hour to wait at the airport, 1.5 hours to fly, and half an hour to get from SFO to San Carlos, for a total of at least 4 hours. If you drive, it takes at least 6 hours.

But there’s a Chino airport half an hour’s drive (12 miles) from Diamond Bar, and there’s an airport right in San Carlos. It takes 3 hours to fly a small plane because it’s slower, plus 0.5 hours to prepare for takeoff, so it basically takes 4 hours, about the same as a commercial flight. But the key is that you don’t need to book a flight. As long as the weather permits, you can go whenever you want. These small airports can only accommodate private planes, not commercial flights.

And because small planes fly low, about 5,000 feet, there is cell signal in the air, so at least my Google Fi phone had no problem sending and receiving messages. (Of course, if you’re flying the plane yourself, you definitely can’t play with your phone)

I’m very interested in technologies that can quickly get from one place to another, so I really admire Elon Musk’s Starship. But it will probably be a long time before I can ride on a Starship, so I’ve discovered private planes, a mode of transportation that’s faster than driving and affordable.

If two or three people fly together, flying a private plane can even be cheaper than taking a commercial flight. Renting a private plane costs about $150 per hour (calculated by engine running time), including fuel. If you’re rich enough, you can buy a private plane like the one we flew for tens of thousands of dollars. Our H100 server could buy two private planes.

The private plane we flew is not like the Gulfstream jets that billionaires fly. Those are jet airliners, costing tens of millions of dollars each, and can cross the Pacific. The plane we flew is a propeller plane with only one engine, and can only carry 3 adults (or 2 adults and 2 children). The furthest it can fly is about from LA to the Bay Area. Any further and it would run out of fuel, and it would be too tiring for one person to fly.

Flying a private plane does not require a cumbersome security check and boarding process, and you don’t even need to enter the terminal. The airport has a dedicated channel, and the pilot can drive in by showing his ID. Passengers on the plane do not need to show their ID. Then you can park your car directly next to the hangar, open the heavy hangar door (some people have bought electric ones), pull out the plane (the plane is lighter than a small car, and one person can move it with a little effort), do the pre-flight check, and then you can fly. The pilot is responsible for flight safety, and getting on the plane is like entrusting your life to the pilot, so the airport trusts the pilot and his passengers.

The plane just pushed out of the hangar

During the pre-flight check, all the control surfaces of the plane need to be checked by hand. All the control surfaces of a small plane can be easily moved by hand, in fact, they are mechanically linked to the control stick. This old-fashioned plane does not have autopilot and is completely manually operated.

Why I Like Flying

I’ve always been quite fond of airplanes. Seven years ago, I bought several books on flying (books like the Airplane Flying Handbook are quite interesting to read, but I really can’t get through FAR/AIM, which is full of legal texts…). The first stop when I went to the Bay Area was the Hiller Aviation Museum, where there is a real Boeing 747 that you can enter and play in the cockpit.

Cockpit of the Boeing 747 in the Hiller Aviation Museum

Moreover, I’m not afraid of flying. When Big Squirrel took me flying, I didn’t feel any discomfort at 30-degree bank angles and slight clear-air turbulence. I’m also not nervous when I encounter turbulence on my own flights. I rode the roller coaster at Universal Studios Beijing five times in a row, while others were scared after just one ride. My wife is particularly afraid of flying and always tightly holds my hand during takeoff and turbulence. I had a subordinate from Israel whose parents died in a private plane crash in Israel, and he was immersed in sadness for half a year. But I wasn’t scared by this incident, after all, it’s a very small probability.

After Big Squirrel took me flying twice, I liked airplanes even more. If I have the chance to stay in the US for a long time in the future, I really want to learn to fly. Our investor could fly a plane when he was 17. The cost of learning to fly is not very high, mainly including coaching fees, aircraft rental fees, etc., and you can get a pilot’s license for less than 20,000 US dollars. I know some friends like to play Microsoft Flight Simulator, but the feeling of a real plane is completely different. If you have the chance, playing with a real plane is much more interesting than a flight simulator.

However, learning to fly requires a lot of time investment. Not to mention the theoretical part, just the actual driving, it takes 10 months to get a pilot’s license if you fly twice a week. And every time I learn to fly, I’m very tired. After training in the sky, I have to spend time digesting on the ground, after all, flying a plane is much more troublesome than driving a car. The pilot’s license is also very strict. It’s not like a driver’s license where you can get it even if you can’t drive very well, and it’s not like many other outdoor sports where you can play without a license. The pilot’s license exam includes handling various emergency situations, including engine failure, stall, etc. The pre-flight check procedure for each flight is also very strict. As a saying in the Hiller Aviation Museum goes, flying itself is very safe, but flying does not tolerate any lack of ability or carelessness.

After all, being a pilot is a profession. After learning VFR (Visual Flight Rules), there is IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), then commercial licenses, multi-engine, seaplanes, etc., and you can also become a coach. If you don’t fly a plane for a month, you will get rusty, so even if you don’t want to advance, you need to go play regularly. The flying community is a relatively niche circle. Big Squirrel said that there is not much overlap with the computer technology circle, so he also hopes that I can become a flying friend in the future. If I really get into flying, I’m afraid that even if the startup doesn’t work out, my flying career will be on the rise…

Some Short Videos

Because the engine noise on the plane is too loud, we all wear noise-cancelling headphones and communicate with the microphone on the headphones. The audio in the following videos has been replaced with music. I told Big Squirrel that we could get a GoPro to record the whole process of flying.

Taxiing

The pilot is busiest during taxiing, takeoff, and landing, and cannot be disturbed. The cruise phase is relatively relaxed, you can chat, but the pilot still needs to listen to the radio at all times, and must respond immediately when called on the radio.

Because I can’t hear the call sign calling him on the radio very clearly, often when I’m talking, Big Squirrel suddenly gestures to me to shut up. Getting a pilot’s license means you also have a radio license. Although communication with the control tower is in a fixed format, it still takes a lot of training to listen clearly.

The position I’m sitting in is the co-pilot’s. Strictly speaking, I should be helping the pilot fly. I also have a set of instruments and controls in front of me that are exactly the same as the main pilot’s, and the controls are mechanically linked. But at the moment, I can’t help at all except for causing trouble.

Takeoff

The takeoff speed of a small plane is about 65 knots, equivalent to 75 miles per hour, about the same speed as a car on the highway, so it’s not scary. The taxiing distance is also relatively short. The takeoff speed of a commercial airliner may be as high as 150 knots.

The most dangerous time is just after takeoff, because if the engine suddenly fails when the plane is not high enough, there is not even enough height for a glide landing. The higher the plane flies, the safer it is, because even if the engine fails, there is enough height to find a nearby airport to land.

Cruising

The first time I flew over Irvine, the cruising altitude was about 3,000 feet because the main purpose was sightseeing. The second time I flew to Ramona, because there were mountains on the way and it was a long distance, the cruising altitude was about 4,500 feet on the way there and about 5,500 feet on the way back. I found that even at such a high cruising altitude, at a speed of about 120 miles per hour, Google Fi still has LTE signal (no 5G signal), and sending and receiving messages is no problem.

Although cruising is relatively relaxed, you can’t relax, because the wind will cause the plane’s attitude to change subtly all the time, and you need to adjust constantly. Small planes don’t have autopilot, so it’s even more tiring than driving. And you have to be ready to answer the control tower’s call at any time.

Landing

The speed of a small plane landing is about 65 knots, equivalent to 75 miles per hour. Landing is the most technically challenging part, for instance, the landing in this video encountered some wind, requiring the flight direction to be aligned with the runway, otherwise, a go-around is needed. The landing speed can’t be too fast or too slow, if it’s too fast, it won’t be able to land on the ground, or it will bounce after touching the ground.

The first time I flew, I saw two small planes landing on the same runway at the same time, which was quite impressive. The second time I landed, there was a jet airliner on the side of the runway, so the squirrel flew over the airliner before landing, otherwise, it could easily be blown off course by the jet airliner’s wind, causing a landing failure and a need for a go-around.

Aeronautical Chart

The squirrel gave me a copy of FAR/AIM (Federal Aviation Regulations and Aeronautical Information Manual) and an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) chart. In fact, after the squirrel took me flying for the first time, I bought a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) chart myself. Nowadays, pilots use electronic charts on iPads, but they must carry paper versions just in case.

There are many landmarks on the VFR chart, it’s interesting to see how high the places I’ve been to before are, and how they are marked on the chart. Many of the airports in here don’t have commercial flights, like Ramona where we went, I’ve never heard of it.

The following pictures are charts of the airspace near LA (they are all several MB original pictures, loading may be a bit slow, you can download and zoom in to see, but you still can’t see clearly). The chart is very large when fully unfolded, almost filling my desk, you can see that my 16-inch MacBook Pro is much smaller than the unfolded chart.

Part of the VFR chart, from LA at the top to San Diego at the bottom
VFR chart, from Santa Barbara on the left to Las Vegas on the right

The IFR chart is used for instrument flight, theoretically, you shouldn’t look outside the plane, you should fly solely based on the instruments on the plane, so there is relatively less information on the chart, and it doesn’t look as interesting as the VFR chart.

The shaded areas on the IFR chart mostly represent the Class B airspace of LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), SAN (San Diego International Airport), and SFO (San Francisco International Airport). You can see that the range of Class B airspace is quite large (the range varies at different altitudes), and you need to apply to the control tower to enter Class B airspace. Landing at these large airports usually involves a fee, and the hangar rental fees at these airports are also more expensive, so flight training usually takes place at smaller airports.

IFR chart, from the Bay Area at the top to LA at the bottom
Part of the IFR chart, the shaded area at the top is the LA airspace, the shaded area at the bottom is the San Diego airspace, the pencil-drawn arc on the chart is 50 miles centered on SNA

Some Photos

The first time I flew over Irvine, I happened to catch an air show (flight performance), watching fighter jets perform in the air was indeed interesting, but I forgot to take pictures.

Taxiing before takeoff
The dashboard during a plane turn
Just after taking off from SNA (Santa Ana Airport)
Flying to the seaside
Seaside luxury residential area
Beach and small airport next to Highway 5
Abandoned nuclear power station next to Highway 5
Green mountains, blue sky, and the sea
Coastline extending into the clouds
Mountains under the sunset
Mountains and sky
Sunset illuminating one side of the mountain
Airport under the afterglow of the sunset
San Diego Zoo Safari Park seen just after taking off from Ramona
Record of the first flight around Irvine on FlightAware