"Flying On The Side"

Hi Ray, indeed the cost of flying has gone through the roof... I'm fortunate that my employer is dedicated to aviation as a whole, and subsidised in part my private pilots licence. Flying in a flying club has cut out a lot of the expense that can be associated with aircraft ownership and maintenance, but whilst I "pay by the hour", aircraft availability may not match my schedule, and going away for more than a weekend with an aircraft can be complicated to organise... An option to get into the "owner" market is to build your aircraft yourself. If you don't feel you can handle starting from scratch with raw wood and/or metal, you can find a large number of kits on the market that will suit most needs, as well as most budgets. You can also get some help building them! Alas, these can require a lot of time and dedication to complete... but on the "experimental" register, you are then allowed to carry out your own maintenance, which reduces the operational costs. Looking at the selection available at Oshkosh for example, you'd almost buy one there and then! :o))) When it comes to loaning your aircraft to friends, the lawyers get in the way again. Insurance companies may be reluctant to provide cover, as your premiums are determined according to your experience and familarity with that category/type of aircraft, and unfortunately if even the smallest thing goes wrong (even a small tech issue), the costs often swell quickly, with responsibility & warranty issues :o) Now flying WITH friends (even if they are technically PIC) is always a solution, enabling people to fly further and spread the costs across more people, especially since most light aircraft are dual-equipped, with full access to all controls from either left or right hand seat! But, flying is still a dream come true for me! Brian asked me recently if I had been doing much flying outside of Southwest.   Categories: Flying Posted by: Ray Stark | Aug 23, 2008 at 10:19 am

Help Me Decide

Indiana Jones, definitely... :o) I can’t believe it.  Summer is almost over, and Halloween is just around the corner.  This will be my fifth Halloween as Southwest’s CEO, and little did I know what kind of impact my costumes would have.  In 2004, I portrayed mega-rock star, Gene Simmons of KISS, [asset| Categories: Nutty stuff, Southwest Culture, Working at Southwest Posted by: Gary Kelly | Aug 20, 2008 at 2:26 am

Thoughts on Independence Day by the Blog Team

This 4th July, I will be thinking of a special friend of mine who's birthday it is on this very special day (she turns 30, but don't tell anybody!). I will also be thinking of all american military personnel who are far away from home, before my own "Independance Day" on the 14th July... when I will be on duty, with a thought for our personnel also deployed overseas. :o) Raphael Sheffield Once again this year, we want to share the Independence Day plans of our Blog Team.  As you can see, they will be attending a wide variety of events, and my guess is that this pretty well tracks those of you reading the blog. Paula Berg, our Blog Girl tells us:  “I'll be covering our dog's ears to protect him from the sound of fireworks!” Categories: Southwest Culture Posted by: Brian Lusk | Jul 04, 2008 at 3:11 pm

BREAKING NEWS....THIS JUST IN.....

Hi Bill, funny how the subject has just come bouncing back after the discussion last year... certainly makes me smile... :o) Raphael I'm thinking Wednesday was a slow news day. Categories: Under the hood Posted by: Bill Owen | Jun 13, 2008 at 3:24 am

Austin Celebration

Oooooooh That is sooooooo cool! I'd LUV to participate only my singin' is rather off key... (good job you soundproofed the truck!) :o) Raphael Sheffield I'm that girl you see on your way to work rocking out in my car.  It's seriously the best way to make it through traffic.   So to me, what better way to celebrate our growth in Austin than to rock out with our Customers on the streets of Austin?  Categories: Airports Posted by: Melissa Dablo | May 12, 2008 at 9:55 am