(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
Here are a few simplistic reasons why having an aviation capability would be a useful investment:
- Flying allows one to mitigate the surface threat. In the early stages of TEOTWAWKI, moving on the surface of the earth will be very dangerous. Roads will be choked with vehicles that are out of fuel. Dangerous people will be setting traps to waylay unsuspecting travelers and relieve them of their valuables. The last remnants of government control will have soldiers checking for travel documents. Even the simplest aircraft will allow one to fly outside the effective range of a high-power rifle. The O-1 Birddog forward observation airplane, used in Korea and in Vietnam, have similar capabilities to modern basic general aviation aircraft. They were successfully utilized with an enemy order of battle that included man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), and crew-served Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs).
- Flying allows one to reach areas inaccessible by surface travel. For example, one could fly to an island in the middle of Lake Michigan (the two aforementioned scenarios more than likely involve an aircraft that can land off airport, which will be discussed later). One could depart the middle of a metropolis and escape to a bug-out site in the country. This does highlight a limitation of aerial travel – airports. Getting to an airport in the middle of a metropolis, safely, WTSHTF, could be tricky at best and untenable at worst. There are aerial preps that could be launched from your house – hot air balloon being the first that comes to mind; however, those typically will suffer from speed and/or payload restrictions. The ultimate solution would be having your own CH-47 Chinnook helicopter parked in the backyard. (I’m kiddding – there are nation-states unable to bear the expense of operating a Chinook). There are ultralight aircraft that are small enough to be stored in the garage and launched on a public road and/or a small grass strip.
- Flying gives one the ability to rapidly and safely reconnoiter a large area. Just like some ranchers use aircraft to check the fence line of their ranch, one can look for breeches in physical defenses as well look for massing personnel and/or vehicles. This gives one the ability to rapidly react and mass their capabilities in the right area at the right time. JWR’s novel Survivors has a great illustration of this prep put to good use.
AIRCRAFT Costs
Owning an aircraft is expensive. Aircraft must be maintained, like any other machine; however, the costs of aircraft maintenance can seem extreme to most. People familiar with aircraft ownership often liken owning an aircraft to a boat. I think that comparison is valid; however, if one is to truly invest in an aviation prep, they should keep in mind that the costs are a means to an end and not for a leisure activity.
When browsing the pages of Aerotrader, one might be led to believe that buying an aircraft isn’t too bad. And they would be right! It is not uncommon to find a decent Cessna for $60,000, which is cheaper than a lot of used diesel pickups. The hidden cost of buying an aircraft is getting an engine overhaul. Most piston engine aircraft require overhaul every 1,200 to 2,500 hours. These overhauls can cost $20,000 to $50,000. Additionally, aircraft require an annual inspection which costs about $2,000. In sum, there is more to consider when buying an aircraft than simply the sticker price.
There are other aircraft-owning strategies, like owning a share of the plane or creating an LLC that owns a plane. These strategies may work well if one is considering an aviation prep amongst a group or a family. That being said, the costs I have been discussing thus far are assuming a smaller, general aviation aircraft. If one considers a larger, multi-engine aircraft that can accommodate six people, like a Beechcraft Baron, expect to spend more like $250,000 for a decent aircraft. The maintenance costs for an aircraft like that are also exponentially higher.
The best deals on aircraft ownership are often gained by just hanging around an airport. I would venture to guess that at your local municipal airport there are beautiful aircraft sitting in hangars that haven’t been flown in years. There are situations where an aircraft has been in the family, but after Uncle Elvis passed, nobody else knows how to fly, so the aircraft just sits in a hangar. If one is at the right place at the right time, they could make an offer on Uncle Elvis’ old Cessna that the family would accept. My point is, just hanging around an airport can lead to some good deals.
Drones
Some readers are probably thinking they can achieve several of the effects listed above through the use of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) that costs less than $1,000. It is important to keep in mind that most UASes a required to have a viable GPS and/or cellular signal. A UAS that is 100% hand flyable (aka, independent of GPS and/or cellular tech) requires an entirely different skill set than typing in a route on a remote control and having a machine fly the planned route. In one, the operator is responsible for the manipulation of the flight surfaces 100% of the time, in the other, the machine’s AI calculates the correct flight control solution, based on information fed from GPS and/or cellular antennae, to meet the stipulations of the route. I cannot deny that a UAS has a great deal of capability in the right conditions. However, I fear their reliance on our modern infrastructure will render most of these unusable in the post-apocalyptic landscape.
OTHER LOGISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Most airplanes require either AVGAS (highly refined gasoline for piston aircraft) or JET-A (basically kerosene for jet engines) to operate. Procuring either of those fuels after the Stuff Hits The Fan will be more challenging than auto fuel. That being said, there are some aircraft that have been converted to run on high-octane automobile gas. These aircraft require an FAA certification to permit this modification; however, it is doable. The benefit is standardization of fuels in your stockpile and the ubiquities of auto fuel. Either way, if one is seriously considering an aviation prep, having a stockpile of fuel will be a must. Additionally, all aircraft parts are usually limited. Depending on how rare your aircraft is, the limitation of parts can be amplified. A healthy stockpile of parts and the knowledge of how to use them is a prudent way to ensure your investment will work when you need it.
Aircraft are best stored in a hangar, sheltered from the elements. If used often, storing an aircraft on the tarmac is ok, but less than ideal. This is also heavily dependent on geography. An aircraft stored on the tarmac at Tuscon, Arizona is much better off than one stored on the ramp at Shreveport, Louisiana (humidity, being the harbinger of rust and corrosion). All that being said, having a hangar is much more expensive than tying an aircraft down on the tarmac. The costs vary widely by municipality. For example, a shaded tie down at North Las Vegas goes for $500/month while an enclosed hangar in rural Texas can be leased at the same rate.
As I touched on previously, it is important to consider the landing and takeoff limitations of aircraft. Most aircraft require hard tarmac (a runway), while others can be landed on land or water. The ability to land off-runway requires aircraft to have sturdier landing gear or the ability to greatly slow their landing speed. A common Cessna 172 can land on a prepared grass runway, but I would not attempt to land one on a pasture unless it were an emergency. A Piper Cub equipped with oversized tundra tires can land almost anywhere there is a flat surface the size of a football field. In the aviation community, the common terms are a prepared surface or unprepared surface. A grass runway is still considered a prepared surface whereas a pasture is an unprepared surface. The major trade-off for having the ability to land on an unprepared surface is that of speed and range. The landing gear will not be retractable and the tires will not be able to be covered by an aerodynamic fairing.
SUMMARY
Although quite expensive, being able to fly after TEOTWAWKI will give one opportunity to rapidly escape to an area inaccessible by others at an altitude safely out of harm’s reach, and at much faster speed than driving. How much is that worth?