The Plane

So after riding the train for a year, my wife was discussing my commute with a friend at the gym when the friend mentioned another option.  Her husband was a pilot who commuted to Palo Alto every day in his plane and was looking for more 'plane-poolers'.  Well I'll be...  I never thought about flying to work every day!

So it turns out that there are several guys (all guys at this point) who fly to the bay area every day and some of them are willing (and eager) to take passengers for some of the gas money.  UC Davis  (KEDU) to Palo Alto (KPAO) takes about 35 minutes in a Cessna 172/180, which is the 'regular' plane we fly.  It's about 150mph and traffic isn't an issue!

The downside is that it isn't totally reliable.  These guys don't take a lot of risks (good) and they only fly VFR (visual flight rules).  This means that if Palo Alto is foggy we don't fly.  This has caused issues at work, since the decision not to fly is generally made too late to make the train or driving a good alternative.

I'll post more on the economics and logistics as well as many more images in future posts.