Aviation Fee Chart: Fill & Download for Free

Q. As a private pilot, what is the procedure for flying from one airport to another? How do you file a flight plan.The process isn’t that different for small planes vs. big planes.I’m a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) pilot, so things are a little simpler. For most trips, the trip actually started in my living room with the preflight planning. I’d plan the route, figuring out which air traffic controllers I’d need to talk to and write down their radio frequencies, and where the restricted airspace was. For this I would consult a sectional chart, which is provided by the FAA. They’re available online free now. This tiny portion of a sectional shows my home airport of Orlando Executive (top arrow) and nearby Orlando International (bottom arrow):The chart looks like a mess, but once you get the hang of reading them, most of the information you need to get to an airport is there. If you’re interested, you can see the whole chart here. Beware, it’s big:https://aeronav.faa.gov/content/aeronav/sectional_files/PDFs/Jacksonville_106_P.pdfI’d check the weather the day before the flight, then again in the morning, and then again right before departure. I’d look for NOTAMs (a NOTAM is a Notice to Airmen — a notification put out by the FAA that there is some unusual condition or situation, such as a closed runway at an airport, or an airspace restriction, or a change to some procedure). Here’s a typical NOTAM, which tells me that some of the taxiways at Dane County Regional Airport (MSN) are closed to large aircraft (wouldn’t affect me).I’d check the weight of all my passengers and baggage, and make sure that the weight and balance of the aircraft was within limits. Back in the good ol’ days we had a form for that:Now my smartphone app does all the work.Most importantly, I would organize all the information I had gathered. Scrambling for information in flight is a bad place to be. Every pilot wants to make sure that all the information they need is at their fingertips.Just before departure, I’d call the nearest Flight Service Station — or later, hop on the proper website — for a final weather briefing and to file a flight plan. Flight plans aren’t required for VFR trips, but I always filed one. If I didn’t arrive at my destination, I wanted someone to know where to look for me. The form looked like this:All in all, the planning often took more time than the flight, but I always enjoyed it as much as the actual flying.When it comes time to go, you call the tower or departure control (depending on the size of the airport) and fly your planned trip.Q. What are the fees associated with landing …Small airports don’t typically have landing fees. Many of the services needed by a small pilot are available for free, as long as you buy fuel. Large commercial airports can have significant landing fees.Q. and refueling?Aviation fuel is pricey. I just looked up the current price for Orlando Executive, and they want $6.90 per gallon of 100LL, which is typically what small prop planes use. The Cessna 172 that I flew most often could hold 40 gallons of fuel, so do the math.Surprisingly, jet fuel is about a dollar/gallon cheaper, so good news for those flying a Gulfstream on a budget.

Here are the pros I see:1. Less than 30 minutes from your car to being airborne2. No invasive TSA searches3. Ability to carry what ever you want. Flying to Alaska for a hunting trip? Sure, you can throw your R700 into the right seat without issue4. Friendly service from airport staff. Most GA (general aviation) airports (which significantly out number major airports used by major airlines) are small. This means the staff gets to know you and you get to know the staff.5. Fly where you want, when you want, how you want (with in reason.) Want to fly to Florida, but the only airline flight there is leaving at 4:00 AM? Hop in your plane when you want (let's say around noon) and fly there yourself.6. You get better views of the scenery. You can see a lot more detail at 2000ft than you can at 40000ft.7. You can have the flight be as exciting or relaxed as you want (with in reason.). If you are flying through the middle of nowhere in class G airspace, you can skim the ground doing 200KIAS if you want (although safety can not be ensured at that altitude.)8. You can land at smaller airports closer to your destination. Let's say you were flying from Tampa with your destination as Ocean City, MD. If you flew commercial, you would first land at BWI, then catch a flight to Salisbury, MD, then drive 30 minutes to Ocean City. If you flew yourself, you could fly direct to OXB (Ocean City Municipal) and drive 5-10 minutes into Ocean City (and avoid layovers.)9. Why do you even need a destination? If you want to take a scenic flight, go right on ahead.10. You can actually fly the airplane (provided you have your PPL.) This is the biggest pro for me. I love flying and most aircraft owners I know have the same love of aviation.Cons:1. Costs. Most GA aircraft burn 5.5-8.5 gallons of Avgas an hour (at the airport I work at, Tipton Airport, we charge $4.93 a gallon. I've seen other airports charge $8+ on top of a handling fee.) Then there is oil. Due to the design of aircraft engines, you WILL burn some oil. Aviation oil at Tipton is currently $8.25 a quart. Then there is maintenance, which, by the way, is mandatory. You can expect to drop $30k on an engine overhaul every 2500 hours. You can also expect to drop at least $1000 on an annual inspection (more for more complex aircraft and this doesn't even get into repairs if an issue is found.) In addition to an engine overhaul, your propeller will also need an overhaul at set intervals. Then there is parking. At Tipton, we charge $968 a year for you to tie your plane down outside on the ramp. Hangars run for, I think (I don't handle hangar leases,) $500 a month. Then you have insurance which is costly in it own right (that is for basic liability coverage, never mind repairs.) Then you have ADs (airworthiness directives.). These are MANDATORY upgrades you must make to your aircraft. These are created to increase the safety of flight (such as to fix a design flaw in an aircraft.) Next you can factor in charts which expire every 56 days (this is why most pilots are turning towards electronic flight bags, such as Foreflight.) The charts will run you, at a minimum, $60 a year (which is nothing compared to what you are already spending.)2. "The Chuck Yeager Effect." This is something every pilot needs to get out of their heads. A lot of pilots become overconfident with experience which leads to foolish decisions. Remember, you can kill a lot of people, yourself included, if you do something stupid because you though you could handle it.

Absolutely.You can make a ton of money doing this. It’s called “currency arbitrage.”But… you’re going to have to do a couple more steps to make the big money.Let me show you a way to make a lot of money using the same concept…Currency arbitrage is one of the easiest ways to make money, but it can also be extremely confusing. Basically, it’s taking advantage of the value differential of two different currencies.Let me give you a real world example.Ever heard of Ray-Ban sunglasses? They are probably one of the most famous eyewear makers… here is one of their models, the RB3025 Aviator:In the US, they are selling on Amazon for $105.00 with free shipping.Meanwhile, across the pond in the United Kingdom, these same exact glasses are selling on Amazon for £73.86 with free shipping.You’re thinking, “So what?” The British pound has always been stronger than the US dollar.But… do you remember that event called Brexit? It’s where Britain voted to exit the European Union, and since then the British pound has plummeted in the currency market.Here is what those glasses look like priced in US dollars:And, here is a full-size layout so you can see the real opportunity here:Now, this is an example we can all clearly see and understand. But, we’d have to sell a lot of Ray-Ban sunglasses to really make a significant amount of money. Plus, if we did buy a whole bunch of sunglasses in the UK, we may be sitting on inventory we can’t sell - the ‘carry-fee’ would mean our money would be sitting in sunglasses that aren’t earning yield.Let’s take this example to the next level, with Colombian real estate. You could replace the word ‘Colombia’ with many different countries such as Mexico, Chile, South Africa, or even Australia.All of these countries are major commodity exporters, but have seen their currencies decline in value because commodity prices are so low. The US dollar, on the other hand, has seen significant strength and offers a buying opportunity for anyone holding US currency.If we look at the five year chart of the Colombian peso to the US dollar, then we can see a low of about 1700:1 and a high of about 3400:1. Those two ratios coincide almost exactly with commodity prices.From this information wed can assume that the opposite will be true - when commodity prices become more expensive, the US dollar will lose strength. Or said the other way around, when the US dollar loses strength, commodity prices will become more expensive.However you look at it, the Colombian peso may go back down to 1700:1.If we bought an apartment in Colombia for $100,000 when the exchange rate was 3400:1, but then we sell the same exact apartment when the ratio goes back to 1700:1, then we could double our money, even if the apartment itself doesn’t appreciate in value at all.Additionally, the entire time we are waiting for the currency exchange rate to change, we are collecting yield from renting out the apartment - that’s our ‘carry-fee.’Here is what the exchange rates look like when you are shopping with US dollars:Recent Exchange Rate (when commodities are cheap and USD is strong) = 1USD : 3400COPApartment cost = 100,000 (USD) x 3,400 (COP) = $340,000,000 Colombian pesosHistorical Exchange Rate (when commodities are expensive and USD is weaker) = 1USD : 1700COPApartment cost = 100,000 (USD) x 1,700 (COP) = $170,000,000 Colombian pesosBUT, here is the catch. See the cost of the apartment when the exchange rate was at 1:1700? The apartment cost $170,000,000 Colombian pesos. When the Colombian peso started to weaken, home sellers didn’t increase the price of their real estate because they are primarily selling to Colombian nationals.That means that even though the current exchange rate is close to 1USD to 3400COP, that property would NOT be priced at $340,000,000. It would probably be priced at about $200,000,000 COP, which is about $60,000USD. So you would end up buying that $100,000USD apartment for only $60,000USD.If you are holding US dollars, you can come in and buy Colombian real estate at a significant discount, just like the sunglasses example. And you get paid (the ‘carry-fee’) while you are waiting to sell the apartment when the currency exchange rates revert back to the mean.This real estate example is much more confusing than the sunglasses example, but it’s essentially the same exact concept.There is certainly risk in this type of investment, but there is also significant money to be made.These are the situations I look for in investing because the average investor is either clueless as to what’s going on in international markets or too nervous to pursue a venture such as this one - whatever the case is, there is almost zero competition for me. I write several times a week for free about opportunities such as the two showed above; join me.