'An extremely convenient way to travel'
'An extremely convenient way to travel'

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By David Zizzo

Published: April 20, 2008

ADA — When Tim Roehl or his business partner fly to Florida or California, they aren't bothered by crowded parking garages, lost luggage or long security lines.

"We don't even have to take our shoes off,” Roehl said.

Roehl and George Braly own their own planes. They travel a lot, averaging 250 hours a year flight time as owners of Tornado Alley Turbo and General Aviation Modifications Inc., Ada businesses that sell equipment that upgrades performance of small planes.

But for them, taking a flight doesn't mean getting in the car and driving to a commercial airport to begin the ritual of waiting and standing and waiting and sitting — the hassle factor, as Roehl puts it. It means walking from their business out to the flight line, hopping into an updated 1984 Bonanza B36 or a new Cirrus SR22 and heading for the sky.

"It's an extremely convenient way to travel,” he said.

For instance, they were gearing up this month for a trip to the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In Lakeland, Fla. To fly there commercial would require driving 90 minutes to Oklahoma City or

2 ½ hours to Dallas, arriving at the airport at least an hour early, and you know the rest.

"It becomes an all-day event,” Roehl said.

But, Roehl said, flying one of their planes, which cruise at 200 knots, about 230 mph, "we can leave Ada and land in Lakeland 4½ hours later.” No stops. No check-in. No kidding.

"The convenience is wonderful. It really is,” he said.

Even for short hops. If Roehl wants to visit his son, a medical resident in Tulsa, "I just jump in the airplane. I can be in Tulsa in 45 minutes.”

What are the costs?

Owing and flying your own plane is, guess what, not cheap. Roehl's Bonanza is worth about $300,000 and the Cirrus about $500,000. As with all general aviation aircraft, the planes require annual inspections that cost about $5,000 each, and insurance costs about that much, too. Then every 2,000 or so hours of flight time, an engine must be overhauled at a cost of $35,000 to $45,000. If anything breaks along the way — and it will — that's an added expense.

Of course, since Roehl and his partner use the planes for business, most expenses are tax deductible. And the men have aircraft mechanics on staff who maintain the planes.

Other than that, flying yourself is dream transportation. Aviation gas is not that much more than auto gas, and Roehl's planes can get about the same mileage as many cars. Roehl's planes have on-board Nexrad radar input that helps avoid bad weather, along with updated guidance systems, deicing equipment and oxygen for higher flights that take advantage of tailwinds. As any experienced pilot knows, and Roehl and his partner are instrument-rated, the most dangerous part is "driving to the airport.”

Then there's the pure joy of flight, and we're not talking about the high-altitude commercial-airline kind.

"You get to fly where you want, as high as you want,” Roehl said. "You can sightsee along the way and stop and land somewhere if you want to see some place you've not been before.”

For example, Roehl has soared among the natural spires of Monument Valley, Utah.

"You can't do that in a 727,” he said.