WING YOUR WAY TO SAFETY

BY WILL DABBS, MD

It all hangs by the flimsiest of threads. We believe ourselves to be a civilized, urbane lot. We go about our lives interacting socially and commercially, all working collectively to keep the hive thriving. Money moves, goods flow and information ties everything together. Right up until it doesn’t.

Our tidy little world is awfully crowded, and we’re never more than a headline away from pure unfiltered chaos. Social unrest, currency collapse, the disintegration of our unstable power grid, natural disasters, terrorism or one of myriad other possible end-game scenarios can move large numbers of Americans en masse.

When the balloon goes up, it really doesn’t matter how awesome your gear might be. If you are sharing the roads with a zillion other terrified families, it is still going to suck. Unless, of course, it doesn’t.

There is one way to bypass all that pandemonium. If you have the means you can comfortably flee independent of terrestrial mayhem. To do so requires some effort and a not insubstantial amount of cash, but the end result makes you immune to traffic. It also massively expands your options for a quick weekend getaway when the world is not actually on fire. Such unfettered freedom requires that you own your own airplane.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES

So long as you can get off the ground, you can cover vast distances in a modest period of time. I live in Mississippi. In my small plane, I can get up early on a Saturday and have lunch in Chicago.

A privately owned airplane will be as capable as your budget allows. A moderately fast two-seat machine like mine can be surprisingly affordable. However, if your mission is to fly six people quickly and comfortably across the Atlantic you will pay out the nose for it.

Unlike an automobile, an airplane has volume and weight considerations. Your minivan will tote most anything you can cram into it. By contrast, an airplane can be fairly sensitive to the amount of mass it is expected to manage. Payload considerations include passengers, personal kit and fuel.