Page 4 - Volume 16 Number 8

2 • TWIN & TURBINEAUGUST 2012editor’sbriefingIsuppose most of us think we need a reason to fly – an excuse would be more like it. Justification of an asset, particularly one as significant and visible as an aircraft, sometimes requires artful creativity, if onlybecause there are inquiring minds that want to know – minds not as connected to the airplane as our own. So, we often need to come up with reasons to fly – quite good ones, if I may say so, in my case.The “ordinary and necessary” expense test may be as valid as any, and in a lot of cases, the airplane does earn its keep. I’ve been in on several good business deals that were facilitated by having the company aircraft available. Last fall, I took three investors on a one-day trip two states away to check first- hand on the progress of their investment. In no way would all three of them have been able to coordinate driving or airlining the trip in only one day’s absence from their work. Company airplane? Priceless.Putting such scenarios aside, there are a lot of reasons to fly that I submit are just as viable. I put in several hours every year that are simply entered as “proficiency flying”, and I defy any green-eyeshade wearer to object to that reason. If I’m going to be pilot-in-command of an aircraft, putting lives at risk, I have every reason to maintain my skills, and I can’t do that without flying, specifically for that purpose.And then there the trips made to discharge an obligation. Today, I picked up a fellow plane owner who needed a ride back from dropping off his aircraft at the shop. He will do the same for me, when it’s my turn. Call it a maintenance hop. Last week, I took a worthy person-in-need on a donated flight, not because I got a charitable deduction out of it, but because I may be that person myself someday. Paying forward, or paying back, it’s all the same.And then, there’s my favorite and, in my view, perfectly sound reason: Because I can. Owning an aircraft is a privilege and the expenses don’t stop just because it’s parked, so why not fly it just because I want to? I can assure you that my personal penury will not permit the ecology or economy to be thrown off-kelter by the few trips taken purely for enjoyment. The joy of exercising the freedom of personal wings is the payoff we receive from enduring all the hours of training, harassment by officialdom, obscene expenses and efforts to keep a medical. I think flying just for the sheer of fun of it is a perfectly valid reason to get the airplane out of the hangar.Considering that general aviation contributes significantly to the nation’s employment and business activity, generating a reason to fly is a good idea, not one for which we must apologize. Use your airplane; it’ll pay you back in more than one way.LeRoy Cook, EditorA Reason To Fly