Getting High on Commute by Air

Forget sleepy drivers and freeway speed demons. On Bill Thomas’ 6 a.m. commute to work, he’s on the lookout for the Skywest commuter flight or maybe a stray bird.

But Thomas doesn’t mind. A mostly tranquil 35-minute flight over the ocean beats an hour drive along traffic-clogged freeways.

Unlike most Ventura County long-distance commuters, Thomas, who owns his plane, has the option of flying to work. His decision usually depends on the weather.

“My concerns are fog and high wind,” said the 55-year-old Camarillo resident. “If it’s raining, you can still drive a car but you can’t fly an airplane. If clouds are below 700 feet, I can’t land and I won’t fly.”

Every morning after checking the forecast, Thomas decides to either hop behind the wheel of his 1992 Camry or climb into the cockpit of his 1973 Cessna Cardinal airplane for his commute to Hawthorne where he works as a business manager for Northrop Grumman.

Most days the weather is fine. So about three times a week, Thomas ditches his wheels and heads for the clouds.

On a recent morning, with the sun casting ribbons of red light over the horizon, Thomas called the flight service station from the cell phone in his car for updates on the wind speed. “Turbulence comes over the mountains, flows around and can turn up the wings,” he said. “If there are more than 30 knots of tail wind I won’t take off.”

Luckily the wind was about 25 knots. In his hangar, Thomas put on a mini-radio that gave continuous wind updates as he went about his preflight ritual of checking the backup vacuum system, the oil, the propellers and meticulously running over a large sheet of instructions.

Although he’s been doing this commute for more than eight years, he carefully checked every gauge before taking off. “I’m religious about it,” he said. “I don’t want to take any chances.”

Then he climbed into the Cessna four-seater, clicked on his seat belt, conversed with the air traffic controller, adjusted a few knobs and steered the plane to the edge of the runway before taking off.

The morning sky was brilliantly clear, and Thomas put on a pair of sunglasses to diminish the glare. As the plane cruised at 3,500 feet, Thomas remarked on how little turbulence there was.

Flying directly into the wind, his ground speed was about 130 mph. He was gleeful as he zoomed past cars stalled on California 1. “This is totally different than trying to be on the freeway where you are always dodging somebody,” he said. “It’s a matter of balancing the cost with the enjoyment.”

Thomas spends about $40 a day flying to Hawthorne because he burns about 10 gallons of gas an hour. “It’s like driving an RV in terms of cost,” he said. “If it were the same price [to drive or fly], I would fly every day.”

Thomas started flying to work in 1991 when Northrop Grumman relocated from Newbury Park to Los Angeles. “My commute went from 12 miles to 60 miles,” Thomas said.

After rejecting the company vanpool, he and a co-worker decided to buy a plane together and split the cost of flying, until the co-worker left for another job. “He’d fly one way and I’d fly the other. It was sort of like a plane pool. And then sometimes I would take other people as well.”

To keep himself company and to reduce the cost, Thomas sometimes charges $10, the price of riding the vanpool, to fly co-workers to and from work. Fridays are the most popular day because the commute north from Los Angeles at the start of the weekend is dreadful, Thomas said. It can take more than twice as long to drive depending on departure time.

Ralph Starace, one of Thomas’ co-workers, has ridden with him several times.

“It’s a great feeling to fly on Friday afternoon because everyone gets out early and clogs the freeways,” Starace said. “When you are 4,000 feet above the ocean, you don’t feel compelled to scream obscenities out the window. There is no road rage in the air.”

Starace said the view in the morning is remarkable. “You can see the mountains popping through the snow-scape,” he said. “You are in this little plane and you feel part of everything. The propeller noise is happening and you are bouncing a bit. It’s just spectacular.”

Thomas agreed, saying flying is more about psychic rejuvenation than saving time. “It’s a semi-luxury and maintains my proficiency at something I love,” he said, mentioning his 21 years of flying for the Navy. “It keeps my stresses under control. I’ve been flying longer than I’ve done anything else in this life.”