After last month’s 25+ hour flights, and the 36+ hour train ride from a few days ago, I realized that traveling could be quite tedious unless you pay for the comfort.

Being the super famous, A-list, filthy-rich professional blogger that I am, I decided to get myself a nicer ride than the poor man’s M3 that I bought last year, the Gulfstream 550 (coincidentally purchased on the same date).

40 mil for some spiffy comfort

At a price tag of about $40 million, my new Gulfstream has a seating configuration of 16 (because all A-list bloggers should have a decent size posse). With cruising range of around 12,000 km, I can now travel to from Los Angeles to São Paulo without any issue.

Some Gulfstream 550 facts:

  • Crew: 1-2 pilots, 2 attendents
  • 14-19 passengers
  • Cruise speed: 0.85 mach
  • Range: 6,750 nautical miles
  • Price: $33 ~ $43 million
  • Annual fixed cost: $820,000
  • Variable hourly cost: $3,500

At a somewhat hefty fixed cost of $820,000, about a quarter of which is for the captain and co-pilot, I decided to be the thrifty blogger that I am and get an airline transport pilot certification (and also lasik surgery to get my eyesights corrected).

Unfortunately pilot training was tougher than I thought, so I’m now down about another $60,000 for the non-refundable tuition fees. It’s alright though, the point was to travel in comfort, and although the Gulfstream’s four electronic flight instrument system displays are quite spiffy, looking at it for hours on end is not my idea of fun.

Now to look for some hot (male or female) flight attendants…

April 1, 2007