I've considered talking to the CEO about buying a plane... he's only got staff in Orlando and NYC, but projects all over the US and a couple in Europe... they spend a fortune every year on airline tickets. These trips are often thrown together at the last minute, and the airline tickets are not cheap.
But it can't hurt to ask...
And sure, why not make a deal where they'd pay me what an equivalent ticket would cost...they'd ultimately save in down-time, etc... if I'm traveling during normal business hours, including sitting around at an airport, they have to pay me.
They'd have to pay me for my time flying, either eway... so I'd have the bonus of sort of getting paid to fly (although not technically so as per the FARs). AND I could write off much of my share of the flight expenses on my tax return...
As for the utility of it for work:
The possibility of having to cancel a GA flight when it's too late to get an airline ticket does make it tricky, but I think in general it would work. Lots of people do it in the US. An instrument rating is a must for any real utility, but it is done often by people who must travel for business.
But even a non-IR pilot has plenty of opportunities...
The trip to Niagara Falls, for example: on the way out, it was beautiful VMC, and I know for a fact that flying direct to Niagara Falls instead of KBUF, I'd have made it to the hotel faster door-to-door...
and cheaper. And my parking at 47N or KLDJ would be free.
The return trip would have been fine, because with "my own" plane waiting at an airport justr a couple of miles from my hotel, I could have left much earlier that day and avoided the snowstorm entirely. See my pictures at the falls- those were taken that morning, my work finished and me ready to go if I only could...it was lovely flying weather all the way from there to the East Coast, the storm being a "laker" coming from the NW. It was excruciating. I'd have booked a rental for that one-day trip if only I'd been assigned to it earlier !
On this trip to Chicago, again, conditions were very workable for a light single with minimal IFR equipment on the trip west (prob'ly could've done it VFR below those clouds), and again I'd have had
more scheduling flexibility to choose the best weather window, especially for the return flight, where being stuck with an evening departure meant I was forced to wait until conditons were really bad. AND in that case, my delay was caused by the plane being
in Newark, unable to get a clearance
into MDW... not sitting on the ramp at Schaumburg ready to go whenever I was ready.
