Exploring the Overlap: Pilots Who Ride Motorcycles

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It's National Aviation Day. Did you know that a significant number of pilots also ride motorcycles?

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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. Well, if you're a regular listener of the show, you most likely love motorcycles. It's possible you're also a pilot. There's a surprising amount of overlap amongst pilots and motorcyclists.

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And if you follow the YouTube channel, the Missenden Flier, he mostly shares motorcycle content.

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But he's also a private pilot as the name might suggest. Now, I'm also a private pilot. But is it really that common of an overlap?

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We'll get into the numbers and explore some reasons why in this episode.

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Now my first love was flying. My father worked for the airlines when I was a kid, so we traveled to Europe a lot for free as one of the benefits.

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Long before September 11th, airlines encouraged kids to have a love of flying and even brought them into the cockpit. I spent many hours of my childhood in the cockpit of a 747 speaking to the pilots as we crossed the Atlantic. And at 16, I took a few flying lessons, but I never completed my license because it was a bit too expensive for me to pay for from after school jobs. But when I started college, my major was actually aeronautical engineering. I would have been doing that still had there not been major layoffs in the industry in my sophomore year, which caused me to switch my majors. But even as a kid, I had a fascination with motorcycles. A childhood friend had a Honda Z50, which we would ride up and down the street. And I loved looking at dirt bike magazines. Of course, my parents were very much against motorcycles, saying they were dangerous. In spite of my desire getting a bike would have to hold off a little bit and I had to suffice with ogling the magazines.

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When you think of that sort of background, it's interesting that there's been actually a few surveys that have found that about 85% of pilots also rode motorcycles. Now, while that specific survey I mentioning was for backcountry fliers and thus may have been a bit more biased, there does seem to be a greater overlap than car drivers versus motorcycle riders when you consider how many of the dynamics between motorcycles and airplanes are similar and the skills necessary to successfully control them. It's no wonder I've sometimes taken a bike to my local airport and walked in carrying a helmet, I've had a number of pilots say that they also ride. Anecdotal, to be sure. Now there are about 700,000 active pilots in the U.S., but about 8 million registered motorcycles. I'd love to hear from you. Are you a pilot that also rides? Are you a motorcyclist but not a pilot?

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And if you ride but haven't tried flying, what's holding you back? Text the show through the link in the show notes.

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Now, I do want to talk about some of the similarities between motorcycles and airplanes. And I'll break this down into a few different areas where we can discuss why I think that there's such an overlap amongst them. At least this is what I've personally found in my experience.

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So I'm going to start with controls. Now, both motorcycles and airplanes have many more controls than in a car, at least in terms of the way that you manipulate them. In a motorcycle, they often say that it's roughly five times harder to ride a motorcycle than it is to drive a car. Your right hand is twisting the throttle to adjust the speed of the engine.

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It also uses a lever to control the front brake and your right foot controls the rear brake pedal. Your left foot switches gears, pushing down on the lever to downshift and putting your toe under the lever and lifting it to upshift. And your left hand controls the lever connected to the clutch, turn signals, horn and lights. Now, an airplane also requires every part of your body to control it.

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You have a yoke or a stick that's typically used with your left hand, and your feet have two pedals that are linked to the rudder to yaw the aircraft left or right. Now, usually your right hand adjusts throttle, propeller pitch, flaps, landing gear and any instruments and radio gear. The push-to-talk button on the radio is usually on the stick or the yoke, and you use it to notify other pilots on the CTAF where you are in the pattern at an airport or to speak with air traffic control. And while a motorcycle is five times harder than a car, it's also said that flying an airplane is about five times harder than riding a motorcycle.

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So let's talk about some of the dynamics, because I think this is the one that most people will immediately understand as where you have some overlap amongst them. in a motorcycle, when you're turning, you move the handlebars to the opposite direction that you want. This is called counter steering. And what this will do is it will actually cause the bike to sort of fall into the turn and effectively lean into it. Now the bike will you hold that pressure onto there and the bike will maintain that curve. And that's actually how it turns by being leaned into the corner.

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And you need to provide opposite controls if you want to have the bike straighten back up. And the fact that the bikes stays leaned into a turn is probably the feeling that's most different than a car. Most cars will have body roll to the outside of the turn, but because the bike is leaned, more of the turning force feels like it's pushing you more into the seat than to the side. And in a car, you need to keep holding pressure on the wheel in the turn. So it's a very different experience for a car in a turn versus a motorcycle. Yet when we look at an airplane, an airplane, banks into a turn just like a motorcycle. So it's going to lean into that turn. And unlike a motorcycle, which has a single handlebar control for the turning, an airplane has both ailerons and a rudder contributing to the turn and a fully coordinated turn where you have both the rudder and the aileron working together so that the nose of the aircraft matches the bank of the turn and the rate of the turn. But like a bike, once you're in the turn, the plane will generally stay in the turn until opposite controls are input to flatten it back out.

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So you start to really see this.

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We love that leaning into a turn on a motorcycle. And that same experience is what you have when you're flying a plane. Now, the other one, if you're only a car driver, you may not realize it as much unless it's a massive, massive storm. But wind has a bigger impact on to us as motorcyclists. It's a very lightweight vehicle. And the side winds that might come in can cause the bike to lean, which will then cause the bike to turn in an unintended way. So sometimes what you find if you're riding on a motorcycle and you have a strong crosswind, you'll actually lean into the wind to effectively counter the fact of what's happening with the wind pushing you in the opposite direction. And this is actually not that different from in a plane. In a plane, the wind is actually even more of an impact onto the aircraft. In fact, that's the whole way in which it actually controls it by moving control mechanisms. And this is where you find a little bit of a difference in a in an airplane versus a motorcycle, because the motorcycle remember is connected to the ground with its wheels. So the wheels are really the thing that's maintaining its position and its turn. The aircraft is moving through the wind. So ultimately, it doesn't really matter which direction the nose of the aircraft is facing. It just matters which way the aircraft moves through the air. So what we end up doing in an airplane is will typically do where we point the nose of the aircraft slightly toward the wind and effectively the aircraft will move in a crab formation. So it'll actually sort of look like you're flying sideways if you've got a strong crosswind. This is something that can actually feel really strange, especially when you're landing. You know, during my private pilot training, one day, the winds aloft were pretty strong, even at low altitude at about 50 knots. And we were practicing slow flight. So this is where you fly an aircraft just above stall speed to mimic landing and to learn the signs of a stall so that you can actually then adapt and adjust for those. And I was in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, which for those of you who are pilots, you'll know that the stall speed is usually around 40 knots with the flaps down. And we were over a golf course and pointed directly into the wind. So we had a 50 knot headwind. And as the wind was at around our airspeed, we essentially were just hovering, not making any forward momentum relative to the ground. And the closer I got to stall speed, we actually started to move backwards. And this must have looked really, really strange to the people on the ground who are playing golf. Of course, on the way back, which had the opposite effect. Now, cruising airspeed on a 172 is about 124 knots and knots. Being nautical miles would be the equivalent of about 140 miles per hour. So with a 50 knot tailwind, our ground speed was nearly 200 miles an hour. So really, really quick for a small single engine plane.

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Now, the other aspect that I talk about, where I think there's some similarities between motorcycles and aircraft is in terms of coordinating controls. So in an airplane, I mentioned that you need to coordinate your control of the ailerons and the rudder when you're going into a turn. And the idea is it will feel a little odd to the passengers of their airplane if it's not coordinated. And what this means is the plane is going to be leaned into the turn and you want to also add in some rudder so that the nose of the aircraft feels like it's tracking naturally the curve of the of the turn. If it doesn't the it'll sort of your to one side you might be outside of the turn or you might have put too much input into the rudder and you might be inside of the turn and it's going to kind of feel like you're crabbing a little bit, which will feel a little weird in the plane. Now another aspect from flying that you need some coordination is whenever you want to change altitude and changing altitude in an airplane requires coordination of your throttle. You've got to pitch the nose of the aircraft and you have to use the rudder, certainly in a propeller based aircraft because of the left turning tendencies of a propeller aircraft. So this is a weird byproduct of the fact that the propeller is turning in a certain direction. And so what happens is, generally speaking, most propeller aircraft will tend toward wanting to turn to the left in most cases. Now, there's usually a little bit of trim that's built into the plane to begin with, but you effectively have to use some rudder, especially when you have high engine power to counter that. And so this is where that coordination comes in as you're starting to climb in altitude because you're going to give more full throttle pitch that nose, and now you're going to also have to add in some rudder to sort of adjust for it. So a motorcycle, if you think of changing gears, this is also a little bit of a coordinated ballet. We're using our right hand to adjust the throttle. We pull in the clutch lever, to disengage the engine. We move the gear lever to with our left foot in order to change the gear to our target gear. Now we let out the clutch lever and adjust the throttle to try to match the engine revs with the road speed of the new gear. And if you get it right, you get this beautifully satisfying, smooth shift with no jerking. Now, the other one that you start to think of is when you're braking.

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Now, motorcycles, unlike a car, have independent brakes for the front and the rear. Now, that sounds sort of weird at first because you go like, well, what difference does it make? It's all it's the same wheels that are slowing us down. But the reality is, is that when you actually do slow down on a motorcycle, the front brake actually tends to provide about 70% of the braking force As it starts to slow down, the front suspension will compress and the bike will actually have a little bit more pressure onto the front tire than the rear tire. So you want to coordinate how much pressure you're applying to each one of those brakes from your front brake, which is controlled by your right hand and your rear brake, which is controlled by your right foot. But it is one of these aspects that that coordination that we have on a motorcycle has a similarity to that of an aircraft of us having to control multiple surfaces or multiple controls at the same time in a coordinated manner.

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Now, another one that I'll raise that I think has some similarity between aircraft and motorcycles is actually about traffic. if you're on a motorcycle, you know that traffic tends towards being one of the largest hazards that we have. Now, there are certainly single vehicle accidents that occur for motorcyclists, but probably for those of us who are driving on the right hand side of the road, a left turning vehicle in front of us is going to be the biggest problem because they're going to turn right in front and then we're going to jam right into the side of them because they've turned and blocked us in front. If you're driving on the other side of the road, of course it'll be a right hand turning vehicle.

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But that same idea, this is where most of the errors occur.

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So on a motorcycle, the best way that we can, we can protect ourselves from this is to keep our head on a swivel. We should always be scanning. We're looking around. We're looking at what's happening with those cars that are about to turn left.

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We're looking at the indications of the wheels. Are they moving?

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All of these sort of things cover the brake. We really have to be aware of that. Now, on an aircraft, if you're flying in what's called VFR or visual flight rules, you are responsible for maintaining separation from other aircraft.

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So you have to keep an eye out for traffic everywhere. Now, the weird thing with an airplane versus a motorcycle or car is in a motorcycle or a car, we have sort of a little bit more controlled movement of where the vehicles will go. We're going to be traveling along a road. So, you know, like the car is going to be coming along a certain path and that's going to be the only path that you'll expect on.

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But in an aircraft, they can come from any path. There's effectively infinite number of roads, but they can also be coming from different altitudes.

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So you really have to keep your eye out there and look everywhere when you're in an aircraft to see where traffic could be.

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So the other one that I want to talk about is this concept, and this plays a little bit into that coordinating controls, but it's really about a balance of forces. Now you get a bit of a reward for smooth operation. So on a motorcycle, I mentioned that that smooth gearshift can real, really feel wonderful. You get this, you know, just a wonderful reward for having done it correctly and know that you got that nice smooth shift and you can coordinate them. And if you miss a shift, you know, which sometimes we will do, it can feel a little awkward and jarring. And so this is something that we aspire to have as smooth an operation as possible. Similarly, the perfect lean into a corner and accelerating out of it when you're done just has this harmony that is just so incredibly gratifying. So this joy that comes from executing it really well is something that you love. Similarly, in an aircraft, one of the things that I think most pilots can agree that they really enjoy and certainly passengers on a commercial aircraft enjoy is greasing the landing. And what I mean by this is you touch down and it doesn't even feel like you touched down. And so like it was so smooth when you're coming in for that landing, the wheels just barely touched. And then it just started to apply the pressure of the weight of the aircraft onto the ground. So you didn't really feel this jump or bolt or anything like that. And this is just really an outstanding feeling that can come in. It's even more rewarding when you're in a crosswind landing. Now, I mentioned before that in a crosswind situation in an aircraft, the wind is coming from the side and you have to sort of crab the plane to the side. And oftentimes, at least on smaller aircraft, you'll sort of switch the mode. So you'll switch from being crabbing where you're kind of flying almost sideways towards the runway, which feels really, really weird.

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But it's the normal way that you would do this. And then just as you approach, then you actually switch set. You now have the front of the nose, the aircraft pointed straight down the runway.

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But now to maintain so you don't get pushed off to the side, you have to bank the aircraft into the wind. And what you'll actually end up doing and this is why I say the greasing of a landing on a crosswind feels really satisfying is. You have to actually touch down on the wind side wheel first because you're going to be leaned into that. Then you're going to touch down on the other side wheel and then finally your nose wheel. So if you can get all three of those touches to feel super smooth, that's just an incredibly satisfying aspect. So this balance of forces is really remarkable. But I'd love to know from you is what do you think is your favorite aspect of riding a motorcycle? And if you're a pilot, what's your favorite part of flying? Text your answers through the link in the show notes.

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Now, while there are many similarities, motorcycles and airplanes still have some fundamental differences. Now, you know, we talked about the most obvious one, which is, of course, you're dealing with 3D space in an aircraft as opposed to in a in a motorcycle. But I'd say another one that becomes more of a logistical or practical matter is the ease of heading out. Now, aside from a few private airstrips that have homes connected to them, most pilots need to head to an airport to take a flight. Even if you live close to an airport between doing the pre-flight, getting clearance, if you're flying instrument flight rules or IFR, it's a much longer time to start your trip than pulling your bike out of the garage. And while it may be reasonable to say, I'm going to ride for, you know, on my motorcycle for an hour, you're probably looking at at least a couple of hours to make sense for a flight between leaving your house, getting to the airport, pre-flight, you know, checking everything, getting clearance, taking off.

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It's going to be at least a couple of hours. So I think that ease of heading out does allow for it to be a little bit more spur of the moment with a motorcycle than an airplane. Now, the other one and this is frankly, I alluded to why I had to pause my flight training when I was a kid is the cost.

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Airplanes are really, really expensive. Even something as simple as an LSA or a light sport aircraft will typically be over $200,000 for a new one.

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whereas a fully certificated small airplane like let's say a Cessna Skyhawk 172, those will cost over $700,000. And some of the more popular ones, such as the Cirrus, which has a built in parachute, It's a very fast airplane, comparatively, are well over $1,000,000. And this is for a small single engine plane with four seats. So it's very, very, very expensive to purchase. But your running costs are equally as expensive between fuel and maintenance costs, usually well over $100 an hour for what it costs you to fly the plane. And the reason for that is you need to reserve for a full engine overhaul, typically about every 2000 hours and on the 172 that I did my flight training on, I was paying nearly$200 per hour. So fuel consumption on that plane was about 7 to 9 gallons per hour during cruise, and that's the equivalent of about 15 miles per gallon. So it's like a big SUV, it's a gas guzzler, and it can be quite, quite expensive. Now, motorcycles, on the other hand, are much cheaper than cars. You can buy one for typically, most motorcycles are going to be able to be bought for less than$20,000 and some even less than$10,000. You know, a good basic single engine bike, single cylinder bike like the Royal Enfield Bullet 350 can be had for less than $5,000. So it's really you can be very, very cost effective in terms of getting a motorcycle. The other thing is, if we look at that bullet 350, the fuel economy on that bike is about 80 to 90 miles per gallon. So much, much cheaper than what you would have in terms of for a car. Now, there are more premium bikes.

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Let's say something like a BMW R1200GS will cost maybe a little bit under $25,000 and get about 40 miles per gallon. So still cheaper than a car. Still typically better fuel economy than the car, whereas an airplane is going to be way, way up there. So I would make a distinction between someone who owns a plane and someone who flies a plane, because there's a smaller percentage of pilots who actually own their own aircraft than those who fly. This is why flying clubs are so popular.

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People share in the ownership of an airplane because of that expense. that's kind of the wrap up of what we want to talk about for National Aviation Day, about riding and flying. And I'd love to know, are you a motorcycle rider that's also a pilot? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a pilot? Text your answers through the link in the show notes.

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look, there are many similarities between riding motorcycles and flying airplanes.

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And as I said, as many as 85% of pilots are also motorcyclists.

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So if you've always dreamed of flying, but you've not yet won the lottery, maybe a motorcycle can give you that sensation at a much more affordable price point.

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Thanks for listening. We'll see you the next time. And if you do love listening to this podcast, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts, Pod Chaser or your favorite podcast listening app and share the show with someone you think might enjoy it. Thanks again. Bye bye.

Exploring the Overlap: Pilots Who Ride Motorcycles

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