Imagine you’re all set up in a compound you bought specifically for the purpose of riding out a disaster. Your walls are high and well-defended by your personal generators powering electric battlements. You have enough food and water for plenty long. What you can’t do, however, is use the roads for anything. They may be broken or unserviceable or just overrun with looters and marauders, but whatever the reason, your travel by land is blocked. In that kind of circumstance, the best way to travel is in the air! This time on Rob Raskins’ Millionaire Survivalist, we’re talking personal luxury flight apparatuses!
Personal Jets Aren’t the Only Way
It’s possibly you already have access to a private jet, or may own one yourself. However, you’re definitely aware of the amount of work and coordination and extra people it takes to operate one. Surely unless you’ve been qualified as a jet pilot yourself, there’s not a great likelihood that you’d be just hopping into your private jet and flying over to your friend’s place. No, while this is a great way to have privatized travel that allows for convenience and safety during a non-apocalypse time, once SHTF time comes around, you will very likely not have access to your team of aviators and private airport staff.
This is why it is important to invest in something that’s a little more personal. A craft that you can operate by yourself or with minimal assistance is the ultimate goal of flight-based disaster preparation. While a personal jetpack might still be a little far off the horizon (though, as it turns out, not that far!), here are some other already-extant options.
Helicopters for Mobility and Status
Chances are that the first thing you thought when you saw the title of this article was a helicopter. That’s a great idea for many reasons! They are versatile, more affordable than a full-on jet, and environmentally-friendly to boot. Not to mention, owning a helicopter grants an instant status symbol to the owner!
Take the Eurocopter EC145, for instance. Coming in just short of a $9M price tag, this helicopter has a ton of great amenities. The spacious cabin can be configured to seat up to nine people comfortably, with air conditioning, XM Satellite radio and a Blu-Ray player included standard. Many helicopters can, over long periods of use, cause vibration-based injuries in their occupants, but the EC145 has a specially-designed vibration-dampening cabin insulation that helps to prevent the nerve-numbing and also muffle the sound of the rotors.
The landing gear on this hefty beast will allow for a landing or takeoff on virtually any surface. Access to the cabin is through a double-clamshell design for passengers and a familiar car-door style for the pilots, so you can have easy in-and-out when you’re on the ground. Especially useful is the short time it takes between standing still and takeoff, so if you need to go somewhere in a hurry, you’ll be out of there in no time.
This model is popular both in the civilian as well as the military markets, and the model has seen use in more than 20 countries because of its ease of use and flexibility in function. Whether you want it as an emergency medical escape vehicle set up to carry injured and sick, or a transport to ferry you and your family in relative luxury, this craft will serve you well.
Ultralights for Distance and Endurance
If you want to go far fast, a helicopter won’t exactly do it for you the way that an ultralight will. Now a far cry from the old crop dusters of the past, the newest in ultralight plane technology will have you making trips in the clouds with no problems. They lack the vertical takeoff of a helicopter, but make up for it well with their ability to travel quietly and for long distances. If you’ve got the space for a landing strip on your property, you could do much worse than picking up an ultralight.
A highly recommended luxury plane comes in the form of the TL-3000 Sirius from TL Ultralight, coming in at an easy $175,000. Their design philosophy centers around comfort and form in tandem with function, so when they say the cockpit is a spacious and comfortable one, they mean it. A surprisingly-large cargo storage area is paired with a pilot seating that accommodates even those who are more well-built than average. Add this to the ergonomic design of the piloting controls, and you will have nothing but easy, comfortable trips in this plane.
An easy 2000 kilometers of flight distance with a full tank of fuel makes this the choice for those who need to be in several places but still remain safe. You can fly at a cool 220 kilometers per hour, high enough that most conventional firearms wouldn’t reach you from the ground. Plus, it’s way quieter than a loud helicopter, so you can get where you’re going while attracting less attention.
With the lowest-end engine clocking 80 horsepower and optimization options going up from there, this is a powerhouse of flight that can guarantee your safe passage from one landing strip to another. Use this vessel for long supply runs, or to travel to places where your friends and family are and bring them back to your safe compound. The freedom and security are yours when you pilot this craft.
Cruise the Skies in Safety and Comfort
It’s pretty plain to see: if your TEOTWAWKI retreat is inland, you’ll want access to the sky. Training for skycraft is readily available, and in as little as four weeks you can be ready to pilot yourself into the clouds and away from the dangers of overland travel. You’ll thank yourself later, when you’re soaring above the unusable roads on the way to your destination.