6/25/2007

How Much Does It Cost?



Yesterday, the New Richmond airport hosted its annual air show. One of the features of the event was a fly-over by a C-130 from the Minnesota Air National Guard. Watching the huge plane drop down and make a pass over the airport, I got to wondering how much this costs the taxpayers? Personally, I think it was pretty awesome seeing the plane so up close and personal.

But then I started to think about how much that costs the taxpayers. I didn't come up with a dollar figure, but I did find some interesting info about flying the plane:

The cost of a C-130 is approximately $66 million -- or two-thirds of the recent New Richmond school referendum passed.

Minimum crew to fly the C-130: two pilots, one flight engineer, and one loadmaster.

Fuel consumption rate: 200 gallons per minute.

My guess is it had to be at least a half hour of flying time to do the New Richmond flyover. As you can see, this ain't a cheap joy ride on the taxpayers dime. I don't have a problem with the flyover, I just have a problem with the local anti-education bloggers at ontheborderline.nut missing such a wonderful opportunity to point out how taxes dollars are put to use for things other than public schools.

If you have any qualified guess on the cost of flying a C-130 for a half hour, post them in the comments.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This article from a year ago puts the cost (Excluding crew costs!) at $3,600/hr

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4191/is_20060315/ai_n16227418

Anonymous said...

Hell $3600 is a propaganda bargain.
You couldn't produce a pro war, or a National Guard recruitment commercial and airtime to reach so many people for that kind of price. I'm glad the Armed Forces are being so conservative with my tax money.

Kitty said...

Gee, if it cost $2,000 for a half hour of flight time and crew pay and 200 people showed up at the event, that costs $10 per person per half hour. If it costs $10,000 per year to educate a public school student that means it costs a little over $27 per day. Which is a better deal?

Anonymous said...

Both are wastes of money and neither should be done by government

Send your own kid to school (at only $27 a day) and raise the money to pay for your own air show.

Anonymous said...

Single Wal-Mart Mom:

$7.00/hr 8hrs.= $56/ day

Schooling
2 kids * $27 = $54/ day

Rent/Food/Clothing/Healthcare/Books/Gas/Car Insurance/Car Payment = $2/day

The richest country in the world exploiting the working poor! PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Why is it my fault she got knocked up? Why should I be subsidizing her behavior? I don't approve of that, yet my money says I do by allowing her bastards to goto school on my dime.

Anonymous said...

Concerning the Wal-Mart girl, who is exploiting her? Standing at the checkout counter and scanning cans of tuna fish and Doritoes doesn't even qualify as manual labor. I see kids running corner Kool-aid stands by their house doing more work than people at Wal-Mart.

I'm with Cato. Maybe Freemarketeria can explain where the exploitation is happening? It isn't Wal-mart. They are paying here and also providing goods at prices she can afford. The taxpayers are picking up part of the bill for welfare, WIC and healthcare. The taxpayers are also paying for the education of this kid from 4-18 years old.

Explain please...

Anonymous said...

Is it ok if the poorest countries in the world exploit the rich?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous:

"The taxpayers are also paying for the education of this kid from 4-18 years old."

If you could ever find anyone to create offspring with, the taxpayers would pay for your kid's education too.

Interesting fact: 40% of Badgercare recipients are Wal-Mart employees.
I guess the purpose of these people working is simply to line the pockets of the Walton's more.
Foolish me. I always thought that people went to work to earn enough money to feed, cloth and house their families. This is obviously a delusion in your Free Marketopia.

HerkEng said...

Besides the fact that public education is torture on our children, I would pay triple for my kids to stay out of school and watch a C-130 strut its stuff...


Your fuel burn is a tad off.
The first hour is calculated at 6,000 lbs an hour then it is dropped down to about 4500-5000 depending on flight characteristics. (JP-8 is roughly 6.75 lbs per gallon)
You will hardly ever see a flight without a Nav. so you better calculate his/her wages and the weight of the porn he/she brings along.
More than likely, the crew was involved in training that they would have done show or not. Most of the time one or two of the crew members will be receiving a check ride during the air show (evaluators want to be in the show too I guess so add the weight and cost of a few more members on board)
If any of the crew (except the pilots) has less than 200 hours from leaving Little Rock, then they would also have an instructor watching over them.

I will say this again, I would bet my ass that that very airplane would be flying that very day show or not...they just happened to give you a little treat.

I have seen on paper as little as $1995 per flight hour and as high as $6000… it all depends on who is doing the writing and what agenda they have ;)

~HerkEng

Anonymous said...

Freemarketeeria:

Since Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the state, wouldn't we expect it to have the highest percentage of employees taking advantage of Badger Care?

Here's the 2nd, 3rd and 4th largest private employers in the state. How do they fare with Badger Care:
Menards, Kohl's Department Store and Walgreens.

If you don't make enough at one job, then you might have to get another job. There are 168 hours in a week. Of course this takes ambition and might cut into one's MP3 PlayStation time.

Concerning the single mother of two, who's responsible for bringing those children into the world? Unless she was forciblely rape and impregnanted, the mother is ultimately responsible for bringing those kids into the world. In addition to her Wal-Mart job, how much is the father(s) of those children paying in child support? Is he paying enough to cover health insurance for those children?

Since when is it society's job to pick up the tab for the irresponsible breeding habits of our nation's young? I believe my Mother used to say "you made your bed and now you have to sleep in it." My Dad reminded me once or twice to "be careful where you stick your dick."

And don't pick on the Walton family. I'm sure they had to work their way up in the organization to get where they are today. I'm sure they had to gather carts in the parking lot and mop up broken juice jars in the food isle. You stike me as just another liberal who wants to redistribute the wealth so we all have a pot to pee in and that's about all we have.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous:

"And don't pick on the Walton family. I'm sure they had to work their way up in the organization to get where they are today. I'm sure they had to gather carts in the parking lot and mop up broken juice jars in the food isle."

Cry me a river for the Waltons!

Check your Forture 500 list of most wealthiest individuals in the world! Many of the top 10 slots are filled by Waltons, and they "can't afford" to provide their employees decent health insurance? BullShit!
You can say what ever the hell you want but that's greedy exploitation!
You strike me as one of those selfish bastards who thinks they're rich entrepenuers, saying " I got mine, Fuck everyone else!!!!!
Am I for redistribution. You'er damn right!!! The Walton's could sit on the toilet all day and earn thousands of times as much as one of their hard working employees!
Don't give me this "they earned it crap!!!" All they had to do was to be born a Walton!"
Back to your point, if they're the largest employer in WI, they should pay for Worker's healhcare.THEY CAN AFFORD IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"There are 168 hours in a week. Of course this takes ambition and might cut into one's MP3 PlayStation time."

Let's see you keep you fat ass going 168 hours a week and not be needing some of that healthcare Wal-Mart workers don't get!!!!!!!!!

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