69-year-old pilot pays $4,000/month to live in a residential airpark: 'All I have to do is taxi out and take off'

When Joe Sobczak was looking for a caller location successful Groveland, California, his precedence was unique: helium needed a spot that could location his airplanes.

That's erstwhile the 69-year-old trial aviator recovered a residential airpark astatine the Pine Mountain Lake Airport. In 2017, Sobczak bought a 3-bedroom, 7-bathroom, 5,000-square-foot location with a 3,600-square-foot hangar for $698,000. He has a owe of $4,000 a month.

"It's a phenomenal societal situation due to the fact that you person an contiguous radical of radical who person communal interests," Sobczak tells CNBC Make It. "The services are somewhat limited, but the trade-off is easy offset by the serenity and peacefulness of [the community]."

There are astir 90 homes with hangars that person deeded entree to usage the taxiways and runway astatine the Tuolumne County airdrome successful the residential airpark. In his hangar, Sobczak keeps a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor level helium bought with different aviator for $175,000.

The 2 of them divided the outgo of maintaining the aircraft. They save wealth connected repairs due to the fact that Sobczak is an FAA-certified A&P mechanic, truthful helium often does the enactment himself.

As a trial pilot, Sobczak works chiefly retired of the San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Instead of doing the three-hour drive, helium jumps successful 1 of his airplanes and takes a 45-minute formation to adjacent San Carlos Airport and drives 15 minutes to SFO.

"The crushed I consciousness safer successful the airplane is due to the fact that I person full power of my environment, arsenic opposed to driving a car wherever it's maine and the 5,000 different cars that walk maine by connected the mode to the Bay Area," helium says. "In the airplane, it's each nether my control."

Fueling the level costs astir $1 much per gallon than a car, helium says. He pays astir $120 roundtrip for pitchy fuel, truthful the outgo is comparable to what helium would walk driving his car to and from work.

Because the Tuolumne County airdrome has nary power tower, residents of the airpark usage a communal postulation advisory frequence truthful pilots tin broadcast their presumption and intended formation path.

"I don't truly person to archer anybody if I'm going flying. All I person to bash is taxi retired and instrumentality off," Sobczak says. "It's ne'er large .... It's truthful quiescent that it's noisy."