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The procedure before takeoff and after (Assume I'm a 3 year old kid fantasiz'n about the first ice-cream cone)?

The question(s) below is are long ones and I am thinking about getting much detail, so please feel free to skip if it's worth too much of the time! :) I'm asking for a detailed description of what really happens when you own a plane, want to fly it, fly it, and what after? My fantasy precisely is about a beechcraft baron or kingair, flying VFR with a domestic filed plan. I mean where do you usually keep the plane parked, is there a charge for the parking spot? If so, is there an annual pass? Next, when you want to fly, the first thing you as a pilot would do is probably fly a VFR, so what happens when you go along with your family to the local airport (assuming it isn't an intl one, just a regl or mun)? Do you check in your baggage and everything just like a normal airport, and do you pass through the usual checks and everything (puffer, passport/ID etc; I'm talking about flying domestic)? And once you check-in, if you do have a family or friends or colleagues with you, when do you load, as in, do you start the plane first (start as in start completely that is ready-to-taxi-start) and then load, or do you load first and then start? And is it necessary (by aviation standards or whichever) that the cockpit door must be closed when taxiing, and taking off? What about music for the pilot? :P Finally after you land, say, you're on a vacation for 4-5 days some place. So once you land, is your parking spot preplanned, as in does the ATC know that you're coming in, so they have something ready for you? Or is it on availability basis at the time of landing and ground-handoff? Finally, after you park and everyone's moved out, including you as the pilot, you probably need to pay for parking and everything. So do you do that after landing, or do you do that before you leave your house for the vacation? Like prepay or something of that sort? Oh, and what are the prices for fuel, say a beechcraft baron or kingair? (I don't know the type of fuel that might be used). I know, these probably are very weird questions, but I really wish to know how it all happens! The world of aviation, ah, I'd probably bore you by my fantasies of it. So please help me out!

Public Comments

1. Okay.... You keep the plane parked at the airport, either in a parking space (which is called a tie-down in aviation lingo since you will usually tie the aircraft down with ropes) or in a hangar (which is aviation lingo for garage). Tiedowns are usually sold at daily, monthly, or yearly prices. At my airport a year tiedown is about $400. Hangars can be bought outright, leased, rented, or shared. Depending on the airport, for a private plane security ranges from minimal to non-existent. Often there is a coded gate to allow you to airside and quite often you can drive a vehicle up to your plane (makes transferring baggage easier). There are no X-rays, no metal detectors, and no security personnel except for maybe one making rounds of the airport. You always load first, (both bags and passengers) then start. If you are flying internationally, you need to advise the customs of the country and fly to specific airports with customs agents. You then have to wait in the aircraft while you declare what you have, fill out customs forms, and show passports and IDs. It is not necessary for the doors to be closed on the ground (though on a King Air or rear doors on a Baron 58 it is a very good idea for them to be closed). The front door on a Baron I would leave cracked on a hot day to provide extra ventilation if there was a long wait on the ground. You can listen to music, but I refrain from doing so while at the airport so as not to interfere with radio transmissions. I have a headset with bluetooth so I can listen to music without the passengers even knowing. Parking isn't preplanned unless you do it yourself. ATC has nothing to do with parking. At medium and large sized airports, you have FBOs (Fixed Base Operators) that provided everything needed for aviation from parking to fuel to maintenance to lounges to pilot supplies to weather information to ground transportation to whatever else. You can either phone these guys ahead or call them on their private radio frequency to arrange services. Many times you can just show up on a first come first served basis. You will usually pay for everything afterwards, or they can take your registration and bill you. I filled up a Baron today and it was around $500. King Airs are much more thirsty. A Baron uses 100LL (100 octane, low lead aviation fuel or AVGAS), a King Air uses Jet-A (jet fuel).