Jay Honeck wrote:

Imagine trying to know Step One to learning to fly, just by standing
in your airport terminal building.

Terminal building? No terminal I ever saw had anything to do with flight
training. That's where you go to get on an airliner. Been that way as long as
I've been above ground.

It's intimidating as hell, even at most uncontrolled fields. At a Class C
airport, you might as well be trying to break into Area 51.

No around here. Here, the FBO sees dollar signs as soon as someone walks in the
door. They fall over their tongues to show you around.

Without a mentor, most new pilots never get started. We've made airports so
inaccessible that flying has become like some sort of priesthood, where you
must be inducted into it by the Elders.

I don't know anyone who got started by a mentor. In fact, I see exactly the
opposite. At every social occassion I attend, I get introduced to several people
who have their certificate. Many (maybe most) have quit flying, usually because
of family considerations. It's just not that hard to get a certificate. What's
hard is to stay enthusiastic about sinking $5,000 or more each year into boring
holes in the air over New Jersey.

The thing that will kill GA is urban sprawl. It just isn't pretty looking down
at horizon-to-horizon condos. Especially if they're built on top of what used to
be a small airport. Even if the *do* name the complex "Airport Acres."

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.