In article ,
says...


If your French statistics are as incorrect as what you believe US
pilot statistics to be, it might be better to completely disregard
your conclusions. You'll find up to date US information he
http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/factcard.pdf

Thanks for the correction. The French statistic was from a current DGAC
publication, while I admit I was "guessing" on the US figure (because I
consider the information to be well-known and readily available to
contributors here, while the actual French numbers were proving elusive to
acquire).

So the corrected comparison becomes : 1 pilot for 1275 pop in France
1 pilot for 472 pop in the US - about 2.7X as many.

Call it three times instead of three and a half. Your call as to whether that
changes the argument fundamentally. Are the US numbers increasing or
declining?

Thanks for pointing out the error.

G Faris