Kyle Boatright wrote:
Even to people who grew up in the 50's and 60's had pilots as heroes. The
guys at Edwards, the Astronauts, etc. Before then, the WWII generation of
pilots had a laundry list of aviation heroes. This brought people into
flying. In today's society, there are no pilot-heroes, and flying isn't
generally regarded as glamorous or as a grand adventure.

I agree with this... societal changes have a lot to do with it. When I was a
kid I was in awe of the "aces" of WWII and Korea. Heck, my Dad was a naval
aviator, flying TBF's and Hellcats in the Pacific in '44 and '45. As a kid I
used to watch Sky King (I still love the looks of a C310!). I could name every
one of the old war movies I used to watch that had an airplane in it.

There are pilot hero's today but they seem to get lost in the noise level of
Rap music and Video games. Why bother to learn to fly when you can fly a
video game or simulator.


Aviation is getting old. I'm 40 now, and for 12 years have been the
youngest person hanging out at airport and the youngest person in my EAA
chapter. When a new guy shows up who's 28, he sees all the old farts (maybe
I'm one too in his eyes), and looks for a younger crowd to hang with. This
doesn't help.

We need to do more as a group to encourage the younger generation. I wish
there were more inspiring movies about aviation... but alas, we're more likely
to see a movie about BTK than some interesting aviator or aviation story.
I am doing the best I can, and have taken several people on their very first
airplane ride in my airplane. My payment was the look on their face as we
left the runway and climbed into the sky.