Jay,

I am planning for our return trip to Mena, AR to pick up our newly
painted plane and fly it back to Poughkeepsie, NY this weekend. The
fuel prices at all major stops (controlled tower with ILS approaches
etc) are around $5/gal. This will add $200 or so to fuel cost for this
trip in comparison to the pre-Katrina price of $3/gal. We will have to
divert to smaller airports (a bit out of our route with limited
facilities etc) in order to get 100LL at less than $4/gal. It is no
doubt that higher fuel prices have an impact on GA flying.

Another major factor is weather. Except for last week, the weather
in the Northeast had been awful with low ceiling, rains, etc. The few
days in between with clear skies were extremely windy. This bad
weather dampened all outdoor activities and not just flying. Our
recreational rowing club just had our last row last Saturday in perfect
weather! Weeks (or months) before that, we hardly had any good rowing
opportunities. We entered two boats for the Head of the Fish race in
Saratoga Springs Saturday before last. The women's 8 had only 3
practice sessions together. The mixed 8s rowed together the first time
at the race. It was no surprise that we came in at respectable last
and next to last place ;-) Hey, at least we did not humiliate
ourselves by lagging way behind.

With the recent change in daylight saving time, it gets very dark by
around 6pm. There goes weekday flying for many people. Weekends are
needed for chores such as leave rakings and yard cleaning. In my
neighborhood, it takes the typical homeowner two to three weekends to
clean up the moutain of leaves. It's just so many thngs to do and so
little time on top of so many expenses to meet and so little money.
Pilots are just average folks and no fat cats as you have always stated
;-)

Hai Longworth