On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:47:36 GMT, ls
wrote:

AJ wrote:
I missed this article when it first appeared.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Flyin...=949148&page=1

Is it possible for the Light Sport category to revive that old slogan
of "An Airplane In Every Garage" in order to bolster the number of GA
pilots?

AJ


Not sure whether to respond with "no" or "hell no" here....Hrm... Ok,
yeah, I'll go with "hell no"....

The darlings of the Sport Pilot rule - SLSA and ELSA - are already
priced well beyond affordability even in 2005 dollars and even beyond
acceptable bang/buck.

Bottom dollar for an SLSA is about 70 large already and I don't see that
figure coming down in the forseeable future (and it'll likely go up!).
ELSA are going to be around the same price......

You have to look at the big picture.

From my numbers, the prices averaged about $58,000 and rose to about
$68,000 when demand picked up a bit. As more competitors enter the
market, supply pressures will force prices to go down. There is a lot
of interest right now. Say maybe three years before things creep down
again.

A good healty short term economic profit is not always a bad thing.
Yes, currently people like me cannot afford the plane, but since there
is a solid profit to be made, a lot of manufacturers will enter the
market that might have been on the fence. Competition breeds diversity
and innovation which is never a bad thing. I've seen some pretty damn
novel aircraft sporting features that aren't offered by cessna or
piper. And eventually the prices come down. God bless the free market
system.

Also, the prices aint really bad, if you look at it from a FBO's
perspective. I'm a little curious how Diamond is feeling about their
brand spanking new DA-20. They are marketing them to schools at
$160K. Subtract the Garmin and other goodies, the base airframe is
like $140 or so. Your typical LSA is half the price, out performs the
warhorse 152 and you can train private pilots in it.


Jim

http://www.unconventional-wisdom.org