"Montblack" wrote in message
...
("Jeff" wrote)

good stuff snipped...

1978 was the beginning of the end for bustling activity at many local
airports, IMHO. After that, interest rates soared, gas prices doubled,
"The Recession" was very real and evil and long, wages did not keep pace
with inflation, housing costs rose faster than inflation, etc.


In 1978 we had an investment tax credit of 10%. Buy an $80,000 airplane and
put it to work, get an $8,000 tax credit.

In 1978 we had GI bill paying 90% of flight training, with lots of GI's.
Flight schools abounded. Airplanes were available through "leaseback"(see
above). Many pilots went through the program, myself included.


Then, in the early 80's, the lawsuits started adding real [consumer
visible] dollars to the cost of everything aviation related.


In the late '70's we started seeing really large settlements against
manufacturers for crashes in which they played no part. The criteria for
selecting targets of lawsuits became the depth of the pockets, not any
realistic liability(ref Thurman Munson).

Al