"Jay Honeck" wrote:
I'm truly disappointed that Movie Night hasn't attracted younger folks.
As with general aviation as a whole, our regular crowd is older,
probably averaging 50+ years old. This is NOT the market we need to
attract, if we want GA to remain viable.

But the older crowd has more discretionary income and recreation time
available than younger folks. For example, when choosing Recreation
Vehicles, younger people tend to purchase trailers averaging $14,000 while
the over 50 crowd tends to buy motorhomes averaging $60,000[1]. It seems to
me the discretionary income for the over 50 crowd is more in line with
general aviation costs than that of the younger crowd. Likewise, the over
50 crowd is likely to be empty-nest couples than the younger people who are
more likely to have to worry about traveling with children. Targeting older
people plays into the strength of GA's more numerous and generally cheaper
2-seat planes. Imagine how well general aviation would have done if it had
managed to attract a reasonable fraction of the 8.6 million Americans who
bought RVs (and I don't mean Van's Aircraft!)

So targeting younger folks is reaching out to the wrong demographic, IMHO.

[1] "Goin' Mobile - recreational vehicle touring - Brief Article -
Statistical Data Included"
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...17/ai_74011910