That is probably the most ridiculous statement I've heard all year.

Har har...

;-)

Sure, you would quit your job and open an aviation themed hotel in the
midwest instead doing that, but that's not the point. If everybody did
that, nobody would staff your hotel, deliver your goods, or make the
fuel you fly with. If you pretend you =can't= change the scenario,
maybe you'll understand that real life isn't just living in Iowa running
a business. There are other people with =real= lives that are
different, and have to deal with those differences.

Aviation is a distant fifth to those differences.

Hey -- I didn't say aviation was for everyone. Nothing is for
*everyone*.

However, general aviation could easily be made to appeal to far more
people simply by changing a few basic perceptions, and a few basic
procedures.

I've given this some thought, however, and I don't see how it could
happen. For aviation to truly expand would require stepping back to a
simpler, less litigious time. We, as a society, would have to
mentally accept and treat air travel in the same casual, almost callous
way that we treat travel by road -- and that means that people are
going to die.

We would simply have to *accept* the fact that upwards of 30,000 people
were going to be killed and maimed in general aviation flying EVERY
YEAR, and we would have to simply accept this risk as a matter of
course. Only then would we ever see a "plane in every garage".

Obviously, that won't happen. Even driving is becoming less and less
"free", as the lawyers and lawsuits increasingly constrict the free
flow of traffic in exchange for a false feeling of "safety". All you
have to do is look at the way traffic lights are currently set up to
realize that "traffic engineers" are no longer interested in the free
flow of traffic -- all they care about is covering their ass so that no
one will sue them.

Thus was born the "left turn only arrow", and stop lights that are
specifically timed to slow traffic.

So, given this state of affairs, we're going to have to settle for some
half-steps. We're only going to be able to promote GA a little at a
time, and hope that that's enough to save it, because our people are so
afraid of dying that they can never live.

The sad truth is that our society is no longer set up to embrace
freedom -- and that means that most folks will never be able to
appreciate general aviation.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"