Jay Honeck wrote:
A friend of mine flew his Cherokee Six from PA to MI last week, in
perfect weather, and told me that he was one of three GA planes on any
center or approach frequency for the entire flight...

Mary, the kids, and I flew (in absolute perfect VFR conditions) to
Springfield, IL this past Sunday. Cedar Rapids approach was dead (it
was us and a commuter), Quad Cities approach was dead (it was us and
one guy practicing approaches), Chicago Center was nearly dead (it was
us and a few airliners), Peoria Approach was utterly dead (it was just
us, for the entire time it took to cross his airspace), and
Springfield had only us in the pattern.

This on a picture-perfect, springtime weekend. In years past, those
frequencies would have been JAMMED with pilots looking for flight
following, picking up IFR approaches, etc.

We've got Unicom playing in the lobby here, and I haven't heard a
single plane all morning -- and it is again, perfect VFR today. Here
at the hotel, we had one fly-in guest last night (a very cool United
pilot who is re-tracing a Chicago-to-Los Angeles flight he made 30
years ago -- in the same Cessna 170 he flew in 1974!), and half a
dozen guys flew in over the weekend (thanks to a type-specific fly-in)
-- but those were the first fly-in guests we've had in several weeks.

I know gas prices are up, but fuel is still a (relatively) small part
of the cost of aircraft ownership. What else it going on here? Are
you guys flying less, too?

Unfortunately, yes. The two closest airports to me do not have
airplanes available for rent and one didn't even have fuel for nearly a
week. The Arrow owned by the club I belong to is falling apart (engine
past TBO and every flight generates 3 more things that don't work) and
with only 4 active members left I don't think the club has the resources
to buy a newer airplane. I'll likely quit the club at the end of June.
I raised the issue of upgrading the 67 Arrow a year ago and it fell on
deaf ears with the other members. I raised it again last week and the
membership has agreed to discuss this at our next meeting, but I found
out from the treasurer that rather than raise hourly rates the club has
been burning its capital fund which is now down to an amount that won't
even replace the run-out engine let alone the entire airplane. So, I'm
going to this meeting, but I fully expect to leave the club after the
meeting.

I'll likely go on inactive status until I can again afford my own
airplane, which will be a couple of years at least given the college
bills for my kids. I'm seriously considering starting a Rotorway kit as
I could fly that from my house, do my own maintenance and burn autogas.
I live 45 minutes from the airport where the club airplane is located
as we can't get a hangar at the nearer airport (which is still 30
minutes away). This is simply too far away given my available time and
the cost of gas to both drive to the airport and to fly. And even a
short fun flight takes nearly 4 hours.


Our local airports have been slowly dieing and you can easily go an hour
between operations on a sunny Saturday. Sad...


Matt