birdog wrote:
Regarding the original question - are we flying less?

I was forced by health and age to stay on the ground for the last 20+ years.
I recently dropped by our local private grass strip where about 25 planes
are hangered. There was a single plane gassing up - no other activity on a
beautiful Sunday afternoon. Ran into a younger fellow I knew in my previous
life who commented that on a similar day back when I was still flying there
would always be several planes in the air, grinding out stop-and-goes or
just puttering around, whereas today the activity has virtually stopped.
There is even a 150 there that has been sitting outside for several years
and is virtually destroyed by the weather.

Why? My opinion, it's the expense. In the '60's and early 70's, our club
used to fly an old Champ for $4 an hour and a 172 for $16 an hour, wet. We
had an instructor in the club, and $300/$400 would get a beginner his
private. You could chug around in the Champ 'til your butt was numb, and
couldn't spend $20. The club was solvent and the hourly rates covered all
annual expenses. Upgrading required assessments - if memory serves, we paid
$1200 for the Champ and $8000 for the 172. We also had a Citabria that we
paid $5000 for. (All used, of course)

I think cost is part of the equation, but aviation has always been
expensive. Just for grins, I pulled up the inflation calculator at the
BLS web site and plugged in $16 for 1970, your number above for a 172.
The 2007 equivalent is $85.23. Guess what? Our local airport rents its
172 wet for ... drum roll please ... $85/hour!

I think it is cost, convenience (there are fewer small airports now),
availability of other activities, etc.


Matt