"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
IMHO, Piper is foolish for not going into this market.

Agree 100%. They claim there is "no margin" in LSA aircraft, but I
don't believe it.

We've had our
school open for just under two months and are picking up students from 4
states at a rate of a half dozen a week.

Contrast this with our local FBO's attitude toward Light Sport:

We recently had a guest who was interested in pursuing his dream of
flying, and wanted to go Light Sport. I told him that I'd see if I
could find an LSA instructor and aircraft in which he could train.

My first call was naturally to our local FBO, whose response was blunt
and telling: "We don't mess with that ****."

Our FBO, like so many others, only provides flight training because
it's a requirement of their contract with the city. In the absence of
that contract, they would close their flight school in a heartbeat,
preferring to cater to the King Air and Citation crowd...

Our guest found an instructor and aircraft at a smaller, nearby
airport, so the story doesn't end entirely sadly. But it's just SO
frustrating to see the skies over Iowa City slowly becoming empty
thanks to people in the industry who simply don't understand that
without an active, proactive interest in flight training EVERYTHING
stops in about ten years.

Forgive me, as I'm not a pilot (yet). I've spent way too much time thinking
about the interrelation of lots of things lately, which feeds into this
discussion. If "aviation" were so important to pilots, you'd think that
they'd be willing to invest their time into it. I go to lots of fly-ins and
it is always the same(with a few exceptions): decrepit airports, and GHOFs
(Gray-Haired-Old-Farts) complaining about the Government, health care, price
of avgas, price of mogas, and what-ever suits their fancy to complain about
at the moment. At every fly-in there is always the small group of people
actually doing the work, but they are in the minority. And given the
demographics of the situation, it is all but terminal, which was the reason
for SP/LSA in the first place. Yet if you go back into the SP/LSA history,
you'll find lots of comments that it wasn't needed, that things
(demographically) were just fine as they were. Regarding the cost of LSAs,
considering that a brand new Savannah (painted, engined, and avioniced) is
less than $65K and that there are a lot of new cars/trucks in the road that
sell for more than half of that, the cost ratio of cars/trucks versus
airplanes hasn't changed that much (for a starter/LSA airplane, at least)
over
the decades.

So, what are the reasons behind the decline of (small) GA?

1. I can accept, to a limited point, fuel cost. But the cost of mogas
is identical to the cost of mogas last year (I assume avgas is somewhat
similar),
yet there is a big dropoff in activity. I keep coming back to demographics,
and that many of the pilots are not flying as much because of their age.
But that shouldn't amount to such a drop off in a single year. Over a
decade
though, it will be a killer.

2. Other interests. Everyone is familiar with "AIDS" (Aviation Induced
Divorce Syndrome), and this might be the opposite of it. Pilots still have
the same amount of hours in the day, so what are they spending their time
on? Most sectors of the ecomony have been booming, so they probably are
spending more hours on the job, and more hours recuperating from it. But
those hours spent recuperating aren't being spent doing hanger flying, at
least from what I've seen. As TV viewership is going down, they aren't
spending it watching TV either. Internet surfing probably has a significant
effect. I think demographics enters here as well. Taking care of the aging
spouse, visiting friends "who don't go out as much anymore", and going to
see the grandkids in rehab (again) are huge time-sinks.

3. Architecture. I think this has more to do with it than most people
realize. Most airports I visit hadn't see much construction activity or
maintenance since Johnson was President, if not earlier. They aren't
inviting places. Mentally, people will unconsciously not go to places that
aren't inviting when there is an alternative.

4. In events over the last couple of days, I'm convinced this is the
killer: Retirement. People my parent's age (I'm 48, but my parents were
both 44 when I was born) just assumed they would work until they died.
Their concept of "retirement" was that they could work less, if they wanted
to. People my age are focused on retirement as perhaps their greatest goal
in life. Make enough money, and put enough of it away, that you can afford
to retire by 55 at the latest. If you assume you are going to retire at 55
and live until 85, you have to put a lot of money away, money that can't be
spent on actually living your life in the present (like buying a plane and
flying). If, on the other hand, you assume something like: cut down to 32
hours a week at 55, 24 hours a week at 62, 20 hours at 65, and 16 hours a
week at 67 and beyond, the math works out a lot differently. What makes all
this really sad, is that a lot of people that put a lot of it away have lost
it, where an airplane would have been a better investment.

So, what needs to be done?

First of all, GA needs to reach out. I had never been in anything smaller
than a 737 until just a few years ago, and didn't even know what GA was.
I've just helped Arlington put together a flyer for why non-pilots should
come to the Arlington Fly-in; they had never thought about before. Note:
I've heard more than a few pilots complain that "Fly-ins are for pilots, the
rest of the folks should just stay away!". "Fly-ins" are a really bad term
from a marketing standpoint, why would anyone who wasn't a pilot want to
attend a fly-in, and why would they even be expected to know what a fly-in
was in the first place? I think "Aviation Fair" is a much better term, but
I'm not going to fight the battle. On all the signs I make for fly-ins, the
first words below "Fly-In" are "Everyone Welcome!". Invite the local Scout
troops (or summer school or church school, etc) out to the airport and give
them a show-and-tell. Invite their parents to come as well (I know of some
people that live within 3 miles of a fairly busy field that didn't even know
that it was there). Scouts are having trouble finding places to camp
anymore, why not let them camp at the airport? Issue press releases about
Angel Flights, etc. Take a reporter up for a flight. Think guerilla
marketing.

Second of all, airports need to be inviting. Have your local FBO/EAA
chapter/whatever "adopt" the airport from the government agency, and put up
the signs just like the "This street adopted by..." signs. Fix the damn
potholes, clean up the potato chip bags clinging to the chainlink fence.
Make sure the restroom/portapotty is clean. Put in that wifi connection.
Make
the CTAF available on a Part 15 FM transmitter and/or leaky coax so people
can sit in their cars outside the fence and listen. You can even stream it
over the web. Does your airport even have an AOPA Airport Support
Network representative? Have a website that lists events at the airport,
have a sign
at the airport as well. Paint the buildings! Do the sheriff's deputies
know
they can make potty stops at the airport? Build more hangers, even if
people are going to store RVs in them, build foot and car traffic at the
airport. Put up picnic tables!

Finally, everyone in GA needs to market GA, something that isn't easy
for a lot of people. Do you have a license plate frame that says "My
Other Car is a Cessna" (or appropriate)? How about one that says
:"Ask Me How You Can Learn to Fly!"? Know the questions people
are going to ask, and have answers for them. I was just at the dentist and
got a hygienist there interested in attending Arlington.

Many people are going to say "Why should I have to do any of this crap,
I just want to fly!" And that is the rub. Unless GA people are willing to
do the little things, more than they should "have to", the future has
already
been written. The old adage in business is "If you don't take care of your
Customers, your competitors will." It has always easier to keep a Customer
than to earn a new one. GA has been on the defensive for way too long,
fighting at best what can called a tactical retreat. The reason to fight a
tactical retreat is to regroup and counter-attack when the time is right.
The time will never be righter than it is right now. The House has said
there
will be no user fees. Time to galvanize. Send thank you notes to the
Congress critters who vote against user fees. But be part of the solution.