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The sport is dying because of a general lack of interest in aviation. The interest in aviation is dying, in large part, due to expense, or perceived expense. There are ways to make it more affordable, but initial capital outlay for a club is still a very large amount of money.

I would venture that the ubiquity of so called "smart phones" has done a
lot to cause lack of interest in anything beyond the plastic appendage.

--
Dan, 5J