Where is everyone?

Jay Honeck wrote:
Then again it has only been a few months without flying. I am reserving
the right to change my mind at any time.

If you can go "a few months" without flying, you were never addicted.

Probably a good thing, with prices rising. At some point, we addicts
will have to make some hard choices.

That is true. I love to fly, ride motorcycles, shoot, and several other
things, but I am addicted to none of them. I can, and have, gone two or
more years without doing any one of them as circumstances of college or
work dictated. Being addicted to anything is a bad deal and causes poor
decision making. This is true whether the addiction is to your job,
your hobby or a drug.


Matt

Jay,

It wasn't just the rising fuel prices (my home airport is now almost
$5.00 per gallon), it was a combination of costs that did it for me. The
ridiculously high maintenance costs also stuck a thorn in my side.

Every time something little went wrong (which happens on a 30 year old
machine) it was four or five hundred dollars. And since I wasn't willing
to let maintenance items slide there were many times having to pony up
extra bucks. I know that is the price of doing business when owning and
I sucked it up with a smile for a few years.

You fly a LOT more than I do and your life is all about aviation. Mine
is not. I have other interests and like most folks only a limited
budget. Maybe you are correct and I was never addicted but I think I
was. It is possible to recover from addictions and I think that is what
happened to me. Nobody recovers from an addiction without pain and "a
moment of clarity", mine was the pain in the wallet and the realization
that I was only flying 50 hours a year.

Life is about experiences and I am glad I have owning an airplane as
part of mine. Good luck to everyone and fly safe.

Jon

Jay Honeck wrote:
Then again it has only been a few months without flying. I am reserving
the right to change my mind at any time.


If you can go "a few months" without flying, you were never addicted.

Probably a good thing, with prices rising. At some point, we addicts
will have to make some hard choices.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 2007-05-23, birdog wrote:
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

$16 hr wet in 1970 dollars is $85 wet in 2006 dollars.

The Bay Area Aero Club in Houston, which I used to be a member of, rents
its 172 out at $75 hr today. So the price in real terms has actually
fallen.

It's not cost. It's something else. A general change in society is more
likely. How many people have spent beyond their means compared to 1970?
Are people less interested in doing an activity that takes months of
preparation and has limited utility? I honestly don't think cost is any
more of a factor today than it was in 1970 - and in real terms, people
are better off, too.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Jay Honeck writes:

I think gas prices are really, really hurting the "common man".
I've got housekeepers and desk staff who have seen a HUGE increase in
their driving expense, with no compensating increase in wages. This
shortfall has to be made up somewhere ...

Have them buy stock in Exxon. The money they are paying out in gas is
going into shareholders' pockets.

IMHO, the big-box restaurant chains ("Applebees" and such) will get
hit the worst in an economic downturn. That's where a lot of
discretionary American income gets ****ed away nowadays, and it'll be
the first thing eliminated.

Unfortunately, GA will probably go first.

No, it won't fjukktard


Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

BDS writes:

In the mid-60s and early 70s people also did not have multiple cell
phones (one for each family member), cable/satellite TV, satellite
radio, "starter" homes the size of small castles, home entertainment
centers, or 2 brand new cars (one an SUV) in the driveway. Today
these are all looked at as "necessities", and they consume what would
otherwise be disposable income.

The real disposable income for equivalent lifestyle has significantly
diminished for the dwindling middle class.


You're an idiot.


Bertie

Jon Kraus wrote:
Jay,

It wasn't just the rising fuel prices (my home airport is now almost
$5.00 per gallon), it was a combination of costs that did it for me.
The ridiculously high maintenance costs also stuck a thorn in my side.


I'm sure yu are right Jon. At my home airport it is the homebuilts that are
flying and the flyers that are fixing them.

That is true. I love to fly, ride motorcycles, shoot, and several other
things, but I am addicted to none of them. I can, and have, gone two or
more years without doing any one of them as circumstances of college or
work dictated. Being addicted to anything is a bad deal and causes poor
decision making. This is true whether the addiction is to your job,
your hobby or a drug.

Oh, I agree whole-heartedly. Being addicted to flying has caused me
to:

- Make strange career choices (Example: Giving up a 20+ year career in
newspapers)
- Induce my wife to give up her career as a Medical Technologist
- Fly every few days for almost 13 years
- Put away far less $$ for my future grandchildren's beer fund than I
otherwise would have
- Create a crazy, aviation-themed hotel in Iowa (of all places!), just
so I can hang out with pilots all day long
- Give up golf
- Spend my summers at a tin shack on a hot asphalt taxiway, rather
than fishing at a cabin on a cool lake

God help me, it's also made me the happiest guy alive. What can I
do?

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

You fly a LOT more than I do and your life is all about aviation. Mine
is not. I have other interests and like most folks only a limited
budget. Maybe you are correct and I was never addicted but I think I
was. It is possible to recover from addictions and I think that is what
happened to me. Nobody recovers from an addiction without pain and "a
moment of clarity", mine was the pain in the wallet and the realization
that I was only flying 50 hours a year.

I agree that if you only fly less than 60 minutes per week, there is
*no* reason (well, no sane financial reason) to own an airplane. At
that level, renting is the only way to go, as much of a PIA as that
is.

Life is about experiences and I am glad I have owning an airplane as
part of mine. Good luck to everyone and fly safe.

Amen, brother. Keep in touch, and keep current, at the very least.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

It's not cost. It's something else. A general change in society is more
likely. How many people have spent beyond their means compared to 1970?
Are people less interested in doing an activity that takes months of
preparation and has limited utility? I honestly don't think cost is any
more of a factor today than it was in 1970 - and in real terms, people
are better off, too.

A thought: The "Depression" generation is now mostly gone. *Those*
people knew what true hardship was, understood the value of a dollar,
and (if they were like my parents) absolutely feared going into debt.
My parents would eat dirt before borrowing money, after living through
the hardships of the 1930s.

They managed to instill that same fear in me -- but I suspect that
attitude has been diluted over time, thus explaining the huge debt
loads so many people are now comfortable bearing.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...
Kyle Boatright wrote:
4 different Exec's have been housed in the hangar next to mine over the
years. Two were converted to the Jet Exec configuration. The
conventional Exec's seemed to have a very bad ratio of flying time to
maintenance time, and the Jet Exec's were at least as bad, and both had
serious powertrain failures in the few hours they flew.

I never saw any of them leave the traffic pattern other than on a
trailer.

If you want a helicopter, I suggest the Robinsons. I honestly don't
believe you'll get any utility whatsoever out of an Exec of any flavor...

That is interesting as your assessment is quite different than what I've
heard and read elsewhere. If they are really this bad, then their current
effort to certify the design should be a real problem.


A strong interest in homebuilt helos drew me to the PRA convention in Dallas
a few years ago. But after seeing EVERYTHING including the infamous Carter
Copter, trailered in, it certainly changed my perspective. The only fly in
craft I recall were a few gyros from the surrounding areas. Even folks from
100 miles or so, trailered in.

Based on the description of your location and desires, I'd rather consider 2
place ultralight, licensed as an experimental. With the right craft you
might be able to find a suitable storage and landing site much closer to
home. And the overall costs are a fraction.