Are People Still Flying As Much Around You?

Jay Honeck wrote:
Mary and I have noticed a substantial (and depressing) drop off in personal
flying of late. Often we are the only plane in the pattern, nowadays.

Worse, we've notice far fewer people talking to ATC -- which indicates that
this may not be a local phenomenon. On Sunday, for example, we flew 90
minutes over to Rantoul, IL, and back, and heard maybe three other planes,
the whole way, outside of "working" aircraft. (And one of them was Jim
Burns, who was with us!)

We *do* tend to fly at "off" times (Sunday afternoons; Wednesdays and
Thursdays, mostly) -- but the change we're noticing has been pretty dramatic
since gas prices spiked. There just doesn't seem to be nearly as many
people flying.

Anyone else noticing this?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

One of the flying group owners of the group I belong to told me they're
selling off one of the older 172's. I aksed if they were going to
replace it and he said "Not unless I have to. Nobody's flying anything
right now. Gas prices are killing us."

I do know that early this year if I didn't call a week or two in
advance I had trouble scheduling a 172 for training (the group had 4).
Now I routinely call a day in advance and have my pick. And most of the
time all the others are sitting on the tie downs when I go out to fly.
I just hope the group stays together long enough for me to finish my
PP.

John Stevens
Solo Student, ~35 hours