Hope for the future

1) The airline pilot's career will likely never have the shine it once had.
Salaries are down (WAY down, in some cases) job security as well, and the
"glamor" of intercontinental flying is tarnished.

Yeah, I wonder what's going to happen when you project this trend out
20 years. With so few military pilots in the pipeline, and now fewer
privately trained pilots interested in pursuing flying as a career, the
stars seem aligned to create a huge pilot shortage in the year 2027 or
so... This should drive salaries back up, of course.

The glamor of international travel is all but gone. Mary and I have
talked extensively about flying to Europe, but each time we consider
the agony of flying across the Atlantic with the kids in a cattle car
we decide to fly our own plane somewhere. Between the discomfort of
commercial flying, and the famously less-than-welcoming attitude of
many Europeans, it's just easier to spend our tourist dollar in the
Western hemisphere. God knows there are plenty of places we haven't
yet seen on our side of the pond that are reachable in Atlas.

2)Utility for the individual or small business flyer is diminished. In the
50's and early '60's it was easy to find personal aircraft with TAS
comparable to what were then considered to be airliners (DC-3's). This
combined with the proximity of local airports led to a prodigious utility
gain for those who could afford it.

So true. I know that people in the 1950s were aware of what the
then-new interstate highway system was going to do to rail travel --
but I don't think anyone much considered what they would to to
aviation. Back when it took 8 hours to drive to Chicago from here,
flying your company's Twin Beech made a lot of sense. Now, it's a 4.5
hour drive, which most businessmen will do in a day, especially when it
saves hundreds of dollars to do so.

And, of course, everyone knows what happened to commuter air service.
With the advent of freeways, (and, more importantly, the loss of
airmail contracts) commuter air lines went the way of the dinosaur.
Let's hope the VLJs can bring it back!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"