Is this the death of GA

On Feb 23, 5:30 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:


that was 74ish..?

Nah, much later for a Cherokee 140,. and that was at an FBO. remember,
gas was only a bit over 60 cents a gallon in 74. Even in 78 I remember
flying a Citabria for under 20 an hour and that has the same engine. I
was paying $14 an hour for a 172, club rates, in 1976. That was wet
BTW. I think Monthly dues were about the same. If you were in the NYC
area it was probably a few bucks more, but only a few.

Bertie

$20/hour in 76 would be $76/hour today. $14 = $53.

Any 172s here in Western Pennsylvania run around $90/hour at an FBO.

Based on this (albeit tiny) data, we can assume the costs of aviation
have exceeded net inflation.

I would expect the additional costs would be due to the faster-than-
inflation rise in the cost of insurance + and the cost of replacement
parts (most parts have insurance costs embedded in them as well).

An interesting study would be the liability insurance burden of the
cost of an airplane built in 1974 and one built in 2008.

But there has to be a cost reduction factor as well, due to increased
efficiency in all aspects of production.

Any economists or industry savvy CPAs care to chime in?

Dan