The Airport Fence

It's almost as satisfying as flying. I can't describe it, but I do
encourge it, if you are able to steal 10 or 15 minutes out of a busy
day. It is well worth it for all concerned.

We need to clone John, and get one of him stationed at every airport
fence in America. Within 15 years, the airports would be booming
again.

Great job -- and thanks for sharing the story!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

It's almost as satisfying as flying. I can't describe it, but I do
encourge it, if you are able to steal 10 or 15 minutes out of a busy
day. It is well worth it for all concerned.

We need to clone John, and get one of him stationed at every airport
fence in America. Within 15 years, the airports would be booming
again.

Jay Honeck

GA activity at my airport with over 400 planes is not great. Perhaps
100 plus ops a day where a T&G counts as two ops.

What is the general status of GA activity around the country?

Ron Lee

GA activity at my airport with over 400 planes is not great. Perhaps
100 plus ops a day where a T&G counts as two ops.

What is the general status of GA activity around the country?

Our airport has been much more active this last month, after a VERY
down period. From January through June, I'll bet flying was down 30%
from the year prior -- but starting right before Oshkosh things really
started to pick up.

I'm hopeful that it will continue, as people come to grips with $4-per-
gallon avgas....
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56933
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

I'm hopeful that it will continue, as people come to grips with $4-per-
gallon avgas....
--

Come to grips? That is pretty cheap.

Typical price in Canada 1.37 to 1.50 per litre, so multiply that by 3.8

Take off six cents per dollar for the exchange.

Yes, I would come to grips pretty easily with that.

John

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:54:58 -0400, The Visitor
wrote in
:

Typical price in Canada 1.37 to 1.50 per litre

Have you noticed a decrease in GA activity in Canada?

On Aug 23, 8:55 am, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:54:58 -0400, The Visitor
wrote in
:

Typical price in Canada 1.37 to 1.50 per litre

Have you noticed a decrease in GA activity in Canada?

Yup. Transport Canada says that in some areas of the country
flight training is down 50%. At the airport where I learned to fly in
the early '70s there used to be three flight schools; two were busy
enough and the third did some float training. The tiedown area was
covered in airplanes. Now there's one flight school with a couple of
Katanas, and both were tied down off in a corner the other day when I
was there. Maybe a quarter of the old number of airplanes tied down
outside, with a few more in hangars. No kids at the fence. And this in
a city that has seen the population double in that time.
There just isn't the interest in it anymore. Too many other
forms of entertainment, both the electronic kind and things like ATVs
and a bunch of other machines we didn't have in the '70s. The dollars
that used to go into flying now go into home theaters, jetskis, quads,
computers and Xboxes. And SUVs. And second and third and fourth
vehicles. Into $50,000 home renovations. Into trips to exotic places.
You can only afford so many things, and when so much is
available, the dollars get spread a lot thinner.

Dan

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:22:13 -0700, wrote
in . com:

On Aug 23, 8:55 am, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:54:58 -0400, The Visitor
wrote in
:

Typical price in Canada 1.37 to 1.50 per litre

Have you noticed a decrease in GA activity in Canada?

Yup. Transport Canada says that in some areas of the country
flight training is down 50%. At the airport where I learned to fly in
the early '70s there used to be three flight schools; two were busy
enough and the third did some float training. The tiedown area was
covered in airplanes. Now there's one flight school with a couple of
Katanas, and both were tied down off in a corner the other day when I
was there. Maybe a quarter of the old number of airplanes tied down
outside, with a few more in hangars. No kids at the fence. And this in
a city that has seen the population double in that time.
There just isn't the interest in it anymore. Too many other
forms of entertainment, both the electronic kind and things like ATVs
and a bunch of other machines we didn't have in the '70s. The dollars
that used to go into flying now go into home theaters, jetskis, quads,
computers and Xboxes. And SUVs. And second and third and fourth
vehicles. Into $50,000 home renovations. Into trips to exotic places.
You can only afford so many things, and when so much is
available, the dollars get spread a lot thinner.

Dan

Does this mean that NavCanada will be forced to increase its
privatized ATC fees as a result of their operating costs being spread
over a smaller number of users?

Apparently they think there is more, not less, flying occurring, so
given your report, the increase must be a result of airline traffic
not GA:


http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.as...007\nr0731.xml
NAV CANADA reports May and June traffic figure

(Ottawa, July 31, 2007) - NAV CANADA today announced its traffic
figures for May and June 2007, as measured in weighted charging
units for enroute, terminal and oceanic air navigation services,
in comparison to the same months in 2006.

The traffic in May and June increased by an average of 4.5 per
cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively, compared to the same months
in 2006.

Fiscal year-to-date traffic was 4.6 per cent higher than in fiscal
year 2006. NAV CANADA’s fiscal year runs from September 1 to
August 31. ...




http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.as...007\nr0712.xml
NAV CANADA reduces service charges by 4% on August 1

(Ottawa, July, 12, 2007) - NAV CANADA today announced that it
would be proceeding with reductions in its customer service
charges totalling 4 per cent effective August 1, 2007.

This will include a 3 per cent reduction already announced, that
will come into effect August 1, 2007, one month ahead of the
original proposed date of September 1, 2007. In addition, the
Company has decided to add a temporary 1 per cent reduction for
the period August 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008. ...

With the reduction announced today, overall NAV CANADA service
charges will have grown only six per cent since they were fully
implemented in 1999 - an estimated 14 percentage points below the
growth in inflation. ...

Details:

http://www.navcanada.ca/ContentDefin...0712_12_en.pdf

It's not the purported "disappearance" of the middle class that has
affected GA. People have more reay cash than ever for luxury items. The
insurance companies have killed off the flight schools and rentals in all
but the most prosperous locations. The general liabilityconsciosness of
our society has affected mentalities, and the fuel crunch has done the
rest.

I wish I could believe otherwise, but I think it is an unrcoverable flat
spin. . .

Can't say I have really. For those that have dropped out, many more have
come in. Lessons are very busy, new hangars selling very well. The
airports that are slow, have always been slow. And perhaps they have
slowed down and I am not there to see it. Southern Ontario seems very busy.


Larry Dighera wrote:

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:54:58 -0400, The Visitor
wrote in
:


Typical price in Canada 1.37 to 1.50 per litre


Have you noticed a decrease in GA activity in Canada?

On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:19:50 -0400, The Visitor
wrote:

Can't say I have really. For those that have dropped out, many more have
come in.

My other expensive hobby is opera. The opera newsgroups are always
moaning that the audience is dying--just look at them! They're all so
old!

What they neglect to factor in is that there is an endless supply of
old farts to go to the opera, that they're living longer, that they
have more money, and that they're about to be joined by the Baby
Boomers. Almost all the performances I go to are sold out, at least in
the expensive seats.

In the first half of the 20th century there were three classes: poor,
middle, and upper. Then by the 1950s plumbers and auto workers were
making more money than teachers, so we changed working class to middle
class, so we had underclass, middle class, and wealthy.

Gradually however the (temporary) forces that made American workers so
valuable began to disappear with the economic recovery first of
Europe, then of Japan and the Asian Tigers, and now of China, India,
and the rest.

However, it's still true that a Detroit autoworker earns $75 an hour
including bennies. So for an hour of work he can take a 45 minute
lesson at my local airport.

Amazingly enough, a Tennessee autoworker on "Japanese" cars earns
almost as much. He too can well afford to take flying lessons.

I was young in the 1940s and graduated from college in the 1950s. The
minimum wage was 45 cents an hour, and lessons cost $7 an hour. That's
about the same ratio as today.

I suspect the main reason folks can't afford flying is that they're
spending so much on swimming pools, whole house air conditioning, and
trips with the kids to Disney World, none of which existed for us in
1954.

And speaking of the 1950s--gasoline was 29.9 cents a gallon. That was
actually MORE expensive by earning power than $3.60 gas is today. Try
to hire a college student today for the price of two gallons of gas!

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com