The Airport Fence

EridanMan writes:

Fwiw, and I've only been flying a year and a half now, but if
anything, I've been watching the Bay Area GA community growing
stronger since I started. The other day I got talking with the San
Carlos (SQL) Manager, and he mentioned that they are now on track to
break 200k operations this year, well above the 170k they saw last
year, in fact, they're now well past the threshold where their
contract tower is supposed to be replaced with an official FAA tower
here shortly (not entirely sure what that means, I'm just quoting).

Among my social circle (young, bay area tech dorks), there has been a
_sharp_ upswing of interest in GA in the past year. When I first
started flight training, my co-workers and friends could hardly
comprehend that was something a person could even do. Now, a year and
a half later, I'm giving two or so bay tours a week to various friends
and acquaintances, and I know at least three others who are actively
working towards their PPL, and when the topic comes up at social
gatherings, you here lots of "Oh yeah! I have a friend who does that!
I've been thinking about getting started myself.", a sentiment that I
never heard when I started flying.

So yeah, take it for what its worth... but to say the GA worlds news
is _ALL_ bleak is certainly an over-generalization.

How much do you make per year?

By most metrics my social circle is quite wealthy, but not
'extraordinarily' so. Upper middle class engineers.

For the past five years, my strata has been obsessed with real
estate. All spare resources dedicated to latching on to every-
increasing property values. This past year, that has utterly died...
Those of us who still have not bought have realized we will not be
buying for a few years until housing prices return to some semblance
of sanity (fundamentals), and even those who did buy are cashing out
now while they're still above water.

The result has been more funds available for something other than real-
estate among my local upper-middle-class peers. For many of them,
this is the first time in their life they've had any income
'surplus,', having been dragged by the real estate boom from basically
the start of their professional careers. Take a surplus of money, add
an engineer mentality that _adores_ its toys and loves 'out there'
hobbies and experiences, and I think the resurgence of aviation in
Silicon Valley is hardly surprising.

I'm in NO WAY saying that this particular region is indicative of the
rest of the country, nor do I believe that the growth in bay area
Aviation can in any way offset losses throughout 'bread and butter'
America. I'm just saying that the picture isn't _ALL_ bleak.

EridanMan writes:

For the past five years, my strata has been obsessed with real
estate. All spare resources dedicated to latching on to every-
increasing property values.

Sounds like a stratum of gamblers, eager to get something for nothing.

The best reason for buying land is to have it, not to resell it.

This past year, that has utterly died...
Those of us who still have not bought have realized we will not be
buying for a few years until housing prices return to some semblance
of sanity (fundamentals), and even those who did buy are cashing out
now while they're still above water.

Land speculation, like the stock market, is legalized gambling.

The result has been more funds available for something other than real-
estate among my local upper-middle-class peers. For many of them,
this is the first time in their life they've had any income
'surplus,', having been dragged by the real estate boom from basically
the start of their professional careers. Take a surplus of money, add
an engineer mentality that _adores_ its toys and loves 'out there'
hobbies and experiences, and I think the resurgence of aviation in
Silicon Valley is hardly surprising.

That's the key: a surplus of money. Something that most people in the U.S. no
longer have. The vast middle class that once existed and had enough extra
cash to do interesting things is being driven out of existence, and what
remains are the very wealthy and those living at subsistence levels--very
similar to the late 19th century, in fact.

I'm in NO WAY saying that this particular region is indicative of the
rest of the country, nor do I believe that the growth in bay area
Aviation can in any way offset losses throughout 'bread and butter'
America. I'm just saying that the picture isn't _ALL_ bleak.

There will always be someplace where GA is healthy. But unless those areas
don't plan to ever undertake flights anywhere else, you do need a certain
critical mass of GA in order to justify and/or pay for infrastructure.

Sounds like a stratum of gamblers, eager to get something for nothing.

The best reason for buying land is to have it, not to resell it.

Land speculation, like the stock market, is legalized gambling.

I can't disagree.

That's the key: a surplus of money. Something that most people in the U.S. no
longer have. The vast middle class that once existed and had enough extra
cash to do interesting things is being driven out of existence, and what
remains are the very wealthy and those living at subsistence levels--very
similar to the late 19th century, in fact.

Again, by and large, I can't disagree.

There will always be someplace where GA is healthy. But unless those areas
don't plan to ever undertake flights anywhere else, you do need a certain
critical mass of GA in order to justify and/or pay for infrastructure.

I would love to see a study done on the proportion of local to
transient operations at 'small town' GA airports over the past few
decades. It seems to me these days that these small town airports
exist more and more to attract and cater to give the Urbanite GA
flyers incentive to come and spend their money, rather than to support
their own local GA ecosystem.

At all too many rural airstrips these days, It seems a majority of the
'local' aircraft on the flight-line are clearly no-longer airworthy...
At field after field, I see dozens of aircraft just sitting on the
ramp rotting and sheltering weeds, and the _only_ time I hear any
traffic on CTAF, it's other transients moving through.

Being young (both in age, and especially as a pilot), I have no idea
how 'new' of a development this is... but its certainly striking.

wrote in
:

On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:25:49 +0200, Mxsmanic wrote:


How much do you make per year?

You never give up.


Anyone making more than ten cents per hour is rich to MXmoron.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:25:49 +0200, Mxsmanic wrote:


How much do you make per year?

You never give up.

If you have to ask.........

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:52:52 GMT, Ron Lee wrote:

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

Down.

According to statistics kept by the FAA, the number of private pilots is
down from 299,000 to 236,000 and the average age of the pilots is rising.

The number of student pilots is down by about a third since 1990, from
129,000 to 88,000.

--
Dallas