Student Drop-Out Rates...why?

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
...
Gasoline is only now getting back to the price it was (in real terms)
back in the 1980s.

Don't fall for that propaganda regarding "1981 prices, in today's
dollars." There was a spike in crude prices during the Iran-Iraq war.
Retail price, in real dollars, on either side of that spike (late 70's
and mid-80s) were significantly less than today.

Fred F.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Well, I don't think a Corvette is going to appreciate as much as a
common single engine plane.

A used Corvette will appreciate just as fast as a used Piper, and a new Piper
will depreciate just as fast as a new Corvette.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

Michael wrote:
All good points but a huge difference between flying and riding a Harley is
the amount of time from when you start spending money until you start having
fun.

I'm not convinced that's true. I know that most people (at least in
Houston) who buy a Harley who have never ridden before take a course
that starts Friday evening, goes all through the weekend, and I think
there's some finishup Monday. That would be enough time to solo a
tri-gear LSA.

For those who really must have the one-day training course, there is
always the powered parachute.

Which raises an interesting question about focusing more effort on
making an airplane that is simpler to fly. Langewiesche talked about
designing out the need for the rudder and things like drag brakes that
made altitude/airspeed control easier.

I've thought that the magic formula would be if you had a course of
instruction that could be finished in 7 days. Then you set up schools
in vacation destinations. Dad (or mom) takes flying lessons during the
day while the SO plays golf or gets spa treatments and the kids splash
in the pool.

-cwk.

You need three things to fly: Time, money, and to live near an airport.

For most folks, only two are available at any given time.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:31:55 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:

If I could do it, anyone can do it.

Bull.
The median income in the U.S. today is about $50,000. *LOTS* of people in the
States cannot afford flight training. Many more regard it as a complete waste of
money, and for them, it probably would be.

Yes, I agree with you that there are a lot of people who can not
afford flight training and most of them are not in a position to
expect to do so later on. I'm excluding that portion of the
population/work force in college or just a year or two out.

What's the average? I would expect the average to be quite a bit
below the median as there are just a few very high incomes that skew
the median up. The last Census (2000) put the household median at
$41,994 so I'd expect it to be close to $50,000 now. There is a 2002
survey that put it a bit over $42,000

What is exasperating is trying to find the average rather than the
middle number or median. The US keeps household income compared to a
median. Canada keeps it according to average. Whether higher or lower
the average is a much more meaningful number than median. I would
*guess* there are far more households making less than the median that
there are making more.

After nearly an hour and a half trying to find the average US income I
have given up.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:47:34 -0700, unicate wrote:

"Kyle Boatright" wrote:
Aviation is getting old. I'm 40 now, and for 12 years have been the
youngest person hanging out at airport and the youngest person in my EAA
chapter. When a new guy shows up who's 28, he sees all the old farts (maybe
I'm one too in his eyes), and looks for a younger crowd to hang with. This
doesn't help.

I agree with that. Most under 30 at our airport are only there to get
whatever ratings they need to get to the airlines and then they're outta
there. Nearly everyone that "hangs out" there, socializes there, flies
together for *fun* outside of training, is at least 40 and up, and the
40-60s are the "younger" ones. The majority are 60+ ... not that there's
anything wrong with that!!

We've had a number of teen agers get their PPL over the past few
years. We actively promote aviation in the schools and through EAA
Chapter 1093. Still the average age is probably around 40, give or
take some change.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Roger wrote:

The last Census (2000) put the household median at
$41,994 so I'd expect it to be close to $50,000 now. There is a 2002
survey that put it a bit over $42,000

I would expect it to be considerably less after the off-shoring rush that got
rolling in 2003.

About 6 months ago, NPR reported that the number of jobs created for the quarter
had finally exceeded the number of jobs lost. For the first time, most of those
new jobs went to Spanish-Americans. That means that most of them pay diddly-squat.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

In article ,
Roger wrote:

I would
*guess* there are far more households making less than the median that
there are making more.

huh?

--
Bob Noel
no one likes an educated mule

Umm -- the definition of median is that half the range is higher and half is
lower. This means that if the median is $42,000, and there are 100 million
households, then 50 million households make more than $42k.

In fact the average income is higher, because it's pulled up by the very
wealthy households making millions per year, and that's not offset by
households making negative income (we don't allow individuals to rack up
millions in debt -- only corporations). The mathematical average might be
around $60k or even higher.

Seth

"Roger" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:31:55 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:

If I could do it, anyone can do it.

Bull.
The median income in the U.S. today is about $50,000. *LOTS* of people in
the
States cannot afford flight training. Many more regard it as a complete
waste of
money, and for them, it probably would be.

Yes, I agree with you that there are a lot of people who can not
afford flight training and most of them are not in a position to
expect to do so later on. I'm excluding that portion of the
population/work force in college or just a year or two out.

What's the average? I would expect the average to be quite a bit
below the median as there are just a few very high incomes that skew
the median up. The last Census (2000) put the household median at
$41,994 so I'd expect it to be close to $50,000 now. There is a 2002
survey that put it a bit over $42,000

What is exasperating is trying to find the average rather than the
middle number or median. The US keeps household income compared to a
median. Canada keeps it according to average. Whether higher or lower
the average is a much more meaningful number than median. I would
*guess* there are far more households making less than the median that
there are making more.

After nearly an hour and a half trying to find the average US income I
have given up.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

I can't help thinking that if we made learning to fly a lot easier, and made
airplanes a lot simpler to fly safely, and made them as cheap as cars --
then they'd be as common as cars and we'd be bitching about all the newbies
cluttering up our airspace. We'd have midair collisions every day, across
the country. A lot of us would quit in frustration.

Like the man said, "It's supposed to be hard. If it was easy, everyone
would do it."

Seth

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:BjQOe.2824$SW1.387@trndny09...
Jay Honeck wrote:

Well, I don't think a Corvette is going to appreciate as much as a
common single engine plane.

A used Corvette will appreciate just as fast as a used Piper, and a new
Piper will depreciate just as fast as a new Corvette.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.