How to promote this thing we do (long post)

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in message
...
Ken Finney wrote:
SNIP
Now, how do we get this same attitude out to the masses? I've
thought of forming my own EAA chapter just to get the 5-10 folks
that I know locally re-involved. That's a start, but it's gonna
take much more than just us.

Are the AOPA and EAA not getting along? I was planning on joining
AOPA at Arlington, but didn't see an AOPA booth. I'm sure they have
been there in the past, unless I just missed them this year, for them
not to be there verges on the criminal. The EAA is supposed to be
announcing "some major efforts" to recruit pilots. I have a
suggestion, once this user-fee thing is killed, the group they have
formed to fight it, the AAAA, should be used as the vehicle to
promote aviation.


Have I missed something? What's the AAAA?

Also, as some of you might remember I floated the idea in this newsgroup
of the AOPA working with FBOs to work with students that for what ever
reason don't finish training. It was suggested that I send the idea to
AOPA. I did via e-mail and haven't heard back from them.


http://www.aviationacrossamerica.com/

There have been a couple of threads recently bemoaning the lack
of young pilots, and the perhaps-related impending death of GA,
and questioning how to revive GA.

This is my perspective (spoiler: no solutions offered):

I earned my PP-SEL license on June 30 2007, about 30 years after I
first
entertained the notion of learning to fly (but only about 7 months
after
starting to learn). Why? It's a challenge, and it is fun.
But it is expensive and it took time.

I first rode in a small plane about 30 years ago. A couple of my
colleagues flew out of Oakland. One day I got to fly in the
right hand seat to Mendocino for lunch. Later I flew with more of a
daredevil doing whalewatching interspersed with some close-to-zero-g
maneuvers (in a C-172). It was great fun. But it would have
cost me over one year's salary (as a grad student) to learn to fly.

In the intervening 30 years I've ridden close to 1 million miles on
United Airlines, almost always in a window seat, while spending my
money on a house and college tuition. I drive an 18 year old Toyota
(A professor's salary doesn't go very far in New York).
Now that I'm almost done with my children's college tuition (3
semesters
to go), and the mortgage balance is under 5 figures, I can see the
light at
the end of the tunnel.

Call it a pre-emptive strike at my mid-life crisis. I don't have a
hankering
to ride a Harley, and I can't afford a mistress. I gave up sailing
years ago,
and don't have the patience to play golf on crowded public courses.
I stopped my own brewing beer as the supply of good microbrews
expanded.
Some $10,000 later, I'm glad I learned to fly. But $80/hr (for a
C-150)
makes flying an expensive hobby.
And the cost will go up when I start renting a 172, so I can
take the family places. Buying a plane (if that ever proves
economical)
will have to get in line after a new car and a kitchen floor...

What have I learned? Maybe I am, as my wife has opined, a frustrated
astronaut. Flying is still fun, and it is still a challenge. And it's
something different: nobody in my family, and none of my close
friends, flies.
But GA is an expensive hobby (emphasis on any of 3 words - your
choice).
GA is not dependable transportation (hence the need for a new car).
GA is not for everyone (Maybe this is good - I don't
like waiting at the end of a long line of planes on the taxiway).

Is there a future for GA? I certainly hope so. The time committment
does not bother me - you have to weed out people at some level. Flying
is just like driving - but in 3 dimensions rather than one - and it
always will and should require a commensurate committment of time and
effort.
Do we want the skies near uncontrolled airports looking like
Long Island Sound on a warm summer afternoon - full of bozos with
their
powerboats?
At the ripe young age of 53, I am one of the youngest pilots I've seen
at my airport.

Now that I've been through the process,
I don't understand how anyone in their 20s or 30s, with a family and
not independently wealthy, can afford to learn to fly as a hobby
without
financial assistance. Will scholarships and grants help?
Maybe, because reeling them in while they are young is always
worthwhile.
But you've got those continuing expenses...
And I don't know, but I've been told, that GA is no longer as much fun
as it used to be, what with security hassles, the ADIZ, bizjets at
small
airports, etc (it's almost enough to turn a liberal into a
libertarian!).

We live in a society where it is (and always has been) better to be
affluent than not.
It costs $200,000+ to buy a parking space in Manhattan. Boats and
their
maintenance are expensive. A round of golf is no longer cheap in most
places
(if you can get a tee time). Sunday driving is no longer relaxing. You
can't fix
your own car anymore. Why should flying be different?

But I'm not going to worry about the future of GA right now - I'm
going to
enjoy this opportunity while I can. I'll take my wife, my children,
my nieces and nephews, and friends, up to show them the sights, and
if the bug bites, I've done my part. I'll consider buying a plane when
the
time is right (anyone near ISP or HWV interested in sharing
ownership?)
And then I'd like to fly a plane west next summer, stopping off at
Jay Honeck's motel on the way to wherever.

Clear skies,
Fred

"First star to the left, then straight on till morning."
J.M. Barrie

proffmw wrote

But GA is an expensive hobby (emphasis on any of 3 words - your
choice).

What, like, "is an hobby?" g
--
Jim in NC

Andrew Gideon wrote in
news
That's my guess too. So the FBOs aren't [mostly] training people that
are going to go on to aviation careers. Thus, at least in the aggregate
(over all FBOs), they are training the "next generation" of GA-ers.

And that makes them "important" in the task of raising more GA pilots.

Absolutely. And the fact that they generate revenue from it is significant
as well. But I think a better argument is that they need to create pilots
who will buy planes to park at their tiedowns, and bring in to their
service stations.

We've a very different mechanism which may work out about the same. It's
a point-based system. A long booking "costs" 2 points; a short "costs"

[..]

Also, frankly, everyone is pretty good about it. I'd a booking that was
immediately followed by someone else's once. I found I wanted to stay
away longer, and a quick call to the other member made it possible.

That's a pretty cool system. It might be worth exploring if we ever
increase our members-to-plane ratio. Right now, with fewer than 10 members
per plane, scheduling is pretty good... Of course, now I recognize you as
Paramus Flying Club, but admittedly I had to hop online to double check.

Heh Good point. I'll have to remember that if I ever come across my
own unlimited budget grin.

In fact, now that I consider it, we've had and have members that owned
their own aircraft as well. Hmm.

Yeah, those are the best members too because they contribute to the fixed
costs without cluttering up the schedule.

I just recognized you: WFC-HPN.ORG? You're one of the few clubs in the
"neighborhood" with six-seaters. I've noticed that; we have only
four-seaters.

Well I'm not personally the whole club (although I did personally do some
work on the home page and the brochure grin). But yes, that's us. No six-
seaters though. All of our planes currently have 4 seats, but the two V-
Tail Bonanzas have the ability to have a fifth "child seat" installed.

I've also long admired what little I can see about your finances, in that
you seem to keep your aircraft very well equiped for a rather low price.

One of the priorities of the club that almost all members agree with is the
need to keep consistent and useful avionics in the planes. To the point
that when we bought our last two planes, we immediately switched their
avionics to match the rest of the fleet (GNS-480s). There's only one plane
in the fleet that doesn't have a GNS-480, and it's been a topic of debate
because for a while we thought we might be trading it in with the last
purchase instead of just buying the 8th plane. People didn't want to invest
to upgrade the avionics on a plane that wasn't going to be with the club
much longer. There's still an undercurrent of people who think we may end
up selling off that plane... But the club seems to waffle on it.