Hey Jay...

Its really striking to read this after I just got back from watching
the sun set 2000 feet over Point Reyes (the Western-Most point in
California).

I Bought my bird/passed my check ride at 24, I'm now 25. Being a
pilot in my generation (The "boomerang generation"... how's that for a
distinction) has been a weird experience. Let me put it this way -
when I told my highschool friends that I had just purchased an
aircraft, the reaction I received was... well, frankly, about akin to
that I would I have expected if I had told them I had just been
selected as an astronaut. Its not that they didn't respect it. It
was just that, for this generation, so sheltered by parents who never
wished for them to feel rough ground on their feet, the concept of any
one of their peers taking on a roll with so much risk and
responsibility attached was _literally_ beyond their capacity to
comprehend. "You WHAT?!" "Isn't that dangerous?" "Don't you get
scared?" "That's so cool... I wish I could do that..." The response
ranges from horror to disbelief to jealousy... the only attitude sadly
missing is "cool, how can I get into that?" The idea that flying an
aircraft is an option available to them simply does not exist.

I don't know whether the issue is bad publicity on the part of GA, or
whether it's just a testament to the pathetic nature of my
generation. I'm betting on the latter.

But either way... I mourn it.

The Piper CEO's words bother, but do not surprise me. It's right
along the same lines as my generation's sentiments- that the future of
aviation (and hence the money) lies with the privilidged few. That
the concept that the every day man who possesses the passion and
desire can fly and should be supported in doing so is being lost.
Every day the dream of flight moves further towards that available
only towards the privileged upper echelon.

The young blood is out there... I know many of them... but not nearly
enough. I just wish I knew what I could do about it.

I wish I knew that there was something I could do about it.

But in the end all I can say is screw it. Screw my generation, screw
the affluence-chasing new CEO piper... In the end all that matters is
that I can go watch the sun set from 2000 feet over the Pacific Ocean
on a whim...

And wow, it was beautiful.

-Scott