Common instruments on small aircraft

Bart wrote:

Much snippage....

You guys that have the equipment, money, resources and the situation to
make your GA flying practical for transportation - that's great. But
don't fool yourselves into thinking that it's par for the course.

That's really the point.

Many of us have had times in our lives where car
ownership was not practical. OTOH, most of us
would now not find a bicycle to be practical for
a day-to-day means of transportation.

"Practical" is absolutely relative to a person's
financial resources, time, geographical location
and other individual issues.

Jim Stewart writes:

Many of us have had times in our lives where car
ownership was not practical. OTOH, most of us
would now not find a bicycle to be practical for
a day-to-day means of transportation.

"Practical" is absolutely relative to a person's
financial resources, time, geographical location
and other individual issues.

And practicality in a broad sense must be determined with respect to
financial resources of typical people in the majority. Most people
simply cannot afford to fly from place to place, and so GA is not
practical for their transportation at all. People who fly as pilots
find excuses to fly, but as a general rule, their flying is impossible
to justify in any practical way--they fly because they want to fly,
period, even though they fly at a tremendous loss. It's interesting
that some seem to feel they must deny this and defend their flying as
some sort of practical solution to a practical problem. GA is almost
never in that category.

In fact, the impracticality of GA is what has driven the development
of commercial aviation. Commercial aviation has spent decades
developing methods to fly reliably from place to place under all
weather conditions, with minimum cancellations and diversions, and at
an affordable cost. Commercial aviation has tried to make flying
something akin to taking a train or bus, and it has largely succeeded.
This is something that GA has never done and never will do.

I'm amused by the perpetual predictions of misinformed or
overenthusiastic futurists who seem to think that at some point in the
future everyone will be flying a personal flying machine instead of
driving a car. I don't see that ever happening, for a great many
reasons. Certainly there has been no movement whatsoever in that
direction. In fact, over time, GA has steadily become more and more
of a rich man's hobby, rather than a form of practical transportation.

And, if the truth be told, I think that GA that worked like automobile
transportation does today would be a total disaster for society. The
unforgiving nature of flying tends to ensure that this will never
happen.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Mxsmanic wrote:
In fact, over time, GA has steadily become more and more
of a rich man's hobby, rather than a form of practical transportation.

In Alaska, GA is often the only form of practical transportation. In May of
1999, there was one aircraft and one pilot for every 61 Alaskans [1]. Small
planes are a common sight and links [2] and [3] are examples of what one
might see at any sizeable lake with houses on its shores.

[1] http://sled.alaska.edu/akfaq/aksuper.html
[2] http://trips.lugojweb.com/trips2005/alaska/day14.html
(Advance to photo 10.)
[3] http://trips.lugojweb.com/trips2005/alaska/day20.html
(Advance to photos 2 and 3.)

Jim Logajan writes:

In Alaska, GA is often the only form of practical transportation.

So I've heard ... but you have to admit that Alaska is kind of a
special case (for one thing, it's almost as big as the CONUS). It
must be a nice place for people who like to fly.

Looks like Hawaii is also fertile ground for GA, but for somewhat
different reasons.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
.. .
Many of us have had times in our lives where car
ownership was not practical. OTOH, most of us
would now not find a bicycle to be practical for
a day-to-day means of transportation.

"Practical" is absolutely relative to a person's
financial resources, time, geographical location
and other individual issues.

Agreed... There was a time in my life where a bicycle was a practical means
of transportation... As my economic situation improved, it progressed to a
motorcycle... Then to various cars, SUVs, trucks, etc... At one point it was
sports cars -- perhaps we shouldn't use the term 'practical' with respect to
some of them... grin These days, my economic situation allows me the
option to choose whichever means of transportation is more suitable for the
moment or perhaps whatever I'm in the mood for... I can throw two bikes in
the back of my plane, fly down to Galveston and bike along the sea wall...
Hmmm... I wonder if those simmers can do *that*...