The slowly death of General Aviation in the U.S.

SteveCostello said:
This. I love this thread... but man, do I ever hate this title. No offense to the OP. My eyes bleed, my brain hurts, and the Grammar Nazi in me becomes hard to control.

Grammar_Nazis____The_Motivator_by_ZlayaHozyayka_1323731.jpg
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This is really kinda funny, The "Grammar Nazis" misspelled "time" with "tine"!:bounce:
 
jskibo said:
$750 here and $49 a month

Choice of four aircraft

152 $75
172 $85 ( new engine this month)
177 $95
M20P $95

$500 of your buy in comes back when you leave.....
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I like how you can fly a Mooney for just $20/hr more than a 152...
 
Forget GA. Take up sailing. After having the local flight school tell me that they wanted me to do a 10 hour checkout (cost: $2,000) just to be able to rent one of their "fancy" Diamond airplanes (because apparently over a decade and thousands of hours of glass experience just isn't enough), I decided to forget renting airplanes for fun. I got my sailing certifications instead. For less than a quarter of the cost of getting your private certificate, you can get all of the sailing certifications necessary to charter a sailboat. And then the charter cost is less per entire day than it costs to rent that Diamond two-seater for just a couple of hours. Trust me, sailing is every bit as much fun as flying GA. And the cost is far less.

Flying is a good way to make a living. It's a crappy idea for a hobby, though.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Forget GA. Take up sailing. After having the local flight school tell me that they wanted me to do a 10 hour checkout (cost: $2,000) just to be able to rent one of their "fancy" Diamond airplanes (because apparently over a decade and thousands of hours of glass experience just isn't enough), I decided to forget renting airplanes for fun. I got my sailing certifications instead. For less than a quarter of the cost of getting your private certificate, you can get all of the sailing certifications necessary to charter a sailboat. And then the charter cost is less per entire day than it costs to rent that Diamond two-seater for just a couple of hours. Trust me, sailing is every bit as much fun as flying GA. And the cost is far less.

Flying is a good way to make a living. It's a crappy idea for a hobby, though.
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That does sound fun and someday I'd like to do the same but you could also step the GA down a couple notches and find a J-3 to rent for barely anything at all compared to that Diamond. Or a share of a Cub or similar.
 
Around this area, I haven't been able to find anything like that. Even the local flying club with a pretty old school C172 wants a 10 hour checkout. In an airplane type that I used to instruct in! Ridiculous. I'm not dealing with that crap. Rent me the airplane that I'm obviously qualified to fly, or forget getting my business. I'm not doing these crazy checkout requirements that I have to pay for.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Around this area, I haven't been able to find anything like that. Even the local flying club with a pretty old school C172 wants a 10 hour checkout. In an airplane type that I used to instruct in! Ridiculous. I'm not dealing with that crap. Rent me the airplane that I'm obviously qualified to fly, or forget getting my business. I'm not doing these crazy checkout requirements that I have to pay for.
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Fair enough. Why don't you buy a plane, or a share, if you really wanted to fly GA. I'm sure money isn't a problem for you
 
ATN_Pilot said:
I have considered that. Especially since you can find great deals right now. I'm just not quite sure that I would fly it enough to justify the fixed costs.
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Very true. I'll be interested to see exactly what my first year fixed costs end up being. I will keep people up to date on it. I don't think it will be much, but then again, when you can find a country airport to get a hangar at for less than $100/month, it shouldn't be too high
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Around this area, I haven't been able to find anything like that. Even the local flying club with a pretty old school C172 wants a 10 hour checkout. In an airplane type that I used to instruct in! Ridiculous. I'm not dealing with that crap. Rent me the airplane that I'm obviously qualified to fly, or forget getting my business. I'm not doing these crazy checkout requirements that I have to pay for.
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What a joke. I soloed in less than 10 hours.
 
My Cessna 140 has been in storage for the past year. But when I was flying it on a regular basis, I budgeted about $6000/year for everything. That's hangar, insurance, fuel, oil, maintanence, everything. I didn't look at it from an hourly perspective at all. I just said to myself, "I'm going to throw $6000 at this machine and have as much fun as I want for a year." I think to enjoy GA, a person needs to look at it this way. Either they can afford it, or they can't. Personally, I really love flying and would much rather put $6k into an airplane rather than a nice car or nicer apartment/house or whatever. It's easy to come up with the money when it's a priority. But I understand not everyone sees it the same way.
 
jrh said:
My Cessna 140 has been in storage for the past year. But when I was flying it on a regular basis, I budgeted about $6000/year for everything. That's hangar, insurance, fuel, oil, maintanence, everything. I didn't look at it from an hourly perspective at all. I just said to myself, "I'm going to throw $6000 at this machine and have as much fun as I want for a year." I think to enjoy GA, a person needs to look at it this way. Either they can afford it, or they can't. Personally, I really love flying and would much rather put $6k into an airplane rather than a nice car or nicer apartment/house or whatever. It's easy to come up with the money when it's a priority. But I understand not everyone sees it the same way.
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Do you spread that cost over the whole year, take the costs as they come, or do you do the deal where you charge yourself all of the fixed costs on your first hour of the year?
 
SteveCostello said:
Do you spread that cost over the whole year, take the costs as they come, or do you do the deal where you charge yourself all of the fixed costs on your first hour of the year?
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I set aside $400-$500 each month year-round. I didn't fly much in the winter, so the money would pile up during those months. As I flew more in the summer, the money would dwindle down but always be there. Not very precise budgeting, but it always worked for me.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Around this area, I haven't been able to find anything like that. Even the local flying club with a pretty old school C172 wants a 10 hour checkout. In an airplane type that I used to instruct in! Ridiculous. I'm not dealing with that crap. Rent me the airplane that I'm obviously qualified to fly, or forget getting my business. I'm not doing these crazy checkout requirements that I have to pay for.
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I usually quote the worst-case-scenario when someone asks for a price. In reality, almost always ends up being far less.
 
jskibo said:
Last time I went sailing it lasted 6 months and they made me work 12 hours a day.....

No thanks, had enough of the USS Kitty Hawk ;)
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Powerboating!
ATN_Pilot said:
Around this area, I haven't been able to find anything like that. Even the local flying club with a pretty old school C172 wants a 10 hour checkout. In an airplane type that I used to instruct in! Ridiculous. I'm not dealing with that crap. Rent me the airplane that I'm obviously qualified to fly, or forget getting my business. I'm not doing these crazy checkout requirements that I have to pay for.
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Other than flaring at 30' (this tendency recently observed in my dad), I'm sure you haven't forgotten how to fly the 172. And I'm also sure it wouldn't take you 10 hours to figure out the flare height.
 
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