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

Autothrust Blue said:
Powerboating!

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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110 kts is excessive over the numbers as well, another bad habit of jet drivers. And remembering the thing has rudder pedals
 
drunkenbeagle said:
110 kts is excessive over the numbers as well, another bad habit of jet drivers. And remembering the thing has rudder pedals
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I flew a 182 with a private-instrument rated friend of mine not too long ago after flying the ERJ for a few months. He flew it out and I flew it back to Home Base Municipal. I was chided about going fast on final, but the airplane will stop on a dime. :)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
I flew a 182 with a private-instrument rated friend of mine not too long ago after flying the ERJ for a few months. He flew it out and I flew it back to Home Base Municipal. I was chided about doing 130-140 knots to a 5 mile final.
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Hey, on a 10,000' runway I keep best forward speed til then numbers. But most of 'em are not that long
 
drunkenbeagle said:
110 kts is excessive over the numbers as well, another bad habit of jet drivers. And remembering the thing has rudder pedals
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If you keep 110 kts over the numbers on a Cessna 172 you better have a very long runway in front you if you want to stop and taxi back to the FBO....................
 
Autothrust Blue said:
I flew a 182 with a private-instrument rated friend of mine not too long ago after flying the ERJ for a few months. He flew it out and I flew it back to Home Base Municipal. I was chided about going fast on final, but the airplane will stop on a dime. :)
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More wear on the tires though, and they aint cheap.
 
modernicarus said:
Sporty's too.
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If you relate to this photo you might be a pilot..................:fury:
 
SteveCostello said:
When I started flying 20 years ago in Newport News, VA, I could rent a C152 for $52/hr wet. Today, in St. Louis, that same class of airplane is dancing all too closely to $100/hr. Get into anything with any decent amount of performance and IFR, and you are lucky to find it for $120/hr here. That is an awful lot of money for a 'hobby.' Doing a quick bit o' math, if I wanted to fly 6 hours a month, what I would consider a MINIMUM number of hours just to stay somewhat proficient (and not even get better... just to stay proficient), that's at least $600 a month. That is a really nice car payment. That's groceries. That's a good chunk of a mortgage payment. In short, that is a lot of money.

Over the course of a year, that is $7,200. Just to remain proficient. In a hobby. That's a serious amount of money for just about anyone in the middle class.

Something I have been tossing around is purchasing an aircraft to help defray some of the costs of getting my PPL, IFR, (potentially CPL, depending on the aircraft), and CFI/I. The market on used aircraft is great right now... a decently outfitted C177RG can be had for around $40K. There are hundreds of smaller birds for not much more than $18K, if you don't mind something fairly old and with a TON of hours. Financed over 20 years, the payments on a $40-50K aircraft are very manageable.

Until all the rest of the stuff comes in. Hangar/ramp. Maintenance. Annuals. Maintenance. Upgrades. Maintenance. Insurance (esp. for low timers). Maintenance. Fuel. Maintenance.

Unless some things get changed, I don't see how GA can make it long term.

Cue the folks here that really wouldn't mind GA going away anyway. Burden on the system and all.
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In 1987 I could rent a C-152 for $36 an hour, and hire an instructor for $16 an hour. I could get a Tomahawk for $29 an hour. $52 for an hour of dual instruction. These days $52 will pay for about 1/2 hour in a 152, instructor not included. That's pretty much the reason I gave up flying. Even if I could have afforded to get my license, I would never have been able to afford to keep it up. I just had better uses for that money.
 
Right now I'm grinding my teeth to pay the rather high rates (130 per hour for a 172L, 145 for a 172 SP, 165 for a DA40/G1000) because where I rent has excellent maintenance and the staff are really nice and easy to work with.

That being said, I've been giving strong consideration to finding a field that was closer to me (KJYO is 40mi each way from me) and buying some kind of LSA/cheap TW airplane.

Given financial freedom, there'd likely be an RV-6 or RV-7 in my life, but just don't have the cash.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
...until you can't pass one.
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Sure, but I just don't see that being the big reason GA is shrinking. The people that need to be learning to fly are young to middle-aged, middle to upper-middle class people, but extreme cost and regulatory snafu keep most from even considering it. Add in a media that demonizes it and a culture that does not 'explore', and it's no wonder aviation is shrinking.

Sent via teletype
 
killbilly said:
Right now I'm grinding my teeth to pay the rather high rates (130 per hour for a 172L, 145 for a 172 SP, 165 for a DA40/G1000) because where I rent has excellent maintenance and the staff are really nice and easy to work with.

That being said, I've been giving strong consideration to finding a field that was closer to me (KJYO is 40mi each way from me) and buying some kind of LSA/cheap TW airplane.

Given financial freedom, there'd likely be an RV-6 or RV-7 in my life, but just don't have the cash.
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Easy to find a Luscombe, Aeronca (Chiefs are generally cheaper than Champs), or Taylorcraft that would pencil well when compared to those rates. And, lots more fun as well. Hell, you could band together with one or two like-minded friends in your are and split a brand-new Legend Cub and be cheaper than those rates and have a great airplane.
 
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