What Have You Done To Promote General Aviation?
by Bill ~ March 25th, 2009. Filed under: Flying Stories.This morning I was perusing the AOPA Aviation Forum and read through a thread titled, “What Have You Done For GA?” (Note: you need an AOPA login to read the forum.) The pundits are claiming that general aviation is “hurting” – that flying small planes is a dying hobby, avocation and/or vocation. Taxes, fees, security regulations, the encroaching growth of urban areas, and myriad other factors are causing small airports to close and pilots to fly less.
At first I thought I did nothing for GA other than to feed my “habit” of getting into the air every once in a while. But, on reflection, I find I actually do a few things to help promote flying – just by doing what it is that I do. So I put the following thoughts together and tried posting my response to the forum. But, alas, the forum was “timing out” (not too surprisingly), which is an Internet term for “having problems with the site.” So, instead of having my thoughts disappear into cyberspace I thought I would share them with our readers. Here is what I had attempted to share:
- Hey, I’m just a very small player in the field of general aviation. Last year I returned to the skies after a 37 year hiatus (I had allowed life to get in the way).
- I bought an Ercoupe in September and took some people flying.
- I took a close friend often enough that he became interested enough to begin private pilot lessons in January. He soloed in a C-172 (Congratulations, pal!) last evening. I took him out to celebrate afterward.
- I have also started a flying blog about getting back in the air – learning to fly all over again – and about being a private pilot operating under sport pilot rules. Not much of a Web site yet, but it gets nearly 100 visitors every day.
- Our daughter has flown with me and wants to learn. She is a teacher, so I will help her get “formally” involved this summer. She works for my company in the summers so I can make sure she has time to learn to fly.
- One of her assignments will be to keep up posts on the flying blog – about her “learn to fly” experiences.
- In April I begin working on becoming a CFI-Sport. I don’t think I really want to “teach” – but it should make me a safer pilot and is a cool personal goal. Who knows, maybe I will become interested in introducing some folks to the world of Sport Pilot and LSAs – in a more structured way.
- Even though I am not “consciously” working on it (promoting general aviation), maybe I am helping out – just a bit.
So, what are YOU doing to help keep our flying interests alive and functioning well?
March 25th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Sounds like you’re doing just fine to support GA!
I haven’t done all that much either yet, other than getting a friend back into flight training and taking some people up for rides. I suppose I can count the blog, too. And I of course talk about flying with plenty of folks at work and in general.
Nonetheless, every little bit helps. Keep it up!
May 29th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
My little weekly newspaper in Amarillo promotes GA every chance we get. We do stories, run photos of local GA events, etc. I write editorials bashing any politician who calls for user fees.
I am going for a Sport Pilot license at age 64 and a friend and I are convinced we need to chip in on an LSA-eligible Ercoupe. We love the airplane.
I have some hours in “conventional” aircraft, but want to finish in a ‘Coupe either in one at a flight school in Oklahoma or in one we end up sharing here.
As I read about these planes, a question comes to mind about the crosswind landings (and in Amarillo, you better know how to do that because the wind blows here): How do you crab in the models without rudder pedals?
Thanks, and I think I’ll bookmark this blog.
George
September 9th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
GA is dying day by day.Today, I am now an instructor at a small flight school in California.I have worked for several flight schools.Some flight schools are down as much as 40% over the last 2 years and a few have gone out of business. Others are managing to keep sales relatively constant. Some of this is a function of local market conditions.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
As a student at Louisiana Tech University, I have been trying to get involved in as many aviation related organizations as possible.
Flying is my passion and I share that passion with others every chance that I get. It is almost alway more fun to fly with others whether they are a pilot of some sort or just curious about flying.
It is not uncommon for people to ask me, “aren’t you worried about the industry,” and my answer is always “No.” I do not worry about the industry, instead I take every opportunity to enhance the future of the aviation industry. I am in the process of starting an organization with the purpose of Pilots Promoting Aviation. Our goal is to gain an interest from the public reguarding general aviation.
Our aviation promoting methods include distributing pamphlets, giving presentations in local schools, and providing discovery flights for friends.
It is encouraging to hear that others are out there with the same love of flying that I have, keep up the good work!
January 21st, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Well with are computer age and endless activities one can enroll in is literally unlimited. Even are Flight Simulators are getting more and more real. So avation industry is already got a “X” checked beside it. There will come a time GA as we know will no longer exist, just like smoking in public places is prhabited. Why did this happen?? There really isnt a simple asnwer. But the short answer is there is alot of ignorance within companies, engineers and pilots and were not going to bring in the Feds into this. Young generation is to busy, to bother with planes, and its getting harder harder to find good planes without spending 100k plus which most of us dont have. The two planes I own (Cessna 150 and Piper PA 22) I know I probably want have them in twenty years. So what will replace them with something around 30k mark?? I feel it be commercialized in the next fiftenn years and the remaining of small planes will end up as scrap or in farmers barn. Its happening already!!!