writes:

It is a little expensive to learn, I grant you that, but your other
concerns are not as serious as you make them out to be. I got my
ticket from a standing start in 3 months, by squeezing flying in on
weekends and the odd afternoon. Yes, I was fairly committed during
that time (although I still had plenty of time for other things), but
not obsessive. These regulatory hurdles you speak of are nothing - the
medical exam is not strict, the license comes in the mail
automatically after you pass the checkride, insurance is easy to
organize and many clubs offer it as part of their rates. These days I
find it easy to keep up my currency despite the north-eastern weather
(and cheap, too, since I can share the costs of flying with my friends
who come up for a ride).

I'm glad it worked out well for you. It's better to be rich and healthy than
poor and sick, that's for sure. And having lots of free time helps.

You say flying is more difficult than it should be. What would you
suggest? If you could magically swoop in and change things, what would
you change?

Well, costs would have to be reduced drastically, so that the average pilot
could actually own his own aircraft without selling a kidney, and could afford
to operate one without selling the other one. Granted, this could be
challenging in the face of safety requirements and some of the practical
aspects of aviation (you need a place to park a plane, but most homes these
days are already provided with a place to park a car), but requiring
certification for every nut and bolt is probably excessive. Regulations could
probably be lightened up for pilots who don't intend to carry paying
passengers, i.e., you can use uncertified light bulbs in your plane if you're
just flying for yourself. Just carrying passengers should not change this, as
long as they aren't customers. Yes, passengers would be taking a risk if they
flew with a less-than-competent pilot or in a less-than-perfectly-maintained
aircraft, but they do exactly the same thing every day with automobiles.

Also, the medicals should be pretty much eliminated. Pilots are not
astronauts, and anyone who can drive a car is in good enough health to fly an
airplane (of his own--commercial air transport would still need to be more
strict, although not as strict as it is now). There are very few auto
accidents due to someone having a heart attack at the wheel, so there's no
point in worrying about that in an aircraft.

Some of the obstacles seem to be of the nature of flying. I can't see how you
could avoid the commute to and from the airport, or the need for a car to get
to and from the airport at both the departure and destination locations.
These incur a lot of additional costs and consume a lot of time.

Charging for everything by the hour raises costs. A daily rate would be nice,
for those who must rent aircraft; making personal ownership more accessible
would be even better.

Heavy use of full-motion simulators for training could greatly reduce costs
and improve convenience. By using computer-generated and managed scenarios
and recording all flights, the need for an instructor during simulator flight
in order to log it would also be eliminated most of the time.

The whole culture of general aviation for private pilots has been built up
around extremely high costs and red tape, and it would be hard to grind that
all back down to something accessible and affordable. I'm certain, however,
that if all these obstacles didn't exist, aviation would be vastly more
popular than it is now (maybe even _too_ popular).

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