I was a P28 owner that did not attend the CPA event this year, but as
many others have stated, it was because of a scheduling conflict
(wedding). There's always been something in June.

My overall opinion is that piston airplanes are just too expensive for
what they are capable of doing, including the Cirrus and Columbia
portfolio. $500,000 for a single engine airplane? $500,000???
$75,000 for a LSA that has government limitations that have nothing to
do with performance capabilities.

So - most of us opt for used airplanes, only to find out that over a
period of several years it's easy - nay - mandatory, to spend much
more on maintenance than the airplane is worth.

As a result, a lot of people who fly used airplanes are just sort of
scraping along to keep it going. All it takes is one expensive event
to cause a sale. Often it's an AD. The Arrow series had a $3000 SB
this year for many of us. Hidden damage shows up when fixing minor
problems, e.g. the poor guy who discovered spar corrosion that totaled
the plane. I know of one flier at KGYY who stopped flying when his
hangar rent went up $50 a month - that was his limit.

Having stated a problem, I have to admit that I haven't a clue how to
make a new airplane for $100,000 that carries 4 people in relaxed
comfort with reasonable noise levels at 200 knots. I assume that the
certification and litigation costs are major contributors to the
problem, but even a high end kit plane with first class avionics can
easily set you back $150K. Another part of the problem is that the
manufacturing volume isn't there to spread development costs over
millions of units.