On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 01:26:01 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

I still love flying. But my life is different these days. I've got a plane
I can hardly find time to use. I never did fit my lifestyle around it the
way I wanted to (it's an amphib, that hardly sees the water these days). On
top of that, other than the majority of the 600,000 or so pilots in the US,
the rest of the country is doing everything it can to simply end general
aviation. (And I find it sad that even some of that group of licensed
pilots are helping this "cause" to end aviation).

I'm normally capable of being a pretty stubborn guy, but especially as I get
older, I find I am less able to be stubborn about as wide a range of things
at one time, and I do have plenty else in my life to be stubborn about.
Quite frankly, between my own personal circumstance and what I view as a
trend toward making aviation just not worth the trouble, I have had thoughts
about just giving the whole thing up.

I too have always wanted to fly. I knew I could handle an airplane
because I took lessons when I was 15 and a half from my father who was
a CFI, and really liked it and handled the airplane fine. But I
didn't get the chance to fly very often and eventually college came
along before I got my license and raising a family plus the lack of
"disposable income" prevented me from pursuing flying since then. Once
the kids left the house though, I began building a plans built
homebuilt and have been having fun doing that. I also managed to get
my PPL. But I don't fly very often and when I do it's just shooting
landings or putting about locally with the occasional enthralled
passenger or my game but unhappy wife.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth the time, effort and money. I've
got my first BFR coming up and the CFI was describing it like it was a
mini PPL flight test. Told me that since I don't do much cross
county, perhaps I'll be required to plan one. Well hell, I can do
that, but typically the kind of planning that goes into test type
cross countries isn't what I worry about when actually flying one.

I'm entertaining thoughts that maybe I should quit powered flight and
join the local gliding club. That's much more the kind of flying I'm
doing anyway, not leaving the area and flying when the weather's nice.
It would for sure cost less.

Corky Scott