On May 4, 5:09*am, "vaughn" wrote:

* *On the other hand, I have been flying a bit more because the drop in
traffic makes the experience so much more pleasant and fruitful and (yes)
safe. *No more do I have watch the Hobbs continue to tick up the dollars why
I wait on the ground with up to five other little planes between me and the
runway threshold.

* *There are two sides to every story. *If it has been a while since you
have been flying, now is the perfect time to go back.

Commercial pilots and instructors, unfortunately, don't find fortune
in empty airports.

By all accounts, the winter in Oregon was brutal for GA. Cessna, in
fact, just closed down the Columbia plant it recently acquired in Bend
and laid off 200 people. (The native Oregonian wants to say "good
riddance," but, it's a bad thing.) Our state's 10% unemployment means
that fewer people can afford to fly. People are getting their
airplanes repossessed or trying to sell them, and FBOs can't afford to
buy them.

You guys should check out what's happening in Dubai. NWPilot tipped
me off to this when a ferry flight he had contracted fell through.

We're hoping that the lower cost of oil--which doesn't seem to have
reduced airplane rental rates yet--will hold out long enough to give
people a little more cash to spend flying this year. But, yeah...if
you like quiet airfields, now's the time.

Chris Gattman
CFI-ASEL-IA, Portland Oregon