How to promote this thing we do (long post)

I'm a 10 year lurker in this newsgroup and, like most, time gets in the way
of my flying and/or posting here. But after a week at OSH (missed the party
AGAIN, but this time, I didn't wander around not finding it ) and a newly
re-instated medical, I've been invigorated and am ready again to do this
thing we love.

....But I'm concerned. As many have pointed out, the number of pilots in our
country is falling rapidly. My father and I flew into a monthly breakfast
at a nearby airport about a month ago. At 37 years old, I was one of the
youngest 10% of attendees. Most of the people there were 50-65 and the
remainder even older.

As I wandered around OSH, I made an effort to try to average out the ages of
most of the people there. You had your kids and early teenagers that came
with Mom and Dad and occasionally a 20 yr old. But then there seemed to be
a gap and again, the 35-40 yr olds started the pack again and it went up
from there.

Now, being 37, I know exactly why this is the case. I had the same problems.
Family, career, kids, etc all get "in the way" and flying doesn't make it in
the top ten list of things to spend a limited budget on. But I think what
we're starting to see happening is that flying isn't making it BACK into the
budget once money and time become more available. Things like Harley
Davidson motorcycles, RV's, etc all seem more plausible to the masses than
flying....because we all know flying is a rich man's hobby...right? (said in
jest...sorta).

So, why am I rambling on about the obvious? Here's why. I think groups
like EAA and AOPA need to come back to reality. The Poberezny's and Phil
Boyer have been rubbing elbows with the celebrities and the ultra rich (e.g
Warbird owners) so long, they've forgotten that I had to borrow money to buy
a $29k C172 and get bitched at everytime I have to pay for an annual.

I saved up my sweepstakes tickets from Sport Pilot and entered 30 of them
for the pretty new $190,000 Husky that the EAA was giving away. But, had I
won it, I would have had to sell it to pay the $50k+ tax bill. Now, I would
loved to have won and sold it to buy something I could afford, but the point
is, they are trying to get "the average man" back into flying. Call me
crazy, but the "average man" doesn't spend $190k on an airplane.

I have probably 15 friends around my age that have told me that they "have
always wanted to fly, but just haven't because XXXX" XXXX might be money,
time, fear, whatever. But money is usually the culprit. And most of them
have no real idea what it would cost. They just write it off as something
they can't afford.

Again, what is my point? I dunno. I guess, I'm asking how do we do this?
How do we get the 40 year old's who always wanted to fly, but just never had
time, money or gumption? We tend to really push hard on the young. We have
great programs like Young Eagles to encourage kids to get into aviation, but
now 15 years after that program was started, how many PPL's has it
generated? I'm not suggesting we stop YE, but I am trying to figure out if
that is enough. Obviously, it's not. Would it be possible to have EAA/AOPA
to give away "scholarships" to adults to get their license? If you granted
them $10k each, the EAA could have given away 19 PPL Scholarships for the
money the Husky cost. I know that a $5k donation to my license fund would
have made me get in the air 10 years ago. I would think you could get
vendors and aviation suppliers to donate to the cause just like they do to
the giveaway aircraft. More pilots = More business.

I'm just trying to start a conversation here. I'm excited personally about
my re-instated medical and getting back in the air, but at the same time,
I'm concerned that status quo isn't gonna cut it anymore.

Thoughts?

Jeff Franks
Summertown, TN