Did I miss the Era of GA?

("Jim Burns" wrote)
[snips]
After our last flight I was curious as to how many hours I had flown
during the past 12 months...

Just off the top of my head I can bring up some great memories from the
past years trips (seperate) flights from Wisconsin to:
Las Vegas, NV
Rantoul, IL
Iowa City, IA (several)
Grand Rapids, MI (several)
Detroit, MI
Louisville, KY
Nashville, TN
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
and our latest from Wisconsin to Key West FL and back.


"What am I, chopped liver?" :-)

Saturday it's back to being Irish-Catholic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corned_beef
Mmm ...corned beef

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/Photogallery2/2006-5_Anoka-Flight-Montblack-Burns/sTailView%205-06.jpg

May 5th, 2006
GW Museum
(ANE) Anoka County-Blaine Airport, MN

http://skyvector.com/#19-117-3-1525-583
12 o'clock, @ 16 nm, on the Class B (MSP) sectional

http://66.226.83.248/ap/02455
Photo taken the following month

From STE (Wis) to ANE (Minn)
160.6 nautical miles WNW
Initial true course: 284


Montblack g

"Let me tell you the one thing I have against Moses. He took us forty years
into the desert in order to bring us to the one place in the Middle East
that has no oil!"
-- Golda Meir

"My father never lived to see his dream come true of an all-Yiddish-speaking
Canada."
-- David Steinberg

....and another great reason for flying is the ability to meet some great
people that you would have otherwise never met, most of whom I have found to
be the most giving and generous people I've ever encountered.

You? chopped liver? that would be a lot of chopped liver. Sorry, not even
after lent. Gimme a beer and a corned beef sandwich.

Jim
( 50% Irish and married on St. Patrick's day so I can remember)

"Google Madness" wrote in message
news7cKh.3341$I56.128@trnddc06...
Twenty years ago I almost got into flying, I'd even taken my Discovery
Flight and was all set to dive in. Then my wife-to-be put the kabosh on it
saying it was too much money.
Now money isn't so much an issue anymore and I'm all set once again to
follow my dream of having my PPL.
But, I've heard so many depressing things about the state of ( and future
of ) GA I'm wondering if the era of GA has passed me by.

Here's one article, like many others that I've read, that expresses many
of the issues that sounds so dismal for GA. I'm now seriously considering
scrapping the idea of a PPL once again but I'd like to hear from some
people out there if the situation is not really as bad as this sounds.

http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso...eral-aviation/

Thanks


Yes, you did. But that doesn't mean we can't create another one. GA for
many years has been playing "rope-a-dope", now it's time to get off the
ropes and start fighting. The Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft initiative
is great opportunity to do that. Rather than get a PPL, maybe you should
consider a SPL. Get involved, join an EAA chapter and/or AOPA. Go to
Oshkosh, and you'll never doubt the future of GA again!

The plain simple truth of it is that flying in the GA environment in the
United States post 9-11 is still available and pleasurable, while at the
same time being much more difficult to deal with than it used to be.
I would say in all honesty that the rewards are there and can still be
achieved, but the price tag is higher now and the path a bit more strewn
with pot holes.
Bottom line is as its always been. Before diving in to something that
will cost this much money and require this much effort, simply step back
and take a long look at your finances, and especially your motivation.
If you have the time and money, and you can deal with general aviation
as it exists in the post 9-11 world, by all means go for it.
Like anything else in life, its a matter of intelligent and well thought
out choice.
Dudley Henriques


Google Madness wrote:
Twenty years ago I almost got into flying, I'd even taken my Discovery
Flight and was all set to dive in. Then my wife-to-be put the kabosh on it
saying it was too much money.
Now money isn't so much an issue anymore and I'm all set once again to
follow my dream of having my PPL.
But, I've heard so many depressing things about the state of ( and future
of ) GA I'm wondering if the era of GA has passed me by.

Here's one article, like many others that I've read, that expresses many of
the issues that sounds so dismal for GA. I'm now seriously considering
scrapping the idea of a PPL once again but I'd like to hear from some people
out there if the situation is not really as bad as this sounds.

http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso...eral-aviation/

Thanks

1 year from now you'll be 1 year older. Or dead maybe, but let's not
go there.

GA will still be around 1 year from now. I and hundreds of thousands
of pilots in the US and other countries will still be flying and
enjoying it. Will you be one of them? That's up to you. Since money
isn't the issue so much, do you have something better to do with your
time? Let's suppose GA collapses a year after you get your license,
well, so what, you learned a skill you wanted to for a lifetime.

Don't wait any longer and reach old age with regrets.

THE CLOCK IS WOUND BUT ONCE

In a hangar at the airport
Where a brooding pilot blinks,
Deeply graven is the message--
It is later than you think.

The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.

Now is the time you own;
The past's a golden link.
Go flying now, my brother--
It's later than you think.
--
As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red
again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than
a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way.
- Jack Handey

On 3/15/2007 9:47:05 AM, "Google Madness" wrote:

But, I've heard so many depressing things about the state of ( and future
of ) GA I'm wondering if the era of GA has passed me by.

You have many excellent responses already, so I will only point out that you
are certainly smart for asking that question.

--
Peter

"Google Madness" wrote in message
news7cKh.3341$I56.128@trnddc06...
Twenty years ago I almost got into flying, I'd even taken my Discovery
Flight and was all set to dive in.

If you want to fly, fly. If not, people seem to find it easy to come up
with excuses.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com writes:

If you want to fly, fly. If not, people seem to find it easy to come up
with excuses.

That's not quite the way it works. There's a cost/benefit relationship to
consider. The cost of flying is extremely high, so much so that only the most
fanatically interested parties can justify investing in it, even if they have
the resources. Lowering the cost and other obstacles would bring more people
into aviation. Raising them will drive more people out of aviation. It's not
a simple yes/no relationship.

The same is true for any other leisure activity. Aviation just happens to be
way up on the cost scale compared to many other activities, which is one
reason why it is not widely practiced.

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

Depressing talk/rumor/inuendo is the M.O. of the the anti-freedom,
anti-business and anti-capitalism crowd. They want you to be depressed,
sad and fell guilty... to give up your dreams of anything that requires
more than a candle-worth of energy.

Basically they want you to just be happy living in a tent with
candles while they, of course, continue live in their Beverly Hills
mansions and fly around in their own private learjets.

Screw 'em and go for your dream. You only live once. A vibrant economy
is fed by people that go for their dreams.

Good Luck!

kontiki writes:

Basically they want you to just be happy living in a tent with
candles while they, of course, continue live in their Beverly Hills
mansions and fly around in their own private learjets.

It is worth noting, however, that most of them have someone else flying their
Learjets, since they are not licensed pilots.

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