Flying in Germany

Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
Bottom line: Most of the facts are correct, but his viewpoint is very
"American" and not very flexible. He makes it sound as if flying here
is extremely hard or difficult to achive and as if the rules were a
nightmare. Fact is that it's quite affordable and comparatively easy if
you set your mind to it, and the rules (of which some are quite silly I
agree) aren't really such a nuisance, and can be avoided if you know
how to.

Interesting to see the different viewpoints - appreciated.

I suppose one way to compare affordability and ease of acquiring a license
or certificate is to compare the fraction of population that have acquired
them. For the U.S. I believe about 1 in 500 people have a pilot certificate
(~0.2%). (The FAA published stats on number of active certificate holders
on its web site.) Are there numbers available for other countries like
Germany?

Jim Logajan schrieb:

I suppose one way to compare affordability and ease of acquiring a license
or certificate is to compare the fraction of population that have acquired
them. For the U.S. I believe about 1 in 500 people have a pilot certificate
(~0.2%). (The FAA published stats on number of active certificate holders
on its web site.) Are there numbers available for other countries like
Germany?

I don't know the number, but whatever it is, it doesn't tell much. Or,
it rather tells much about the different interests. Face it, most people
in Germany are interested in different things than most people in the
USA. E.g. soccer is probably the most popular sport in Germany, while
baseball is pretty much inexistant. Or, to stay with aviation: While
there may be less power pilots in Germany than in the USA, there are
many more glider pilots, probably even by the rough number, but
certainly by the percentage of the population. For most Germans, private
flying is just a sport and not a means of transport, for many reasons
other than money or regulation.

Wolfgang,

Private pilots here simply don't do it, because the costs of acquiring
and maintaining an IFR licence are prohibitive.


Uhm, objection! Getting the IR is very expensive. Maintaining it isn't.
Not by a long shot. That's because there is simply no difference in cost
for VFR and IFR flying below 2 tonnes MTOW. If you fly a sensible amount
of hours per year to remain VFR current, you'll be able to do the same
IFR. If, OTOH, you fly ultralights which cannot do IFR, that's another
story.

but with some of the
newer designs you're actually faster and more comfortable than some of
the "real" pilots.


Except, you can't fly IFR which, depending on pilot attitude, might lead
to much riskier "scud running" flying.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)