Did I miss the Era of GA?

Avgas: $3.00 (if you're lucky)
Aviation Insurance: $850/yr (if you're lucky)

If someone asks if you are a pilot, you can say...(and this is the
best part)

"Yes, yes I am"

Priceless!

(to paraphrase a credit card company)

-Ryan in Madison, WI
-

"Steve Foley" wrote in message
news:KxcKh.4470$8o1.1674@trndny01...
"Google Madness" wrote in message
news7cKh.3341$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.

If you're concerned, don't buy a plane.

There's no good reason not to start training. Flight training is still
flying. It's all good stuff.

How would you feel if GA actually does go away in ten years and you have
to say to yourself, I could have........


Since I played MSFS when I was a kid the default was always Meigs Field and
I am only 150 miles southeast of Chicago. I decided that I was going to fly
to Meigs after I got my Private just to bring my dream full circle. Well I
got my private about a month after King Daley plowed up Meigs Field. So I
guess the moral of the story is that there is no time like the present.

-----------------------------------------
DW

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

The "Era of GA" is what YOU make it. Go out and do it! You will NOT regret
it. I know no other recreation that offers so much education, freedom, and
satisfaction.

After our last flight I was curious as to how many hours I had flown during
the past 12 months, often used as a gauge of a pilots or airplane owners
activity. What I had failed to do was to pay attention to all the places
that I'd visited, the experiences I'd had, and the adventures that made all
of it so enjoyable. THESE are the reasons that I fly and what GA brings
me... the friendships, the experiences, and the advetures that I would not
find nor have the time to find in other activities.

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.

I'm sure I would have driven to Grand Rapids, MI a few times as my wife's
family lives there. I'm sure that I would have taken one or two of the
remaining trips by flying commercial for a family vacation. I'm equally
sure that the rest would never have been considered if I weren't a pilot nor
had reliable access to an airplane.

Make GA what YOU want to make it.

Jim

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

("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

Gig 601XL Builder writes:

2. (In)Security: We are currently in a war.

The United States is not currently at war.

2.The FAA with a lot of pushing from EAA and AOPA have created the LSA
license and aircraft certification standard that will allow you to buy a
brand new 2 place aircraft comparable to the one I'm building for less than
$100K. Take a 16 hour course and you will even be able to work on you own
LSA aircraft.

Of course, you can't do much with it. And if you want an LSA because you
failed the medical for a regular PPL, you're out of luck (that's a really
bizarre rule).

3. The homebuilt industry is at an all time high. There are 1000's of people
building planes that out perform in one way or another anything that has
been built by Cessna or Piper.

This assumes that a homebuilt would satisfy your particular interest in
aviation.

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

To the Google Maddness, the original poster,

Please excuse this interruption to what has been a very good thread. You
see, Mxsmanic is a fat troll expat American that lives in Paris. He has no
personal life other than to play on MS Flight Simulater and then come in
here and act like he is an expert in all things aviation. He also is only
capable of earning less than $700 per month.

Please don't allow him to sway you in any way or in any way discourage you
from asking further advise in this forum. At last count you had received 16
on topic answers so one out of 17 ain't bad. Every group on USENET has at
least one of these as do most communities in the real world. Now I'm going
to break my rule a reply to the troll only to clear up any possible
incorrect info for you.


Mxsmanic wrote:
Gig 601XL Builder writes:

2. (In)Security: We are currently in a war.

The United States is not currently at war.

2.The FAA with a lot of pushing from EAA and AOPA have created the
LSA license and aircraft certification standard that will allow you
to buy a brand new 2 place aircraft comparable to the one I'm
building for less than $100K. Take a 16 hour course and you will
even be able to work on you own LSA aircraft.

Of course, you can't do much with it. And if you want an LSA because
you failed the medical for a regular PPL, you're out of luck (that's
a really bizarre rule).


A pilot with a private certificate can do anything in an LSA airplane they
could do in a normally certified one. Including IFR and Class B airspace if
the aircraft is suitably equipped.

A pilot that has only an LSA certificate is under some limitations. No night
flight and my only fly aircraft with two seats that have a max gross weight
of 1340 lbs. Also, it has the benefit of not requiring a 3rd class medical.
Other limitations and information on the Light Sport rules can be found at
http://www.sportpilot.org/


3. The homebuilt industry is at an all time high. There are 1000's
of people building planes that out perform in one way or another
anything that has been built by Cessna or Piper.

This assumes that a homebuilt would satisfy your particular interest
in aviation.

Since the homebuilt market includes everything from low and slow single seat
aircraft to composite 4 and 6 place cross country speed demons I'm quite
sure there is a plane that you might not want to build but at least dream
about.

....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)