Did I miss the Era of GA?

"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.

"Bill Watson" wrote

My dream now is to fly my 200mph kitbuilt into Cuba, legally. I bet I'll
do it.

What'cha building, Bill?
--
Jim in NC

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!

Gary wrote:

But instead, I dove in and got my PP-ASEL a few months ago. I'm
having a blast.

I've dabbled in fishing, diving, skiing, and a host of other
activities long enough to know that the single phrase you're likely to
hear most often is: "You should have been here yesterday!" (or last
week, or last year, or a decade ago). Well, maybe so. But I'm
here today, and it's not half bad.


Excellent! You sir, are a true American. Would that there could be more
like you.

Semper Fi

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:47:01 GMT, "Google Madness"
wrote in p7cKh.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



While I can understand your desire to get some feedback from those
currently enjoying the joy of flight before committing the not
insubstantial time and resources required to obtain your airmans
certificate, if you would let their input, or indeed that of your
wife, stand in the path to your dream, you may not have the requisite
'fire in your belly' to make a good airman. The path to an airmans
certificate is expensive, and donning the responsibilities of becoming
a 'pilot in command' is, or should be, a life-changing event.

Becoming a responsible airman is not really at all akin to becoming a
licensed motorist. And it's not possible to be a dilettante airman;
it requires constant exercise of your right to fly, almost weekly, so
it's a good thing you can now financially afford it; hopefully you
have a burning interest and the requisite empty spot in your life
waiting to be filled with flying activity. But remember, your flight
decisions will affect the lives of you and your passengers, and those
over whom you fly, as well as us, the pilot community.

You will have to MASTER several disciplines to achieve the status of
pilot. You will not only need the motor skills necessary to control
the aircraft, you'll need to acquire mastery of the fundamentals of
meteorology to read mother nature's ever churning skies, mastery
pilotage, dead reckoning and several types of radio navigation,
mastery of voluminous aviation regulation details, mastery of radio
communication techniques and operation, mastery of a myriad of
aircraft systems, how to effectively employ cockpit resource
management, and most importantly, you'll need to learn how to be a
CAPTAIN capable of abandoning your pride when safety demands that you
make a socially unpopular decision and sticking to it in the face of
what will feel like overwhelming social pressure.

In addition, you'll need reasonably good health over the entire time
you exercise your right to ply the skies. Indeed, it is this last
factor that is the sole limiting factor in the use of your airmans
certificate; it doesn't expire periodically like a driver's license.
But you will have to demonstrate your flight skills every two years.

So while the cost of gasoline is rising daily, and security issues can
be frustrating to some extent, unlike the days of 1987, it is your
openness to changing your mental attitude toward flight and the
responsibilities of being a pilot in command, as well as your
commitment of time and money to constant on-going practice of your
flight skills that are the true barriers to becoming an airman and
continuing to fly through the subsequent years.

If you have what it takes, do it. If you lack TOTAL commitment, don't
waste your time.

On 15 Mar 2007 09:16:15 -0700, wrote in
.com:


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

"Yes, yes I am"

Priceless!

If you require the reflection of another person to validate your
aviation experience, you aren't doing it right.

The joy of dwelling in the third dimension and beholding the sights
from a lofty vantage point, not to mention the utility of aviation as
a mode of transport, are the true reasons for becoming a pilot.

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:49:47 -0500, "Gig 601XL Builder"
wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote:

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.

$100K (or even $50K) is still WAY out of reach of most people
(including me!) However, you can still buy a used T-Craft or Aeronca
for under $20K, which is a lot more realistic to most people, There
are also a lot of new aircraft in that price range, straddling the
blurry line between GA/LSA and ultralight... aircraft just about as
capable (depending on the model) as the T-Crafts and Aeroncas... but
NEW.

A lot of people (mainly ultralight pilots) are finding nothing good
about SP/LSA, and I agree that it just about completely missed its
original target (which was the absorbtion of "fat" ultralights). I'll
bet that before too long, though, most primary flight training will be
in new LSA aircraft, as the current fleet of C-150's and similar
aircraft ages.

-Dana
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Morgans wrote:
"Bill Watson" wrote

My dream now is to fly my 200mph kitbuilt into Cuba, legally. I bet I'll
do it.

What'cha building, Bill?

An RV10. I've completed the Emp kit (tail feathers and tailcone) and
moving on to the quickbuild wings. A long way to go but a lot of
satisfying progress towards a very impressive machine.

Bill 'Mauledriver' Watson

"Dana M. Hague" d(dash)m(dash)hague(at)comcast(dot)net wrote

A lot of people (mainly ultralight pilots) are finding nothing good
about SP/LSA, and I agree that it just about completely missed its
original target (which was the absorbtion of "fat" ultralights).

But it did absorb the so-called "fat" ultralights - they can now be
certified as LSA which only require a sport pilot license to fly. Before
SP/LSA they were technically aircraft that required a recreational or
private license to fly, so the rules have been relaxed quite a bit.

The problem is that unlicensed ultralight pilots were illegally flying these
aircraft which clearly didn't fit the Part 103 definition of an ultralight,
and they were hoping that the SP/LSA initiative would include a
re-definition of what an ultralight was. But that was never promised. In
fact, I believe the FAA specifically said that that was not being
considered.

Ultralight pilots are "finding nothing good about SP/LSA" because they will
no longer be able to operate outside of the CFRs without being noticed. I'm
not so sure that this is a bad thing.

BDS

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 23:44:46 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

The joy of dwelling in the third dimension and beholding the sights
from a lofty vantage point, not to mention the utility of aviation as
a mode of transport, are the true reasons for becoming a pilot.

Larry's saying it's fun.

What you want to do is log onto eaa.com, and find a nearby chapter and
go to one of their meetings. If that bunch seems wrong for any
reason, try some more eaa groups. Eventually you'll find some folks
whose interest in building airplanes and whose bank accounts align
with yours. Let them explain the various ways of complying with the
51% rule.

At the same time, yYou're also likely fo find independent CFIs in the
chapter who can help you keep primary-training costs in the mid four
figures.

Gas at $10 a gallon is cheap if you're not paying $120/hour for minor
wrenching and you're not paying Cessna's or Garmin's liability
insurance.

Don