Gloom

"Ken Finney" wrote in message
...

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_...lds_WA_SW.html

I never went to Evergreen, but it was poorly located to deal with urban
sprawl (e.g. it couldn't have been more in the prime area for development
if they tried). But I wonder what might have happened if they had tried
to bring in a bunch of businesses that needed the airport to survive?

The housing explosion here...

Household income must be $80,000 to buy a house in the Portland/Vancouver
area now. In 2001 you could get a pretty decent ~1800sq ft house in the
area for under $150,000. Now it's about $300,000. A lot of developers and
house-flippers made great money but the problem is, the working class can't
afford to buy houses out there so there are over-priced apartments springing
up all around. If you were to do a short approach at Evergreen now you'd
have to make sure you didn't clip the red beacon light on the roof of the
apartment complex, or the traffic liht.

Meanwhile, of course, there aren't really any new jobs, let alone
aviation-dependent ones. Freightliner closed down production and moved it
to Mexico and HP and Intel sort of expand and contract. Lots of jobs for
TGI Friday and Target employees, pavers, carpenters, etc, but those jobs
don't rent Cessnas and the developers make a lot more money off a thousand
immigrants than a few dozen private pilots.

Grew up here. If I leave, I won't be able to afford to come back.
-c

"Gatt" wrote in message
...

"Ken Finney" wrote in message
...

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_...lds_WA_SW.html

I never went to Evergreen, but it was poorly located to deal with urban
sprawl (e.g. it couldn't have been more in the prime area for development
if they tried). But I wonder what might have happened if they had tried
to bring in a bunch of businesses that needed the airport to survive?

The housing explosion here...

Household income must be $80,000 to buy a house in the Portland/Vancouver
area now. In 2001 you could get a pretty decent ~1800sq ft house in the
area for under $150,000. Now it's about $300,000. A lot of developers
and house-flippers made great money but the problem is, the working class
can't afford to buy houses out there so there are over-priced apartments
springing up all around. If you were to do a short approach at Evergreen
now you'd have to make sure you didn't clip the red beacon light on the
roof of the apartment complex, or the traffic liht.

Meanwhile, of course, there aren't really any new jobs, let alone
aviation-dependent ones. Freightliner closed down production and moved it
to Mexico and HP and Intel sort of expand and contract. Lots of jobs for
TGI Friday and Target employees, pavers, carpenters, etc, but those jobs
don't rent Cessnas and the developers make a lot more money off a thousand
immigrants than a few dozen private pilots.

Grew up here. If I leave, I won't be able to afford to come back.
-c


I think the median price in Seattle is now $444,000. Sigh.

In article . com,
xyzzy wrote:

Acquisition cost of a very low-end plane may be comparable to a high-
end car. But the cost of keeping it is way out of the ballpark. In
six years of owning my Lexus, which cost about the same to acquire as
an entry-level used Cherokee, I've only had to spend $1K on
maintenance once -- a 90K service that included a new timing belt and
water pump. My "required annual" is a state emissions inspection at
$30 a pop. And I don't have to rent a place to keep it.

How much is the value of your garage or your driveway? Some people
actually do have to rent or buy garage space or parking spaces. How
does the cost of money effect your conclusion?

And it
costs a lot less to insure than... well, you get the picture.

I pay only slightly more to insure my airplane than my car.

Saying
that a plane costs about the same as a high-end vehicle is simply
wrong. It's way more. Not even close.

I think it's closer than you think it is.

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

"Ken Finney" wrote in message
...

Grew up here. If I leave, I won't be able to afford to come back.

I think the median price in Seattle is now $444,000. Sigh.

We're all just a big suburb of Los Angeles now. That's what happens when
these developer-friendly magazines decide your city is "America's most
liveable." There goes the neighborhood.

-c

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
xyzzy wrote:

Acquisition cost of a very low-end plane may be comparable to a high-
end car. But the cost of keeping it is way out of the ballpark.


I think it's closer than you think it is.


Something else to consider is depreciation.

What was the value of the Lexus six years ago?
What was the value of a low-end Cherokee six years ago?
What are they both worth today?

I think they'd be a lot better off if:
1. They formed a regional coordination board.
2. Promoted the area as a fly-in vacation spot.
3. Decided which type of business worked best at each area, and promoted
those businesses to relocate there.
4. Had a regional Fly-in that rotated between the airports.- Hide quoted text -

All good ideas. I think the reason we don't see airports working more
closely together is because of the way our gummint sets up the
competition for "grants".

At least in Iowa, if Grinnell gets $100K, that's $100K that Iowa City
won't ever see. This creates a quasi-adversarial relationship
between them, and creates a disincentive for the type of cooperation
you describe.

To work around that, Iowa has set up a "Fly Iowa" airshow that rotates
around the state, from airport to airport. Some years it's pretty
good, many years it's pretty lame -- but it *does* move the spotlight
around a bit.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

We're all just a big suburb of Los Angeles now. That's what happens when
these developer-friendly magazines decide your city is "America's most
liveable." There goes the neighborhood.

Ha! That's exactly what's happening in Iowa City, on a smaller
scale. Our town has made somebody's "Top Ten List of Best Small
Cities in America" every year now, and the influx of people seems to
be never-ending and accelerating.

Good for our business. Bad for our way of life...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Barney Rubble writes:

Ok, I'll bite, how do you come to this conclusion?

As the salaries of pilots diminish and the glamour of the job dwindles, it
will become harder and harder to find pilots, especially given the continuing
expansion of commercial aviation. Thus, shortcuts will be found to producing
pilots quickly, and more and more will be produced by specialized schools
quickly and efficiently. There's no inherent reason why a commercial airline
pilot need ever fly anything besides a commercial airliner (or equivalent
simulator), even for training.

Gatt writes:

Maybe it's time to polish the brass and bring back the mystique and glory of
simply flying a Cessna around the pattern instead of filling giant airshows
with Truckasaurus, drag-racing semis and Blue Angels.

The problem is, even for some people who are otherwise interested in aviation,
the idea of flying a tiny plane around the pattern is neither mystical nor
glorious, it's just boring.

I fly because of the joy it brings me. I will continue to fly when I
can, and consider myself very blessed to have been able to fly 3000
hours in the last 30 years. I will not let gas prices steal my joy. I
will not let fretting about the future of GA steal my joy. I will
consider each hour I fly in the future to be even more precious than
the last because of its increasing scarcity. I refuse to participate
in the gloom.

Well said, as always, Gene -- but I fear we can no longer exist in our
little bubble of joy. There are too many enemies afoot, all trying
to pop our bubbles, for us to simply go on whistling in the dark. We
need to act!

But you're right about the gloom -- for me, it's always short-lived,
and easily dispelled by my next flight!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"