Gloom

Mary and I just returned from a wonderful weekend at the Cherokee
Pilots Association national fly-in, held annually in Osage Beach,
Missouri, at the Tan-Tar-A resort. We had a wonderful time, catching
up with old friends, and making new ones. We bought some cool stuff
from the vendors, gave away some hotel certificates to CPA members,
and I enjoyed a marvelous Father's Day flight home.

So why the gloom?

After four straight years of strong growth, attendance at this
fabulous fly-in took a sudden, breath-taking tumble. Some organizers
were saying it was down 35%, some were privately saying 40% -- but
there was no denying the fact that the airport was ready for FAR more
aircraft than showed up. There were many, many ready-but-empty tie
downs, and the dinner crowd was a shadow of prior years.

More alarmingly, there were NO Cherokee 140s to be judged for "Best
Cherokee 140" at the show. That is NOT a mis-print -- I really said
there were NONE. In prior years, Cherokee 140s have naturally made up
the vast majority of fly-in attendees (since they were built in the
greatest numbers), but this year not a single one (other than Art
Matson's highly modified AMR&D experimental 140) showed up.

Not a single one! It was absolutely scary.

Over dinner and drinks, those of us who did show up (and there were
over 75 Arrows, Archers, Pathfinders, Dakotas, Lances and Saratogas)
debated what had happened to the "entry level" Cherokees?

The general consensus, after too many gin & tonics, was that the entry-
level Cherokee owners were the owners who were barely able to afford
ownership in the first place, and have been most devastated by the
recent 25% increase in fuel costs. In other words, they were the
"canaries in the bird cage", and have died first and quickest, to
serve as a warning to us all...

Then, just as we had recovered from the shock of this stark
realization, we were "treated" to the keynote speaker at the fly-in,
the new CEO of Piper, James Bass. (Read more about him he
http://www.cherokeeflyin.com/html/keynote.html)

In his speech, Mr. Bass touted the fact that Piper had gone back to
its original name (no more "New Piper" nonsense), had returned to
profitability, and recovered from the three hurricanes that had
devastated their Vero Beach facilities. All good things, indeed, and
each announcement was met with enthusiastic applause.

Then things went downhill.

He went on to state that Piper would no longer be able to provide
parts support for "ancient" aircraft, and tossed out a "maximum" age
of 25 years. Of course, the room was packed with people flying planes
that were, on average, 30 years old -- so the room became silent at
this quasi-announcement. (No one is quite sure if he was really
"announcing" this change, or if he was just floating the idea...)

He also stated that Piper was not interested in licensing the rights
to build parts for older planes, because they would still be liable
for them -- and everything in their business was now dictated by
product liability.

Then Bass went on to spend half an hour trumpeting the new PiperJet,
which has supposedly already racked up 180 firm orders. With a whiz-
bang PowerPoint presentation, he went on to outline the features of
this $2+ million jet to a room full of Cherokee pilots -- all of whom
only wanted to hear about piston singles.

He then drove the stake in further by stating unequivocably that Piper
would NOT be entering the Light Sport market, thus confirming (to most
attendees) that Piper was on the verge of completely abandoning their
piston single line.

To say that this guy made no friends in Osage Beach would be an
understatement. Although no one was impolite, the post-speech
questions were quite pointed and blunt, and it was quite obvious that
no one was hearing what they had wanted to hear.

One guy in particular asked about building and supported piston
singles over wasting $100 million in company funds building a
vaporware jet, and Bass replied "So are you saying that we should
continue building piston singles at a loss, and go out of business?"
-- to which the questioner testily responded "No, you should build
piston singles that people want, at a PROFIT."

God almighty, folks, as if the writing wasn't on the wall enough, this
fly-in has proved to me that our beloved GA is teetering at the abyss.
I looked around the ballroom, at all these gray-haired old guys
wearing brightly-colored, aviation themed Hawaiian shirts, and
realized that I was possibly witnessing the end of an era. Between
"User Fees" on one side, fuel costs on the other, and an aging pilot
community, I don't know anymore what to think or do.

I sincerely hope the fly-in rebounds strongly next year, and that this
downturn is merely a momentary pause, before we see some explosive
growth in GA. I hope Oshkosh this year is bigger and better than
ever, and that everyone who isn't flying now will muster the will (and
the funds) to attend AirVenture. I pray that OSH doesn't suffer the
same kind of decline that we've seen at Sun N Fun and now the Cherokee
Pilots Association fly-in.

Mary and I will keep on keeping on, flying as often and as far as we
can, spreading the good word of aviation, and we will continue to
strive to create the ultimate fly-in destination at our aviation-
themed hotel -- but after this weekend I surely can't help but feel
like we're seeing the last days of "common-man" pilot/owners in
America...

Get out there and FLY, people!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"