It is costly fuel. Right?

There were over 11 MILLION cars manufactured in the USA last year. 11
MILLION. And yes, only a few thousand airplanes.

Google for "annual auto production" and you'll see that BMW
plans to build 1.2 million cars this year, Honda has plants
in several countries, each build more than a million cars
yearly.
There are over 200 million cars and 50 million big trucks on
the road in the USA. They build cars by the millions. They
build airplanes in dozens, 500 airplanes is a boom year.



"John T" wrote in message
...
| Not really. The reason autos are relatively cheap are
sheer numbers.
| There are 10 of millions if not 100s of millions of autos
on the road.
| Sheer numbers produced keeps the price "low". Probably
something like
| over a 100,000 new cars are produced each year (guessing),
while only a
| few thousand (at best, another guess) GA planes and
experiementals are
| built each year. Another example is engines. Auto engines
can be built
| and sold for a few thousand bucks because of the economies
of scale.
| Aviation engines, OTOH, cost about $25,000 and up new,
simply because so
| few are made compared to auto engines.
|
| All comes down to economy of scale.
|

"John T" wrote in message
...
Training is costly, and there is no "mass training" along the likes of
drivers ed classes.

Which is the genesis of the old cliché, "Where'd you learn to drive, Monkey
Wards?".

On 2006-05-24, John T wrote:
All comes down to economy of scale.

The (lack of) economies of scale in GA are not the root cause though -
they are just one result of the root causes.

The main root cause is that 99% of humanity find being in the air a
frightening and unpleasant experience to varying degrees - from mild
anxiety at the one end to sheer terror at the other. Flying a light
aircraft will NEVER have mass appeal, even if you solved all the
infrastructure problems.

Flying is a very unnatural thing for humans to do - we are land
creatures. Only a few of us are weird enough that we are air creatures.
That will always be the case.

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Dylan Smith wrote:

The main root cause is that 99% of humanity find being in the air a
frightening and unpleasant experience to varying degrees - from mild
anxiety at the one end to sheer terror at the other.

what magic hat did you pull your 99% number from? There is no way the
number is that high. I would bet 50% is more like it and there is no
way it is any higher than 75%. The to main reasons there aren't more
people involved in GA are 1)Financial cost (both real and perceived) and
2)the cost in time. If the time cost could be reduced somewhat, and the
financial cost reduced significantly, you would see a lot more people
interested in GA. Another thing which I believe is a significant
contributing factor is the level of regulation by the government, how
significant I can't say. That is in as much as people don't like the
government telling them what and how to do things. Of course the
government regulation is one of the major contributors to reason number
1 too.


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On 2006-05-26, Chris W wrote:
number is that high. I would bet 50% is more like it and there is no
way it is any higher than 75%. The to main reasons there aren't more
people involved in GA are 1)Financial cost (both real and perceived) and
2)the cost in time.

Non pilots I know all know that I will take them flying at the slightest
excuse. Almost no one takes it up even though it will cost them nothing
in money and perhaps 45 minutes of their time. My experience is hardly
unique. Most people I know tell me that they just don't enjoy flying -
they find flying in an airliner an experience that brings on anxiety,
let alone a light aircraft.

The ones who I do convince to go for a quick sightseeing flight show
signs of anxiety at the slightest bump.

Most people just do not want to be in the air. They only fly on the
airlines because it's the only practical way to go that sort of
distance. A significant minority of people I know won't even get on an
airliner and would rather spend 4 hours on the boat on rough seas than
45 minutes on an airliner to get off the island.

The majority of the population doesn't like flying - it's just the way
it is. If you love flying there are always ways to go flying for the
sake of it for very little money - but so few people love flying that
even the cheap ways of flying are not exactly mainstream.

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Dylan Smith wrote:
On 2006-05-26, Chris W wrote:


Non pilots I know all know that I will take them flying at the slightest
excuse. Almost no one takes it up even though it will cost them nothing
in money and perhaps 45 minutes of their time. My experience is hardly
unique. Most people I know tell me that they just don't enjoy flying -
they find flying in an airliner an experience that brings on anxiety,
let alone a light aircraft.

I don't know of any of my friends that have even the slightest anxiety
about flying on airliners. I know of a few that are hesitant to fly in
small planes. No where near 99%.... not even 50% though. Most however,
look at flying as simply a means to get from point a to point b and
don't see much point if it isn't a lot faster than driving. I also know
that the vast majority of my friends, even those that are fairly well
off would say the expense is one of the biggest reasons for not flying
if they even had an interest. Granted you may be able to find ways to
fly with out spending a lot of money but few know or would even believe
that.



The majority of the population doesn't like flying - it's just the way
it is.

Just because most of your acquaintances are irrational pansies, doesn't
mean that 99% of those on the planet are. No offense but if 99% of the
people you know have anxiety about flying on airlines, they are
irrational pansys. It would be my guess that they mostly just don't
care about aviation. If they don't like flying the airlines it is
probably due to all the crap you have to go through just to get to the
plane, the annoying person you may be sitting next to, or just the
cramped seating, and has nothing to do with actually flying.


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On 2006-05-28, Chris W wrote:
The majority of the population doesn't like flying - it's just the way
it is.

Just because most of your acquaintances are irrational pansies, doesn't
mean that 99% of those on the planet are.

Most people ARE irrational, though. Pilots probably the most. I think
it's hardly rational for me to fly a single engine plane over the North
Irish Sea to, say, Bristol when I can do it for quarter of the cost and
in half the time on the commerical airlines. For most pilots, it's an
emotional decision (the love of flying) to fly light planes - certainly
not a rational one! The vast majority of people on this planet do not
have that emotional love of flying, and I still submit the majority of
people find flying something that generates anxiety - because we are not
creatures of the air. Prove me wrong.

care about aviation. If they don't like flying the airlines it is
probably due to all the crap you have to go through just to get to the
plane

The thing is that's not true here. Where I live, I can check in for my flight
half an hour before it leaves, there is a simple X-ray/metal detector
that's been standard for decades, and often no ID check apart from
seeing the credit card that was used to book the flight online. Flying
is VASTLY more convenient to get anywhere off this small island than any
other kind of method of travel. For example, going to Bristol, you check
in half an hour before the flight goes, then get on a flight that lasts
a little more than an hour. The other method is to go on the boat - a 4
hour ferry trip followed by another 4 hours on the train (and it's more
expensive than flying). Yet a small but significant minority would
choose the ferry on the roughest weather the North Irish Sea can throw
at them over an airline flight on a calm day. (Note I said MINORITY
here, but it's significant enough to be noticed).

As for the rest - yes, they do find flying something that makes them
anxious. I was on a B747 flying out of Houston, and we hit some of the
normal Houston afternoon thermals - the kind of thing you fly a glider
in, nothing serious - but they do cause sharp jolts and make the
airliner's wings flex. Half the plane's passengers squeaked on one of the
bigger bumps. As far as I can tell, that's pretty normal.

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