Gloom

Jay Honeck writes:

Our guest found an instructor and aircraft at a smaller, nearby
airport, so the story doesn't end entirely sadly. But it's just SO
frustrating to see the skies over Iowa City slowly becoming empty
thanks to people in the industry who simply don't understand that
without an active, proactive interest in flight training EVERYTHING
stops in about ten years.

For GA pilots flying for pleasure, maybe. But a lot of people care only about
aviation as transportation, and that will still be alive and well in ten
years, I suspect.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Jay Honeck writes:

Our guest found an instructor and aircraft at a smaller, nearby
airport, so the story doesn't end entirely sadly. But it's just SO
frustrating to see the skies over Iowa City slowly becoming empty
thanks to people in the industry who simply don't understand that
without an active, proactive interest in flight training EVERYTHING
stops in about ten years.

For GA pilots flying for pleasure, maybe. But a lot of people care
only about aviation as transportation, and that will still be alive
and well in ten years, I suspect.


Who cares what you think? You don't fly


Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Jay Honeck writes:

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...)

Quite surprising, given that the average age of small GA aircraft is
above 30 these days (around 35, I think).


Soi what? You don't fly anyway

Neil Gould writes:

I hope the infusion of cash from Honda to build the PiperJet isn't being
called "profit". That would spell the end of the company in a very short
time.

In today's world of anonymous and institutional shareholders, a very short
time is the only kind of time--nobody plans for the long term. The objective
is to make maximum profits in minimum time. If a company ceases to do that,
it is carved into pieces and sold. Nobody cares about what the company
produces or how long it lives; it's just an interchangeable profit machine
that is dismantled and discarded once it ceases to produce profits quickly
enough.

That's the way all large public corporations are being managed these days, and
the results for society are always the same.

EridanMan writes:

But in the end all I can say is screw it. Screw my generation, screw
the affluence-chasing new CEO piper... In the end all that matters is
that I can go watch the sun set from 2000 feet over the Pacific Ocean
on a whim...

In part, you illustrate the problem: Aviation is attainable for you because
you are so passionate about it that you are willing to sacrifice many other
things to have it. But most people aren't that way, and aviation is so
cripplingly expensive that anyone who doesn't have a very single-minded
interest in it--or a fat bank account--cannot see it as a practical option.
That's the real problem for GA, not any fear of flying.

However, I do agree that the fearfulness of society as a whole today is
remarkable and worrisome, the result of decades of high-tech media propaganda
cashing in on paranoia and FUD. Unfortunately, fearful people are very easily
manipulated and controlled, and tend to make only irrational decisions when
allowed to act on their own.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Neil Gould writes:

I hope the infusion of cash from Honda to build the PiperJet isn't
being called "profit". That would spell the end of the company in a
very short time.

In today's world of anonymous and institutional shareholders, a very
short time is the only kind of time--nobody plans for the long term.
The objective is to make maximum profits in minimum time.

Never a prob for you, eh bankrupt boi?


Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

EridanMan writes:

But in the end all I can say is screw it. Screw my generation, screw
the affluence-chasing new CEO piper... In the end all that matters
is that I can go watch the sun set from 2000 feet over the Pacific
Ocean on a whim...

In part, you illustrate the problem: Aviation is attainable for you
because you are so passionate about it that you are willing to
sacrifice many other things to have it.


Also helps if you're not bankrupt####

Bertie

On 2007-06-18, Jay Honeck wrote:
I agree, although the cost of LSAs is certainly no bargan. You can
buy a VERY nice Cherokee 140 for half of what the cheapest LSA is
going for nowadays.

Looking at the LSA earlier in the thread - if I had the choice of going
in and buying one of those with three other people, versus outright
owning a Cherokee 140, I'd buy the LSA in a heartbeat. The LSA mentioned
earlier in the thread looks so damned sexy, and burns about 1/3rd of the
fuel of a Cherokee 140 and probably goes as fast.

--
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On 2007-06-18, Mike Adams wrote:
Jay Honeck wrote:

Then things went downhill.

Not to start a Cessna vs. Piper debate(!)

I've always heard this about Piper - giving pilots interested in the
company the cold shoulder, but if you go to the Cessna factory they'll
give you a tour. Indeed, we did just that - we happened to be passing
the area in a pair of (ancient) Cessnas (a 1951 C170, and a 1946 C140),
and we turned up un-announced - they were very pleased to see us at the
factory and gave us a tour. After all, we could one day be future
customers. So out of Piper and Cessna, who's selling all the light GA
stuff? Not hard to guess.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

Jay Honeck wrote:

Our guest found an instructor and aircraft at a smaller, nearby
airport, so the story doesn't end entirely sadly. But it's just SO
frustrating to see the skies over Iowa City slowly becoming empty
thanks to people in the industry who simply don't understand that
without an active, proactive interest in flight training EVERYTHING
stops in about ten years.

Becoming empty? I thought all this GA activity was causing ATC
to work overtime... and flight delays of commercial jets???

Oh my ... could the FAA be full of sh!# like other government
agencies?