It is sad that we don’t have more affordable planes.
We have plenty of affordable planes. We don't have affordable
new planes.
The used inventory of airworthy, capable aircraft is presently satisfying much of the demand. Personally, I saw no need to shell out a truckload of money for a new(er) airplane when a model from 1969 had the capability that I want for a tiny fraction of the cost. People who have the money to buy airplanes didn't reach that point by being inefficient with how they handle money, and for many of us it's simply a better financial decsion to buy used.
You have to want to do it, be able to do it, and have the financial wherewithal to pay for doing it. Compare that to more casual hobbies like classic cars, sportscars, a beach house, hunting/firearms, etc. The training level required for most of these is nowhere near that for a PPL, and the penalty - both physical and financial - for a mistake is far lower.
OK, so that leaves us with two other groups of potential customers:
1) People who have high disposable income and want the utility that they can get from a personal aircraft, with the fun of flying being a secondary benefit. These are the people who buy $1M+ planes, and many (most?) treat them as business expenditures.
2) People who really want to fly, but don't have a business justification for it and thus fund it as a hobby.
These two quotes, which I think are accurate, point to a demographic that is mostly age 50+ (roughly) and successful at a non-flying career. Yet nobody is marketing flight training or airplanes to that group. Instead, we see article after article, advertisement after advertisement, discussion group after discussion group,
et cetera ad infinitum, aimed at getting
young people into aviation as a career. This helps the airlines, so let the airlines carry their own water. It does nothing to advance personal private flying, and only sells small GA aircraft by increasing demand at the flight schools.
I've said this before - to grow GA, what we need isn't a Young Eagles program but an Old Buzzards program.
If you are correct, something has changed either in people's willingness and interest in doing things that are moderately difficult, or in their view of how accessible flying is (or is not).
I believe something has indeed changed. I think people are still interested in doing things that are moderately difficut, but personal flying is not viewed as accessible or worthwhile. There has been a cultural shift.
I'm not sure whether the chicken preceded the egg or vice versa, but if you want a simple snapshot of the shift then spend a while perusing old TV shows from the 60s and 70s.
Everyone on POA knows of the Andy Griffith episode where Aunt Bee learned to fly, but that's hardly the only example. Columbo flew a Bonanza on an episode of that show, and Johnny Cash used a Cessna to murder his wife on another. Mannix flew a Grumman Tiger on one episode. Several of the old Perry Mason shows had private pilots and small aircraft. There are many other examples.
And then there were the shows that were specifically themed around aviation. The kid's show Sky King is hardly the only example, though it inspired many from that generation to learn to fly. There was also the TV show 12 O'Clock High, based on the movie. Or how about The Flying Fisherman, with old Gadabout Gaddis. Or maybe Ripcord. Or Baa Baa Black Sheep. The list goes on and on and on.....
I wonder how much of a lift GA might have received had Tim Taylor been building an RV in his garage instead of a hotrod.
But today? If you ever see a private airplane in a modern TV show, it's guaranteed to be a luxury multimillion dollar jet, probably a Gulfstream, usually owned and used by the bad guy. No depiction of a typical Joe flying his Cessna to see a ballgame or landing his Cub on a remote lake.
This is a different age.
