Declining Pilot Population

StevieTimes said:
I agree; if I was going to try to sell somebody on GA, it wouldn't be buying a new Cessna 172, that's for sure! That's insanity.
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He was using one of the cheapest aircraft available brand new as an example of the real problem. If a Skyhawk is a $300K aircraft, the industry will never EVER recover to anything resembling the success of old.

What you going to push in your advertising? A $500K Skylane instead?
 
I rode in a new Bo in 1947 or 48. Zack Mosley was the cartoonist who wrote "Flyin' Jack" a popular strip about a war-time pilot. He bought a new one in Wichita and came through OKC to give his brother and old friends a ride. Zack and dad were good friends from childhood, when my dad learned to drive using Zack's granddad's model A ford in the pasture behind GD's house. Even though dad knew I was interested in flying, I still had to sit in the back seat but got to sit in front and play with the controls after we landed.



rpadula said:
Circa 1947. Since you're older than dirt, perhaps you might remember the first printings. :p
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denverpilot said:
He was using one of the cheapest aircraft available brand new as an example of the real problem. If a Skyhawk is a $300K aircraft, the industry will never EVER recover to anything resembling the success of old.

What you going to push in your advertising? A $500K Skylane instead?
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....and a skyhawk lacks any useful payload and speed. I can probably beat the skyhawk in any door to door trip by driving. 172 are good for training and doing circles, but thats about it.
 
Anthony said:
I've met a lot of creepy women too. Some young, some old. Creepiness know no gender nor age boundaries. I once had a woman in my face at a party threatening to KILL me because her husband was asking me about flying.
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Who says you weren't one of the creepy ones? I did meet you near Philly.

:wink2:
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Who says you weren't one of the creepy ones? I did meet you near Philly.

:wink2:
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Because, I am charming, gentlemenly, and just a lovely human being, just like you Kimberly. :wink2:
 
I thought I was the creepiest Kimberly ever met. Sigh.
 
cirrusmx said:
....and a skyhawk lacks any useful payload and speed. I can probably beat the skyhawk in any door to door trip by driving. 172 are good for training and doing circles, but thats about it.
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Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater now. My mission profile is 420NM across TX. 9 hours driving. 3+45 @ 110KTAS with a piper warrior II. No commercial direct flight, the closest airport would be KSAT and no direct flights to my destination from there either. Driving time to KSAT from my door 3+00. So 45 minutes after I get to KSAT driving to get on a TSA conga line for another hour to board two different airplanes to cover a total of 420NM, I'm at my destination on the piper.

My fixed prop 4 banger beats driving and airlines by 4 hours or more. Not even close my man. There are profiles suited for these airplanes. As to why Cessna didn't make the 172 a 48 usable gallon aircraft like piper did I have no idea. I can make that flight non-stop with more than 1+45 reserves.

I do agree though, that capability is NOT worth 300AMUs. Neither is an updated trim, new style seats and an LCD screen.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater now. My mission profile is 420NM across TX. 9 hours driving. 3+45 @ 110KTAS with a piper warrior II. No commercial direct flight, the closest airport would be KSAT and no direct flights to my destination from there either. Driving time to KSAT from my door 3+00. So 45 minutes after I get to KSAT driving to get on a TSA conga line for another hour to board two different airplanes to cover a total of 420NM, I'm at my destination on the piper.

My fixed prop 4 banger beats driving and airlines by 4 hours or more. Not even close my man. There are profiles suited for these airplanes. As to why Cessna didn't make the 172 a 48 usable gallon aircraft like piper did I have no idea. I can make that flight non-stop with more than 1+45 reserves.

I do agree though, that capability is NOT worth 300AMUs. Neither is an updated trim, new style seats and an LCD screen.
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Agreed to all the points made here....

If you live in a place where an interstate highway is 5 minutes away and the state is 40 miles long then yeah... it will be faster to drive...
Out here is Wyoming or for that matter most western states, you can beat the (point to point) time enroute by double, even if you are flying a Skyhawk, over drive times... For instance, last week I had to travel to Rawlings from Jackson Hole.. Drive time, even by exceeding the speed limit by 5 mph, would have taken 5 + hours.... Wheels up to wheels down, the trip took me 94 minutes.. That's a no brainer to me.:yesnod:
 
denverpilot said:
He was using one of the cheapest aircraft available brand new as an example of the real problem. If a Skyhawk is a $300K aircraft, the industry will never EVER recover to anything resembling the success of old.

What you going to push in your advertising? A $500K Skylane instead?
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"I was pimping rentals in my "commercial"; kinda aiming towards flying clubs/FBO rentals."

I was pimping GA in general, aimed at people who rent (I think most people start out renting). Not all of us can afford a new anything! I can't afford a new car, I sure can't afford a new plane. Yet here I am, a licensed pilot. I can't afford a new Cessna, but I got my license. How can we add more people like me (or at least with some similarities)?

I totally agree though; new plane prices are stupid high. My house didn't cost anywhere near a new 172. New plane prices are way too much.

I think the market will right itself when another manufacturer can produce something extremely similar; maybe even with some improvements, for a greatly reduced fee.

Will that be through experimentals? Home-builts (or factory-built "home-builts") getting more and more advanced?

Until that time, we can still try to promote GA to the best of our abilities; but ownership still seems way out of reach for many of us.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one day I'll be able to afford a Lancair IV...
 
wabower said:
I rode in a new Bo in 1947 or 48. Zack Mosley was the cartoonist who wrote "Flyin' Jack" a popular strip about a war-time pilot. He bought a new one in Wichita and came through OKC to give his brother and old friends a ride. Zack and dad were good friends from childhood, when my dad learned to drive using Zack's granddad's model A ford in the pasture behind GD's house. Even though dad knew I was interested in flying, I still had to sit in the back seat but got to sit in front and play with the controls after we landed.
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That's just mean. I hope you kicked the back of their seats the whole flight! :D

Found this: http://mofak.com/zack_and_smilin_jack.htm
 
It appears that I was wrong about him picking up the Bo in Wichita. Dad said he came to OKC from Wichita so we thought he had bought the plane there. The other brother's name was Glen. He lived in OKC and our families visited often. By coincidence, one of his boys lives in the Dallas area.

rpadula said:
That's just mean. I hope you kicked the back of their seats the whole flight! :D

Found this: http://mofak.com/zack_and_smilin_jack.htm
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wabower said:
It appears that I was wrong about him picking up the Bo in Wichita. Dad said he came to OKC from Wichita so we thought he had bought the plane there. The other brother's name was Glen. He lived in OKC and our families visited often. By coincidence, one of his boys lives in the Dallas area.
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Sorry, Wayne. Didn't mean to imply you were wrong. I was just amazed to find that web page with a picture of that same shiny new Bo you were talking about! Really dig the N-number, too.

Even more amazing - that N-number is still in use:

Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com
 
rpadula said:
Sorry, Wayne. Didn't mean to imply you were wrong. I was just amazed to find that web page with a picture of that same shiny new Bo you were talking about! Really dig the N-number, too.

Even more amazing - that N-number is still in use:

Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com
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That's a Bonanza? Man I've been wrong before but apparently I have been WAY wrong for many years.....
 
I didn't interpret your post as such, just interested to see "the rest of the story" and find that he had purchased the plane somewhere else. I had heard about Zack since I was old enough to remember, but had no idea where he lived or anything else about him. At that age I also thought most of the tall buildings in the US were in OKC.

rpadula said:
Sorry, Wayne. Didn't mean to imply you were wrong. I was just amazed to find that web page with a picture of that same shiny new Bo you were talking about! Really dig the N-number, too.

Even more amazing - that N-number is still in use:

Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com
Click to expand...
 
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