I'm almost never at the airport. I still average 500 hours on a slow year. I don't typically have the time to just "hang out" at the airport.
As to the number of people my age that I know that could actually afford general aviation.........Zero.......and I wouldn't exactly say that is their fault. I wouldn't guess most of these people will be able to afford it before their 50(s) if ever.
You should see how fast he drives in the entrance road and leaves...
Kidding Jesse. Kidding.
As far as the "they'll never be able to afford it", I used to say that about my peers around your age also. In about ten years you'll probably see an interesting thing happen. SOME of them get strange promotions (like the ones that make you wonder how... they don't have any skills!) and that small percentage WILL suddenly have some disposable income in their 40s.
I don't know how to put this nicely so I'll just say it... A certain number of total deadbeats hang out in large enough companies that they get promoted by the Peter Principal into job roles they'll never ever ever fully be able to do properly nor have the skillset for. But the salary also comes with it.
It's really eerie in your 40s to realize some of these people that never busted their butt in their lives and couldn't if they tried, but have 10-15 years of service at some company that's got such a large staff they just kinda got "auto-promoted", are suddenly doing really well. Maybe not keeping up with the Alpha types who are still busting tail, but not bad at all.
It falls under "sometimes even a blind squirrel gets a nut", I guess. Watch for it. You'll be surprised, shocked, a little angry when you see it at first, and then you'll shrug and think, "Well at least he can pay off that divorce now and catch up on child support and feed his own kids..." LOL.
Okay maybe that's mean there at the end.
And there's also a small few who really do know how to save money and have been squirreling away a low paycheck for years and doing the beans and rice thing, and they sometimes get rewarded with a windfall in a stock or other investments. (Not common right now much, but it happens.)
One of my neighbors who wasn't any super-engineer but he was decent and worked for the local telecom, found himself an overnight millionaire on AOL stock one day, and left telecom to start his own business. He's really wealthy now.
So... it happens. Not to everyone of course.
The result for GA is that unless they actually manage to pull themselves through a few layers of the economic strata then learning to fly is not something that will ever even be on their radar, much less something they can actually fit in their budgets.
The assumption most folks have or really work or use a budget is a problem not mentioned. People are addicted to debt. Epidemic proportions. It permeates the entire society. I've seen a few folks, myself included, who pulled themselves through the strata specifically BECAUSE they wanted to keep a budget and they knew a higher pay scale meant more "disposable" income.
I have a recent hire who's now reporting to me. He just turned 28, graduated from a state school with a Bachelors in IT, and does mostly SQL coding. He didn't get much help from his parents on getting his degree, and wound up borrowing about $35,000 to get through his Bachelors. He's five years into his career and is just now making $50,000 per year. He's still paying off those loans, pays $900 per month on a 450 sq ft studio apartment in a decent but not particularly trendy part of town. He may be paying on that five year old Malibu he bought used as well. I don't think he's interested in aviation, which is just as well, he can't afford it anyway. The Great Recession has taken its toll on salaries, even for skilled people.
He'll be Greg Kainz in 20 years and Greg's not doing awful.
If he doesn't go crazy dealing with SQL for 20 years that is. Oh wait. That's Greg too!!
(Sorry Greg! I couldn't resist that setup!)
Had I actually did the school thing (instead of dropping out in high school) it's quite unlikely I'd make the money I make today. Never having a student loan in my life has been nice as well.
Definitely can happen. Some schools can teach you NOT to think or not to try things. You're kinda determined to just try stuff and make it work and not get it wrong in the process. Computers and code and operational stuff tend to reward that behavior when new problems are the thing that needs doing. Not everyone will step out of the procedural lineup and just try something and also do it in a safe way to see if they can fix a problem. They'll look around for the manual or someone who knows how to fix it.
It is obvious that GA is a big part of your life, and that you identify with it. But there are a lot of pilots who have never been to Oshkosh. Are they any less a pilot? Do we measure pilots by how many Oshkosh's they've attended?
No. Most who've gone measure how many they've missed.
I went to Oshkosh one year. It was OK. I got tired of standing in line, it was hot, and perhaps if I had flown in, instead of driving, it would have been better. But then, I went to Burning Man, and wasn't impressed with that either. Maybe it is me.
Max isn't in that category however. Haha.
Lines? What the heck were you doing Max? We don't do lines at OSH. Food is in the fridge in the RV and anyone is welcome to make a sandwich anytime, beer is in the cooler, shade and chairs are under the awning unless a tornado is passing through, and about the only things you'd ever have a line for would be the shower or the port a potty and if you avoid certain areas, not even those. You need to come back sometime and we'll show ya how to do Oshkosh. Lines ain't it. Heh.
Airplane camping, a little bit of lines for the showers and bathrooms but not much if timed right.
And I wouldn't know how to do it (especially the most important part - don't leave the grounds at night - that's the real Oshkosh) if Kent hadn't shown me. I still remember him calling me on the cell and saying "Dude. Get your *** back over here. Leave everyone else in Green Bay and come give me a ride and we'll talk. You're doing this all wrong."
