Lots of flying today -- a turn-around in progress?

Jay Honeck

Jay Honeck

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jay Honeck
Mary and I flew up to Lockhart, Texas (The BBQ Capitol of Texas) for lunch today. We had the most amazing brisket and smoked chicken at Black's, the oldest BBQ joint in Lockhart.

It was a gorgeous day in South Texas, and we were heartened to see and hear LOTS of GA aircraft in the sky and on the radio. This really surprised us, as it was kinda quiet on the island (when the temps drop below 60, a beach community loses some of its luster as a destination, and it was in the 50s at night this weekend), but the ramp was busy at KRAS, as well as at Lockhart.

Houston Center, Austin Approach, and Corpus Christi approach were busier than we've heard them since moving here almost two years ago. Between GA flights and the Navy trainers, they had their hands full.

We've had a steady stream of pilots at the inn lately, too, even though we are very much in the off- off-season. Anyone else notice an uptick in flying? Could the turn-around FINALLY be happening?
 
My brother had his first lesson yesterday, going back up tomorrow.
I flew 3 hours this weekend.

Knock wood. I hope it's a good sign.
 
mild winter, getting more like Spring. I think it may be flying season again.

I haven't seen a spike of new claims in the last few days on Operation Fly, so I don't know....that's usually a good indicator.
 
I am kind of on the "low" right now with students but a lot of that is temperature. I do have some leads that have suddenly popped up and just started with a guy that looks rather promising.
 
In the travels I do here in Florida to the various airports, I would have to say that GA is very up and down depending on the area I happen to be in. The Northern reaches seem to be slightly slower while other areas seem to be bustling. Flight training seems to have shown a slight increase outside of those schools that have contracts with foreign students. Even the GA maintenance shops are starting to see an increase in business, getting some customers back, who had skipped/deferred annual inspections for a year (some longer) due to lack of funds to get the maintenance complete.

I have even talked to a few people who have sold their aircraft and are either renting from FBO's or have joined flying clubs, as it is cheaper in the long run to go that route and keep flying than it is to own their own aircraft.

I know I am finally getting my annual complete this year after a two year hiatus for various reasons. It is nice to get skyward again, even if it is just to keep my skill level up, and the rust off the surface.
 
Flight activity will follow the economy. Lots of the talking heads are saying it's getting better, perhaps they're right. Could also just be a one-day outlier.

My little fly-in diner was chock full of airplanes a couple weeks ago. First time I can recall seeing that in awhile. But such nice weather in January is a rarity here, and might have been causative.
 
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I see very little activity at my airport. Often I am the only one flying. With 100LL at $6.00/gallon, I don't blame people, but they really should be flying their planes, even if it is to maintain the engines. However, it is winter, and for some reason many don't like to fly in the cold. :confused:
 
Nashua was very busy on Saturday. I was #5 in line to take off, and it took the tower a while to get us all out with arrivals coming in nonstop too. BUT, it was a clear and a million day, with smooth air and comparatively warm temps. And Friday was extra nasty LIFR (the fuel guy said that they only had one operation all day - a Gulfstream) so maybe people really wanted to enjoy the weather.

I suspect with 100LL prices higher more people are becoming fair weather fliers. I wonder about the implications for safety.
 
I got told to stay clear of the Delta at KAPA on Sunday morning (I've never had that happen before). They had 7 planes lined up for runway 28. I and another plane were asked to circle outside the Delta for a few minutes until they got things sorted out.

There was plenty of activity.
 
COFlyBoy said:
I got told to stay clear of the Delta at KAPA on Sunday morning (I've never had that happen before). They had 7 planes lined up for runway 28. I and another plane were asked to circle outside the Delta for a few minutes until they got things sorted out.

There was plenty of activity.
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That is a REALLY busy airport with more than a bunch of guys just flying around. Its oen of the busiest if memory serves.
 
Anthony said:
That is a REALLY busy airport with more than a bunch of guys just flying around. Its oen of the busiest if memory serves.
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4th busiest GA. Kent's recent posting of his data also matched that. Two of the Phoenix area airports and KVNY are vying for top-three.
 
MSPAviator said:
I haven't flown since January 8th. :(:(
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December 31 for me. Lousy weather and now too much travel has kicked in. Maybe Saturday after an all day choral society rehearsal.

Anthony said:
I see very little activity at my airport. Often I am the only one flying. With 100LL at $6.00/gallon, I don't blame people, but they really should be flying their planes, even if it is to maintain the engines. However, it is winter, and for some reason many don't like to fly in the cold. :confused:
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$6.00/gallon. Bah! You can't get autogas for that here in England. Something north of $8.00/gallon (over $2.00/liter) here. I don't even want to guess what 100LL goes for.
 
Jay, this part of Texas has been doing fairly well. I fly a LOT with students and I think that traffic levels are still pretty good whenever the weather is good.

Ryan
 
spinfire said:
I suspect with 100LL prices higher more people are becoming fair weather fliers. I wonder about the implications for safety.
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I have wondered this as well.

Down here in South Texas, flying is year 'round. In Iowa, it was much more seasonal -- and we HATED flying on that first nice day in spring. You would see/hear the darndest things, as pilots who hadn't opened the hangar in 5 months decided to kick the tires and light the fires.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Down here in South Texas, flying is year 'round. In Iowa, it was much more seasonal -- and we HATED flying on that first nice day in spring. You would see/hear the darndest things, as pilots who hadn't opened the hangar in 5 months decided to kick the tires and light the fires.
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I fly year round, the only thing I don't do is long trips in winter. Don't know that you can get back in VFR, or at all for that matter. Last year I flew 15 hours between November and April. That's roughly the same as the rest of the year.
 
Starting last April, my local airport's number of operations per month started surpassing the number of operations per month in 2010.

Starting last June, we've been surpassing the number of operations per month in 2010 and 2009.

In November, we surpassed the number of operations in 2010 and 2009, and nearly surpassed 2008.

Waiting on the stats for December, I'm pretty sure we will kick 2008's butt. December 2008 was when we saw a super sharp drop-off in number of operations.
 
Seems like our club's planes are flying more than last year at this time.

I also flew last weekend (Houston area). It was a beautiful day.
 
I checked in with the local flight school yesterday. He said Saturday, Sunday and Monday, all his planes were out.
 
Ghery said:
$6.00/gallon. Bah! You can't get autogas for that here in England. Something north of $8.00/gallon (over $2.00/liter) here. I don't even want to guess what 100LL goes for.
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That's why we are Americans, and live in America. However, $8/gal auto gas coming to a station near you if certain people have their way.
 
1.4 hours Saturday. The airport was more busy than I've seen it in months. We had a steady stream on aircraft coming and going the entire time I was flying. We even had a visiting R22 from North Andover (LWM).
I also saw more GA planes in the air than I have in the past.
Lots of chatter on unicom which was picking up airports from Long Island to Maine.
 
Anthony said:
That's why we are Americans, and live in America. However, $8/gal auto gas coming to a station near you if certain people have their way.
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Nah. Their benefactor (Warren Buffet) would quietly kick their butts if they cut into the profit on his monopoly on shipping crude out of the Bakken on his railroad.

There's a reason the obviously safer pipeline isn't getting built... and it's not "environmental" reasons.

He who has the Gold, makes the rules.
 
Ok, actually pushed the airplane out of the hangar. Didn't have much gas (~8 gal), not a lot of time so I didn't want to waste it at the pump and trying to go somwhere, so, what the heck. I'll just pound out some landings. 0.9 hours, 5 full stop.

I've never seen it so busy at ONZ. A couple times there were even two - count them - two - airplanes in the run up area instead of the ususal zero. someone flying in circles to take pictures of the alpaca farm (off the end of 22) at 100' above TPA as I am on downwind for 17 (we were talking - had him in sight). Airplanes coming and going.

It would be nice if that was an indication of some economic improvement, But a lot might just be due to the freaking freaky weather (sunny, mid 40's, just a little haze on the water) for this time of year.
 
We had a low overcast around noon today, so I thought I'd just shoot some landings. Every time around I was dodging traffic, couldn't believe it, especially with the low ceilings. So we flew out to SBM once the clouds started burning off, and there were 3 planes sitting at the restraunt.........3!!!! Again, I've never even seen another one there.

When we got back to FDL, there were 5 planes on the ramp, and two more coming in. Best day ever for flying.
 
Hey, let's just create our own mini-boom in GA. Go fly!
 
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