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Small-town airports close as higher plane costs, falling interest lead to pilot decline
Like many small cities across the country, Onawa is closing its airfield largely because of the steady decline in the number of pilots, especially in rural areas. The number of pilots with private certificates peaked at 357,000 in 1980. Since then, though, that number has nose-dived to 188,000, and hundreds of local airfields have been closing. Interest has waned as planes became much more costly. (www.startribune.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Waaaa, crying about it won't get you off the ground. Many of us worked an extra job or did without a shiny new car to be able to fly. I'll take the low entry level pay and work my way up within a few years. Nothing worth doing is easy or cheap.
What most people don't understand, is that when a general aviation airport closes, it does not come back. You can't reopen it later. The airport and everything that goes with it are lost forever.
I see kids still in highschool. In brand new cars. You can get up in the air for far less money. I don't think money is the only reason for less pilots. Today everyone wants everything now. Especially young people. It does take more to get a ga license now but the training makes flying safer. Maybe we need more highschool programs. Then the younger people might want a used plane instead of a new car.
A multitude of problems plague the industry, fuel, insurance, total cost of ownership etc. As an airport operator, one of our biggest losses is base customers, transient aircraft not supporting the local airport. Our retail price for fuel is competitive, but "somebody is always cheaper" If a locality chooses to price fuel at cost plus .25, this actually has a ripple effect to the surrounding airports. We have seen base customers "flyover" and travel another 40nm to "save" .45 a gallon, but what are you saving? In a 172 for example if you buy 20 gallons, you "save" nothing. Engine time, another T/O and landing. We treat all aircraft the same, G-V to J-3. We also subsidize a restaurant in the terminal to promote activity. We are trying to do our part and will continue to do so. We live by the motto that "we are all in this together". That my fellow flying friends is a fact, we are in this together.
I am very excited about learning to fly. I just started but in about one year I will have a sport pilot license. I will just be 60 years old and disabled. Sure I can barely walk, that's why I want to fly. I am not the type to just sit around I need some adventure and I am having fun learning.
Private aviation as a Hobby is practically dead down here in Panama. In the 1990s there were at least 80 or 100 private pilots flying around with 60/80 airplanes, that was a lot, in this country of 3 million souls most below the poverty line. Gas was cheap and planes were not so expensive, I bought a Cherokee for 9,000 bucks in perfect used condition. As gas prices started to peak things slowed down and today there must be four or five "hobby" planes, all other "private" GA airplanes are in some kind of business or other. This city, famous for its Canal, had four airfields back then now it has two. Young people simply don't see aviation like we did, the stupid hand held machines which is robotizing humanity are more interesting than anything else to this youth which is dummer than some door Knobs around the house. Even commecial aviation is not very interesting to many today due to the stupidity of so many Airlines. Those of us in our 70s really were lucky for having lived probably the best years of aviation. Haven't you heard? the technology of today is looking at "robot" planes quite seriously, then "pilots" will be as obsolete as Roman Galleon oars men.
If you want to fly, you can pickup a Quicksilver MX for less than a used car. Maintained correctly, these are safe, affordable aircraft.