RC flying is slowly disappearing, motorcycling too.
I’ll be crossing from the Bodensee to Chur to the Engadin and Italy in about a month and I bet it won’t look like motorcycling is disappearing… the passes are packed on the weekends. Try Stelvio on a Sunday, the local population density issue is very apparent and they are all on motorcycles 
Young people are extremely demanding of in-person events. They’ve been hit really hard by covid during their studies (when social interactions make the most of the entertainment). To me the social scene decline is in big part untapped potential. The demand is latent, but is clearly there, and only requires proper communication and involvement.
I bet it won’t look like motorcycling is disappearing
True, but that will not mean anything. Approaching Italy motorcycling is still popular, though again, it doesn’t mean it ain’t declining too…
To come back to GA, stats are what they are… even if we had the same total amount of pilots as say 20 years ago, this would be a serious decline. The increase in population would negate the effect and make the proportional decrease real.
I’ve been riding motorcycles in the Swiss Alps since 1988 and the numbers have been continuously rising the whole period, to the point where it’s a whole lot more pleasant now during the week due to the clogged roads and crowds on the weekends. When I see this it makes me smile for several reasons: one is to think of the hypocrisy of the Swiss going after the college professor who used an ultralight to commute to work as a “climate criminal”, compare his annual fuel usage with the amount of gasoline burned on one pass over a weekend. The other is to understand that people will continue burning gasoline for fun in spite of what they say to be politically correct during the week. BMW motorcycles sales aren’t dropping.
What’s happened in European GA is postwar increase in activity up until about 2000, followed by a decline driven by shortage of money and overregulation that hasn’t yet affected e.g. motorcycling. People just move sideways under pressure.
Well, motorcycling, same as aviation, offers many facets. What you describe is one (though real numbers would help) thing, and what I observe here, living in the suburbs, another.
Same goes for aviation, though typically the subject is way more complex as has been demonstrated thru those 546 posts 😉
Well, motorcycling, same as aviation, offers many facets. What you describe is one (though real numbers would help) thing, and what I observe here, living in the suburbs, another.
You wish is my command
BMW Motorcycle Sales
2015: 136,963 vehicles sold, with Germany as the largest market at 23,823 units
2017: Global registrations exceeded 150,000 for the first time
2022: BMW Motorrad reached 200,000 sales for the first time
2023: BMW Motorrad delivered 209,257 motorcycles and scooters, which was 3.1% more than the previous year and the highest sales volume in the company’s history
An over 50% increase since 2015.
@Silvaire, you would probably know that these figures bear little if no relation to the amount of time people spend using their 2 wheels, nor the replacement quota, as in how many of the same brand motorcycles have been, for different reasons, taken out of service, and what the real increase in numbers, which again is meaningless, is.
I suggest we leave it here regarding those BS stats for motorcycles, and return to constructive ways of explaining, eventually stopping or slowing down said decline of GA as the title of this thread suggests…
I suggest that the decline of GA that’s occurring in Europe is the result of a of a simultaneously authoritarian and silly political and social moverment plus associated over regulation. The end result is just movement of people into e.g. motorcycles for their leisure time, with no plans to electrify them, as exemplified by the huge increase in sales by the two largest European manufacturers, BMW and KTM. Nobody doing so actually believes in the political BS, and that’s what it is, and while I support them 100% those who talk the talk while spending their money differently are hypocrites.
Silvaire wrote:
I suggest that the decline of GA that’s occurring in Europe is the result of a of a simultaneously authoritarian and silly political and social moverment plus associated over regulation.
Add to this overcrowding and mounting social intolerance towards as much as lawnmowers.
Motorcycles are still huge here as I can tell but what I do notice is a straight parallel to aviation: Lots of people I see cruising on those are elderly.
I recently talked to a youngster who is very much into aviation but also into AI and so on and he sais the way he looks at it, most of those activities which now are controversial will die out but remain active in virtual reality environments. In other words, his expectation is, that within a few years, most of the today controversial past times will move into rubber cells with 360° projections (or “holodecks” for ST fans) and be done there. Not my kind of fun but well… can be.
I can’t say I really do see a decline. Certified GA, certainly, it has regulated and priced itself out into oblivion. But in total, I would say it’s more now than before. The reason is not UL and homebuilts being simpler and cheaper on all fronts. The reason is mainly that these parts of GA can exist just fine also out in the “bush”. Thus, IMO the main killer is certification. Certification does two things:
All in all it’s hard to not see this as an incredible display of incompetence, down right stupidity and cowardness by the authorities cross the board. GA exists today, not because of the authorities, but in spite of the authorities. There’s only one single reason ULs are tolerated for instance: The authorities can clear their backs completely and be fully content just pointing a finger every now and then. From a pragmatic point of view this works just fine of course, for all parties. But, what in gods name is so difficult (impossible) by creating an equally viable scheme for all of GA, and create it with a stamp from the authorities?
There are lots of other factors also. However, for any activity to thrive, it needs a viable habitat. We need authorities that help support that, not authorities that carves it away piece by piece in the name of “safety”, where safety is a synonym for a clean back of the authorities.
