Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

GA Dropping Below a Critical Mass

A guy has just put his aircraft up for sale and he says after 10 years in GA he is quitting.

He has had the aircraft for about 6 months but before he can fly it he needs tailwheel and wobbly prop differences training on it. There are no instructors local to him and all the others he has contacted either aren’t able to teach tailwheel and wobbly prop. The live a significant distance away or are simply too busy.

One instructor found out that he was about to quite and offered to travel over 100 miles to sort him out but he said no. He’s had enough, put it up for sale and has an offer on it.

I think this is a real shame and is a sign of things to come.

It’s sad but I’m not sure I’m following the logic to quit entirely though.

It’s a real shame there’s no instructor for this type of aircraft, but I think I would have first done some research before purchasing the aircraft? Even if I genuinely forgot or did not occur to me that I should have done that, then I may have then leased it out or sold it.

And I would continue to fly something else that’s more common and does not require differences training.

Last Edited by James_Chan at 29 Jul 07:44

Tailwheel and wobbly prop – Cessna 180?

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

This is very disappointing to hear.

I am inclinded to say that whenever you buy and aircraft (and anything else for that matter) I guess we should always try and consider how we are going to get it fixed / maintained and I guess with avaition this should include our own licensing. Having said that I have seen being well served for local medicals to having to go further afield in my flying life.

Inevitably whenever you introduce additional pressures into any sport or pasttime that requires more committment to be made from those involved there will be an increasing number that drop out for various reasons. Where this comes about as a consequence of external pressures over which those involved have no control it is particularly disappointing because it ultimately contributes to dulling the gloroius tapestry of life that gives colour to us all.

Not sure how the story relates to the thread title.

One very frustrated individual deciding to throw the towel in doesn’t really equate to the demise of GA. I read his account on the Flyer Forums, and it was sad, but perhaps an extreme reaction.

There does seem to me to be an acceleration in the rate at which aerodromes are either closing, or are restricting access (EGTC and EGSC come to mind). It is this that seems to me to be a bigger indicator of problems ahead.

EGSC Cambridge, United Kingdom

The supporting story isn’t great for this title (I rarely read the UK chat sites, but is it somebody who is loudly selling his plane because Old Sarum airfield is closing? – most owners would sell up and get out if their airfield closed) but I think the basic point remains: as GA activity reduces, we will eventually reach a “tipping point”.

The basic problem in the UK is that way too many Brits are tight; they want to pay nothing and live on the back of somebody else. On the main 2 UK chat sites there are calls to boycott any place charging more than £10. One place got absolutely hammered when it increased the landing fee from £5 to £8 – “way over inflation”. In an activity where most fly only locally, this is highly destructive. If you posted it here on EuroGA, you would get some interesting replies

So you get airfields where the runway is covered in rocks (a broom would cost £10 but using it might benefit somebody else, so nobody buys one), airfields where you need a pair of rubber boots to use the urinals (but there are dozens of planes based there), airfields where the runway is disintegrating and could be fixed for 2 figures (but there is a TBM based there, $300k for an engine overhaul, but the owner won’t pay because there is no security of tenure / the fins of the properly sharks are seen circling in the water), etc. Most airfield cafes ought to hand out a free 3×20 stent with their most popular “dish”, dripping in used engine oil. I have seen posts saying that the pilot chooses his flight according to the cost of an all day breakfast (basically some fry-up)!

So you get a race to the bottom.

Some on the UK sites think this is fine “because GA can retreat to farm strips” (and ULMs, usually). Usually, this view comes from people who are already based at a farm strip (where they got a place because their grandfather fought in the Boer War, next to the grandfather of the strip owner ) and usually are flying a ULM

But farm strips are also a race to the bottom – just lower down the “wealth scale”. You do get your escape from “big airfield” politics but the place gets waterlogged a few months of the year, so the only people based there are those whose personal investment in flying is low. This has already more or less happened to GA in Spain and Italy, but they don’t get waterlogged

Are there fewer instructors and examiners than say 20 years ago? There certainly are, but you can usually sort out the 2-yearly flight. Even a CRI can do it.

Maintenance and hangarage are MUCH bigger problems in GA and always have been. The whole topic of airfield politics is wrapped up with this. I think there is often more hangarage available today, simply because the GA community is shrinking (despite the ludicrously inflated NATS/CAA infringement numbers). Maintenance options have definitely gone downhill, as EASA66 guys get jobs on Airbuses for 2x the money. And the bulk of the problems facing any aircraft owner are firmly in this department.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I’ve a tailwheel with wobbly prop and granted I did to a four hour drive for my differences training it wasn’t a huge issue and there has been no problem at all ever since.

It’s sad to see people dropping out of GA, and it’s something that once you do not do for a bit is quite a bit seems easy to give up on.

Saying that, I’m also not so sure how it relates to the whole of GA, perhaps there is becoming an increased gap between the grass strip type people and the mile of tarmac individuals.

I’ve managed to get a few friends into GA and they have got some others too. Whilst this also won’t change the overall scene I do seem to meet people just getting into GA more frequently than I did.

What’s a wobbly prop?

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

What’s a wobbly prop?

A Variable Pitch Propeller

EGSC Cambridge, United Kingdom

Why is it called ‘wobbly’? I’ve never seen this denomination before …

ENVA, Norway
47 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top