A wobbly prop C180 could tempt me out of the beloved Rallye! I would travel as far as need be for differences training!
The Cessna 180/Maule type and the Super Cub clones benefit from a shift to non ATZ/farm strip/aviosuperficie flying.
In particular the early Cessna 180/Maule in today’s environment where a GPS IFR, NAV/COM and Mode S give you airways access may be the practical future for cross country transport. The early Cessna 180 is sought after, being less truck like than the Skywagon. The later 180/185with a MAUW of 3,000/3,300 lbs are not exactly as farm strip friendly.
The Husky with the ability to be IFR and KTAS120 is also a nice future proof type. The Super Cub is not IFR although you see some with gyros and radio nav.
The fabric and tube types also benefit from relatively straightforward maintenance and repairability.
This, and the growth of ULM/Experimental/Homebuilt seems the trend in the USA, despite having much superior, and accessible, airport infrastructure.
Peter wrote:
That said, there is a lot of young people on EuroGA.
Define young
Usually, anybody younger than oneself 
That would include 75% of the world population
As to the subject in general, once again it is a great shame it seems so difficult to establish any accurate data.
The very bastions of this are of course the CAA, and they should have accurate data on the various aspects of GA activity, but if they do, it would seem very hard to come by.
We all suspect GA hours amoung other aspects are way down, if only because if you are close to this stuff you can see the extent of the decline – unless you are totally blind.
I think the real issue, is that as with most things, there is a critical level, below which it becomes a rapidly marginal activity. For example, without sufficient landing fees, fuel sales etc any airport will fall into decline and eventually fail. We are then left with fewer and fewer airports, so GA starts to lose its utility value, and even its recreational value, because there are less places to visit.
A few high end users are not enough so the whole of GA, aside from the farm strip element, are reliant on each other and critical to its continued survival. The farm strip element will probably survive come what may, and that is a very good thing, but it is a different arm of GA, with different objectives and different values. Nothing wrong with that, and I am not suggesting there is.
Undfortuantely the CAA seems happy to preside over this decline, and we can all guess why. It was a very bad day when the CAA and NATS ceased to be in entirely Government hands, and became subject to financial inducement.
Almost as bad as an airfield closing is one that becomes ‘based aircraft only’, like Cambridge is becoming – or affordable only to based pilots by only having reasonable fees for based aircraft (I think LMML Malta is one of these but I could be wrong). An airfield that stops accepting visitors is as destructive to the network effect as an airfield that closes altogether.
alioth wrote:
An airfield that stops accepting visitors is as destructive to the network effect as an airfield that closes altogether.
And the halfway house to that is the UK’s national sport – demanding PPR’s for all and sundry for no apparent reason.
“Almost as bad as an airfield closing is one that becomes ‘based aircraft only’, like Cambridge is becoming”
Sameone that come 5 years latter on change.org with “counting on your support to save us from closure plans”…
RobertL18C wrote:
the growth of ULM/Experimental/Homebuilt seems the trend in the USA, despite having much superior, and accessible, airport infrastructure.
The current US ‘off airport’ flying trend is on the same level as people driving 4WD vehicles off road as a hobby, i.e. it doesn’t mean much in relation to the condition of the paved (road/runway) infrastructure and like Jeeps the planes are mainly parked on pavement, based at FAA funded paved airports. The trend does have something to do with increased numbers of Super Cub-type planes now being factory produced as the main tangible result of US LSA regulations.
Experimental RV type planes are mainly a result of people buying into a less regulated ownership experience – less regulatory infrastructure without any interest in less physical infrastructure. The factory built LSA Cubs can be converted to Experimentals (E-LSA) by their owners, for the same reason.
