Some posts in this thread made me wonder what the factors are behind this.
It seems particularly sad.
Loss of medical and loss of income (retirement) are likely to be two common factors.
But it seems the majority of those who gave up were VFR flyers and they could often continue on the LAPL. In the UK, I know of pilots who lost the Class 2 (well, something happened which made the CAA demand four figures spent on tests and consultant reports) and they just went straight to the LAPL. Is VFR flying harder / more hassle today than say 10 years ago? I think it was much harder way back, mainly due to poor comms, wx service access, etc.
The previous owner of my plane gave up flying not because he was having vision issues (it turned out to be a mini-stroke). Sadly he has Parkinson’s now. Sometimes people know when their time flying is up.
Looking around people I know a lot of them have massive problems keeping their currency due to ungodly work hours and other obligations. it somehow appears to me that when you are young, you have time but not the money, the older you get, you might get the money to go flying but you end up with much less time on your hands.
Then again, work conditions in many places have deteriorated to the point where people just fall into bed every evening like wet bags and hardly manage to get up on Monday. Or they need to be available all the time even when they are off. I know about the last bit and it’s no fun.
When it comes to the point where the flying activity (let alone airplane ownership) is just another burden onto the rest you can’t manage even if the day had 48 hours, then it might be the correct decision however.
Thirty years ago, I parked near the hangar and flew.
Fifteen years ago, I parked in the same place, used a keypad lock at a fence door, and flew.
Ten years ago, I dropped my stuff off at that gate, but parked 200m away, walked back to gate, and flew.
Now I park, walk 300m to security, press a button, get let through, walk 250m to hangar. I need a trolley to carry my stuff. ( Flight-bag and 2X20L cans of Tesco EN228 RON95.)
But at least the plane is secure from thieves.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Then again, work conditions in many places have deteriorated to the point where people just fall into bed every evening like wet bags and hardly manage to get up on Monday. Or they need to be available all the time even when they are off. I know about the last bit and it’s no fun.
Risking a thread drift here, but I’m always surprised at your pessimistic perception regarding this topic. I think the opposite is the case on a large scale. I think people in our Western societies never before in history had so much of a “work/life” balance as they have today (regular weekends, vacation days, public holidays, sabbaticals of any length being socially accepted now, flexible working hours – and the latter I think CH is much more advanced with than e.g. Germany). Sure, work life can be demanding and after a long working day, people get tired (haven’t they always?). Having to be available all the time really only applies to a fraction of jobs and again – hasn’t it always, for these jobs?
Of all the reasons why people might give up flying, I would think “deteriorating work conditions” is the least influential?
I can’t speak for M/Driver but I think there is a big variation in companies’ internal staff politics / relationships. I have one customer which is clearly an incredibly sh1tty company to work for. The saying “be careful who you sh1t on on your way up because you will have to kiss their bum on your way back down” is totally lost on them. With a job like that, when you get home in the evening you are too knackered to enjoy life. And many big firms, especially those taken over by huge multinationals in recent years (where you have the corporate bullsh1t generator as your screensaver 
) are like this.
OTOH, IMHO, not so many people in full time jobs will be aircraft owners at the higher end of the scale. If you come to a fly-in where people have travelled a reasonable distance, you will find most are businessmen/women and largely in control of their destiny. But then not many of these give up flying, from what I see, unless pushed (loss of medical). Just a statistical observation…
Peter wrote:
…you will find most are businessmen/women…
Around here, the largest portion is made up of the “sons and daughters” fraction. I personally know a very active flyer who gets paid 10k Euros a month by his dad for not coming to the factory and messing with the business… Most bizjet owners belong to that category as well, only a small fraction of them had to work much himself/herself to be able to buy and run the plane. These guys fly until they discover something more thrilling.
Most people I know who own and fly there own plane are, ‘business owners’, They have the flexibility, the funds, and the staying power required to live with all the B.S. In years gone bye, the vast majority of people who retired, immediately died.
Peter wrote:
Loss of medical and loss of income (retirement) are likely to be two common factors.
With the vast array of diagnosis, medications available, they now live, but may not get a medical, may have a reduced income, or other such factor. It becomes more difficult, but in recent conversations I have had with people in the bracket we are discussing, a number, have gotten afraid, they now look at their own mortality. Rather than look forward to more flying in retirement, they have become frightened that the may die in a crash. So they have cut back. Secondly, the wife, for those that still have one, wants them to go to Marks & Spencer’s with them, five days a week. Or lunch, or some other dire day out. And obviously, the wife will not go flying with them.
Of all the reasons why people might give up flying, I would think “deteriorating work conditions” is the least influential?
Whilst some of what you say is true, for professionals who might be likely to be able to afford to fly, the workplace has become ever more competitive and wages are perhaps not as high as they used to be. There’s been an inversion in that in the 1800s unskilled workers worked silly hours and if you were a professional you might have the luxury of some free time; these days it’s the other way round. However, unless you have a sought-after professional job you’re unlikely to be able to afford to fly or buy a house.
One article I read suggested that US lawyers in 1958 were expected to bill for 1300 hours a year; now it’s 2300. “http://www.lawpeopleblog.com/2007/06/a-short-history-of-the-billable-hour-and-the-consequences-of-its-tyranny/”. When I started work as a junior doctor in the UK I unofficially worked 70-80 hours a week but was paid for 48 – on my worst rotation I reckon it took me slightly below the minimum wage in the UK. When I started to take up flying many of my young colleagues were interested but I very much doubt many of them will have enough time or spare mental capacity to do so. The only reason I could was that I took a year off to complete my PhD then treated myself to flying lessons as a ‘reward’. Paid for by an inheritance and not by my own savings.
Part of the problem is that few people who worked 40 years ago are junior employees today so nobody gets to compare today’s stresses with those of yesteryear, which were different. In medicine there’s a feeling that the working hours might have gone down, but the pace of work has become much faster to compensate. It seems rare to me that I ever meet anyone who is happy with their work, reasonably wealthy and seems to have a good work-life balance. I meet my old schoolteachers and they say ‘I loved teaching you, but over the last 10 years everything changed and it became so stressful I took early retirement’. In my work I see young lawyers who are suicidal. University lecturers who go home every night and cut up and down their arms with razors as a diversion from their psychological distress. Again, I can’t say whether the same would have been true 40 years ago but I suspect not. Aside from the decline in aviation, golf and yachting as past-times, I find the whole situation very sad.
At some point you need to consider hanging up the headset for medical/alertness reasons. Some folk seem to fly into their eighties with no problem, while others decide to hang up their headset earlier. Certainly keeping your currency up should be a factor. If your annual flying is very occasional then this might prompt thinking about not giving up, but flying with trusted buddies who are more current. Same applies if you think you are getting less alert with age.
Budget wise I try and keep my personal flying at around 5-10 % of disposable income – hence my affection for a 90HP vintage type.
Hangar neighbours include 65HP syndicate owned Aeronca Chiefs on permits and running on mogas – one is very sprightly and well used and I have to believe its owners keep up their flying for less than their childrens’ mobile phone bills or their daily cappuccinos.
