27 years this time around and as has already been said the biggest changes for me also have been IT related. I adore Autorouter for planning
I still often close flight plans by phone as I did before but now it’s a smartphone which I carry with me and I don’t have to find a phone I can use or a booth only to find I don’t have the right coins.
But all this wonderful new equipment much of which brings with it high levels of safety cannot be retrofitted to many popular aircraft (at least those popular in France) unless you are happy to go to a different regulatory environment, and here EASA and the NAA’s need to think again and soon, before there is no GA to regulate.(perhaps overstated a little)
Getting weather is so much quicker and accurate over longer periods
But that has led to the closure of so many weather offices where one could get a face to face briefing of what to expect.
I started when one needed a certificate proving you could speak English before being able to fly outside France (the QRI or QRRI )then I didn’t, now I do again (ELP).
Schengen and the customs union has made travel across much of Europe so much easier as has the Euro (contentious I know) which means I don’t have the problem of carrying travellers cheques or different currencies and worrying about if I have changed up enough or too little and having to pay a bank a fee at each exchange.
More ppr in some countries is a huge downside in those countries and one can hope that one day these airfields will see the error of their ways.
The increase in PNR for customs and immigration is a bit over the top in some places but here the UK has long since shown a way it can be done (GAR) and one can hope that eventually others eg France will follow.
Massive increases in landing , parking and mandatory handling fees are a real turn off for someone like myself who only paid about the equivalent of €30 euros total during my PPL training. And yes I did do touch and goes and the occasional full stop landings at International airports. In fact on most airports touch and goes were free. I remember being shocked many years after gaining my PPL the first time I received an invoice for a touch and go, especially as it was Sunday and AFIS were not around. Other pilots laughed and said you should just have declared a go around (remis de gaz) as they record all radio messages and charge based on them.
IMO it is these charges that has seen the rise of the ULM scene here in France. I don’t know what it is like in other countries but in France flying has never been a pursuit purely for the rich or those with well paid jobs. At any club you will find a huge range of metiers ranging from school kids through low paid workers to yes, to the more well off. All have an equal say in their club, but sadly the fracturing off of GA has seen many clubs split into gliding clubs, ulm clubs, experimental clubs, war bird clubs etc as well as the abundance of other activities available to the youth has led to the social scene at many clubs dying with just the “troisieme age” (oldies) remaining. It will be a tough nut for any club Pesident to rejuvenate things.
Finally, more so in some countries than in others there has IMO been an increase in restricted and controlled airspace which is not a problem per se except for the fact that transit of this airspace has become more complex and less forthcoming. Sometimes it can seem like there is an impenetrable wall from ground to 20000ft with different people to negotiate with and different frequencies to negotiate on each giving a different QNH to open a door in that wall at different levels. It seems that more and more often that door will remain shut causing pilots to make large detours or not flying in that area at all. And when did the danger areas of the northern sector of the English channel become restricted areas and why have they not been designated “R”?
When I learnt to fly it was not illegal to transit an active “D” area. Of course you didn’t you found out whether it was active or not beforehand by talking to an ATS clearly notified in the AIP.
But there never was a chance of breaking air law and being penalised for a minor incursion. Of course you could have been unlucky enough to get blown out of the sky but that’s a different story :)
To sum up the freedom to fly many of us felt when we first started may well have been eroded over the years and that may well be why young people are looking elsewhere for their fun.
Started flying seriously in 2014. Based in Switzerland until 2011, in UK since.
Everyone above has covered well the changes in flying due to equipment and regulatory issues.
The thing that has struck me is just how much my attitude to flying has changed in the last 10 or 15 years. Now before embarking on a trip I am super careful about planning routes, checking airports for regulations, fuel availability, watching weather development for a few days beforehand etc.
By contrast I remember well a flight I made from Switzerland to Athens, with a stop for fuel in Bari (S Italy) in an SR22 in about 2008; I had never been to either airport before, or for that matter flown to either country. I filed a flight plan to Bari and literally just set off. When I was flying final into Bari firstly I was struck by what a big airport it was, with commercial airlines everywhere and no GA aircraft. Then when I landed I was ushered into the airport managers office who looked at me with some bemusement and asked what I wanted. When I explained I needed to refuel and head off to Athens he laughed and said “dont you realise we have no Avgas here, havent had for years”! In retrospect I don’t think they seen anything smaller than a 737 there for ages. There apparently were no airports anywhere in the vicinity with fuel either until I realised I had just enough fuel to get to Corfu. I borrowed his phone, called Corfu, sent a fax, paid a surprisingly reasonable landing fee (I think they took pity on this ignorant stupid schmuck) and went on my way.
The point of this story, is that I actually miss how my attitude to flying has changed. I am much less carefree about just setting off and making it up as I go along. Perhaps it is a function of age (I am now 63), perhaps Covid has something to do with it, perhaps all the PPR PNR bullsh+t. I have made a pledge to myself than when Covid is over I am just going to get in the plane, head out across the channel to my first destination, and from there just spend a couple of weeks wandering around, not planning more than an hour ahead.
Started to fly in 1982, got my license in 83.
Bought my first plane (C150L) right after the check ride. It was a totally carefree time, you were accepted wherever you went almost. Destinations during my C150 days included Frankfurt (EDDF), Vienna (LOWS) and Girona(LEGE) amongst lots of small places, you just filed a flight plan and left. No PPR, No slots, nothing, but sometimes a bemused look by officials. All of those airports had Avgas and they either were AOE’s or not, so no quibbling around with customs and immigration questions, one just went to a place on the list and fine. Ok, you can still do that, but most of the AOE’s I used to use do no longer accept GA.
Flight planning was route map and a pencil, pure visual flying with the occasional uncertainty over terrain you did not know. Weather was looked at roughly before but then on the day before and on the day with a competent meteorological briefer. Hardly any flights then got cancelled, just postponed or advanced slighty.
I did my CPL/IR/MEP in 1993 but was sufficiently bancrupt afterwards to never actually have flown much MEP (some trips with a Seneca I) and only a few IFR flights with my Cessna. Did my AN2 rating in Bulgaria in 1993, got close to fly RH seat in a Caravelle (company went bust). Did frozen ATPL with Crossair but was not accepted in the end. So a typical failed airline pilots career. I got a flight dispatchers license from Swissair later, which was the best job I ever had, real fun and exactly my thing. Unfortunately Swissair died and now I work something else which is also fun but not the same.
I took a break from flying from 1998 to 2009, when I bought my Mooney. In the mean time, all my ratings had lapsed, I basically lost everything but my PPL(A) and redid my SEP. Flew until 2017, when my SEP lapsed due to lack of time after the birth of my daughter. Have not flown since, only a few training attempts which were all foiled by lack of time.
What has changed? In general travelling has become much more complex with the introduction of Schengen and the whole shebang with PPR, PNR, who has customs, who has Avgas, who accepts GA and who not. Outpricing at most larger airports is a huge issue.
And I have to wholeheartedly agree with @Buckerfan:
The point of this story, is that I actually miss how my attitude to flying has changed. I am much less carefree about just setting off and making it up as I go along. Perhaps it is a function of age (I am now 63), perhaps Covid has something to do with it, perhaps all the PPR PNR bullsh+t. I have made a pledge to myself than when Covid is over I am just going to get in the plane, head out across the channel to my first destination, and from there just spend a couple of weeks wandering around, not planning more than an hour ahead.
All I can say is that this sums up a lot of what I see and hear and have experienced prior to 2017. The “can do” attitude is gone, I started to restrict more and more to places I know and have a purpose for flying there. Destinations changed: My favorite flying countries today are in the Balkans, no longer France, Spain, Italy and very few selected places in Germany where I know how to work the red-tape for customs e.t.c. Flight planning has become easier with apps to produce a PLOG or OFP as I call it, but destination and alternate selection as well as airspace avoidance has become infinitly more complex.
If I had a wish list of what to change to make GA the joy it used to be then abolishing PPR/PNR as well as slottery would be on top of the list as well as a standardized and easy to understand/follow entry requirement throughout Europe for border crossing flights. Data should be freely available via the net including all VFR plates for everywhere and incorporated into the planning softwares as much as possible.
What has become much nicer is navigation with GPS and apps, no more guesswork where you are now and embarrassing calls to ATC to give you a fix or vector to find your way back. I love the new avionics such as my Aspen and similar, finally a trusty method of determining TAS and inflight winds, I love to tinker with Excel and POH’s to learn about airplane performance and I love the variety of sources and communities on the Internet which allow you to share your experiences. And my personal goal for 2021 is to get my SEP back and hopefully also my IR.
Only 6 years for me, first flight was summer 2014.
Not much has changed since then, I’m happy I got to fly over the city I was born before Fraport took over the airport and forced the local aeroclub out of there.
Maybe my attitude of flying in the UK has changed a bit too. I might attempt it one day but after reading of all the craziness that’s been going on over there (D-areas that are actually R-areas, requesting clearance to enter controlled airspace when on IFR flightplan, CAA attacking pilots for a slight “bust”, IMC pilots in G airspace talking to nobody) I would rather pick another destination.
Dimme wrote:
I would rather pick another destination.
And I would wholeheartedly endorse that. The UK gets bad press but in reality it is not quite as bad or draconian as you highlight. I would suggest a long VFR flight in UK airspace with someone who knows the routes and areas. I would rather fly VFR in the UK than IFR other than vectors to an arrival.
I also agree that flying in most of Europe is easier than the UK, although watch those French danger areas 
Forgot about airport security, probably the largest practical change.
It’s difficult to talk in terms of better or worse. For instance, while airport security has made things more complicated and annoying, it also has the bi effect of leaving parked aircraft safe from vandals and stuff like that.
Another thing is cost. When I got my PPL (in 92 in a C-172), it costed me about 20k NOK, or about 2.5k US$. At that time an IBM ThinkPad (an OK laptop PC) costed the same. Today the PPL cost at least 10k € (also in a C-172, and it could be the exact same aircraft), and a relatively OK laptop cost 0.5 k € or less with several orders of magnitude more power and storage and usability compared with the ThinkPad.
Also 30-40 years ago a 172 class aircraft (ordinary SEP) was THE thing. It had no competition. There were microlights and experimental aircraft also, but they were relatively much more on the “exotic” side than they are today, and they were few and far apart. As pointed out above from France, communities are much more fragmented. We have PPL pilots sticking to other PPL pilots and certified aircraft. We have UL doing the same, Experimental doing the same, Old classic aircraft doing the same. There is a small minority who fly them all, but that minority seems to be shrinking also.
As in France, private flying in Norway, has never been a typical rich man’s activity. Gliding is still considered a youth activity for instance. It is not that long ago (40 years give or take), that the youth could get their PPL in a Cub during a year at a “Folk High School” (open schools or colleges with no particular curriculum). You could easily create such schools today using ULs, but I think it would be a night mare fighting off all the “safety nazis”, “sound pollution nazis” and whatnot. Many schools do have paragliding as an activity though, so perhaps it could be possible.
It’s really interesting to see how different people see the changes.
To summarise, practically speaking, we can fly to much the same places we always used to be able to do legally, and the overall cost has not gone up despite some big landing fee increases.
In the UK, I see a dramatic change with the new CAA infringements policy and this has pretty well put me off flying around here. I managed to do one in 2017 and another in 2019, both very minor, both maximally “persecuted”, and both resulting in a thoroughly foul taste in the mouth after dealings with the guy in the CAA running this dodgy scheme. This has led to a decision to no longer fly within the UK except (a) trivial routes e.g. along the coast (b) flights which can be fully programmed and autopilot-flown at a single level (c) IFR at high altitude like this but this type remains difficult because you lose your clearance after exiting the first piece of CAS (though AFAICT this has never changed). Those who never infringed probably aren’t bothered, and the evidence suggests that foreign pilots don’t need to be unless they do something serious. Fortunately, I have flown all over the UK in the 20 years and have little interest left in doing the low level VFR runs (which are the ones which are really likely to get one into trouble) apart from certain destinations which remain attractive, like the ones above, but those can be done high level IFR.
The above UK aspect makes me wonder what I would say to someone doing their PPL in the UK today. Unless they are well funded and stay focused on “going places” and going for good value destinations, they will find themselves in an extremely “punishment oriented” environment in which – having got to nowhere interesting – they get 1 or 2 chances before their license is suspended, then they get landed with some stupid process to get it back (“retraining”) and frankly I don’t think many new pilots will grind their way through that, having just ground their way through the PPL and 10-15k. If I was flying in the typical UK scene where 3 or 4 people squeeze into a PA28 so they can cost share a leg each, and eat a sandwich or a greasy burger at each airfield they land, never visiting anywhere, I would certainly be looking for another hobby. It will probably not be an issue which the CAA will ever realise exists, however, because most UK PPLs give up more or less immediately, having done some local burger runs. They will still see a roughly similar level of activity; it’s just that far fewer people will be getting value out of it. Then one day there will be a collapse, like we have seen in Spain and Italy, and I doubt the CAAs there have noticed anything, either…
Up in the north, or Scotland, the problem doesn’t really exist much because the airspace is a lot more open.
The answer, of course, is to fly abroad and no matter how you shake it, that’s where the most interesting destinations have always been.
On the more general aspects, I think not much has changed around Europe that really affects going to places.
Yes, many airport prices have gone up a lot. I used to pay €10 at Biarritz And €50 in Prague. These changes will have narrowed down the range of airports visited by GA. In 2005, Prague was full of GA, now there is almost none, but nobody cares because the same people get paid for coming to work and doing little. Now even Dubrovnik – for many years €50 – is much more expensive. However, many of the price rises are not significant against the other flying costs – once one gets through the “ripoff” perception. Mali Losinj is not “cheap” at €75 (landing and 1 night parking) but on one particular weekend last year it got 60+ planes! EuroGA has played a big part in putting the Croatian island airports “on the map”. Fraport have damaged flying around Greece; perhaps @petakas and @atmilatos can comment on how badly. But I wonder how foreign visitors have been affected; perhaps not much since a plane with a decent range can do Croatia-Crete and then all the non-Fraport airports can be easily visited. The biggest problem in Greece is airport opening hours and they have never changed.
More generally I feel there is stricter enforcement of rules which (a) didn’t exist (b) existed but nobody cared (c) existed but were ignored by authorities (d) existed but nobody knew about them before they became known via forums. When I started flying, it was normal for Brits to fly to/from any airfield in France, despite this having always been illegal at most of them. And – except for CTA traffic – practically nobody in the UK did the GAR form; that started to be enforced about 10 years ago.
On the positive side of the above, electronic filing has become very easy so compliance with stupid PN etc requirements is quite easy. No more scrambling to send a fax from a laptop My early trips, say 2003-2009, were plagued by comms problems. I feel that airports communicate much better today, even though Spanish and French ones won’t reply without a google translated version
Another positive thing is that the European AIPs are now finally mostly usable, and the contact details in them mostly work. The EuroGA airport database is a handy access route for the Eurocontrol AIPs but the German and Swiss ones, and some others, are still behind paywalls – examples. Many airports also have a usable website. This is a huge contrast to say 15 years ago.
Rules are being more strictly applied around the homebuilt area – see e.g. this and this. There seems to be a loosely coordinated tightening around Europe to prevent foreign reg homebuilts being permanently based. Overflight needs permits in many cases but there is no evidence of any enforcement and there never was.
The UK and I guess most other places have filled up with “yellow jacket” types with fake MBAs in “risk management”. So no hard parking at many airports, when this used to be available in years past. Yet, this seems a local issue, because many airports remain as friendly as ever.
More amusingly, I am having absolutely zero issue flying around Europe with a KLN94 GPS
which is about 25 years old technology, and the box I actually have is probably 20 years old! I have a spare on the shelf. The KMD550 MFD with its crappy 320×240 LCD continues to work just fine. Those who spent well into 5 digits on “glass” should be horrified So actually nothing has changed in European flying procedures – VFR or IFR. Eurocontrol are constantly generating 10,000 page proposals on changes but nothing is changing. Until database updates stop, I don’t see any problem, although it would be nice to get a better user interface for route entry etc.
As always, the best thing anyone can do to make their flying easy is to get an IR Suddenly, most of the planning hassles and ATC hassles just vapourise. In the UK there are some caveats where you have to be seriously on the ball – example – but mostly you “just fly”.
In the long run the biggest challenge with flying is keeping it interesting. After one has gone to a load of places I like to focus on (a) seeing really scenic places and (b) meeting up with nice people. The first one needs mostly long trips (if you live in the UK ). The second needs keeping in touch with a nice community and that is where EuroGA comes in, and I wish people made more of an effort to look after our great resource and help promote it, because I can’t do everything myself.
Good of you to mention avionics.
For me, I very much like finally having decent avionics which give me information I have wanted for years and the the guesswork out of flying. It also allows “playing” airliner a bit and fly comfortably.
My Aspen has really given me a lot of satisfaction flying and I also like the gpss capability of my GNS430W with my AP. And finally the prices move a bit in the right direction for many gadgets too… Dynon Skyview for example.
From what my dad told me, the hard part used to be the flying and especially surviving weather. There was little information by often summarized by a met specialist.
Today we avoid weather by large margins (most of the time), and the hard part is the ground part. Weather info is huge but available in raw form and you must be the met guy now. For the ground part, maybe we changed. My parents didn’t moan if they had to wait a bus, or walk an hour to get to the city, or even some camping ground.
Yes, I think, definitely, much more (what some would call) “total cowboy” flying used to happen – due to the difficulties of obtaining wx data. A lot of piston GA was operated on the basis of “if you can get airborne at all, go up and take a look around, and usually it will work, more or less”. I know pilots (mostly no longer flying, though not dead) who say exactly that. And to a large extent they are right – if you are flying an Aztec or similar which can carry a lot of ice.
Today, I think a lot of people are more cautious, while others are clever at using the new resources to do hazardous flights more safely. But risk compensation means that accidents are not down much.
