Biggest things which stop people giving up flying?

I think another factor is that some people’s jobs are much more flexible than others, which means that some can afford to take more risks re. getting stuck somewhere, and others can’t.

For example, I once had to leave an aircraft in London and get the train back – an extremely expensive thing to do which I think also upset the plane’s owner – though he was sensible enough not to make a big deal out of it. The forecast was good for the next day, and had my work been flexible enough to give me the morning off I could have stayed with my friend for an extra night.

For the same reason, a lot of the best hang-glider pilots are self-employed craftsmen, farmers who happen to live near a decent hill, academics who sometimes have a relatively free schedule.

You know what I find funny Silvaire?

Recently schools here are hunting for used C152’s and even 150ties, SID’ them, STC them for mogas and deploy them as what they are: sturdy, easy, reliable trainers.

Some of those have gone to expensive new toys like Sport Cruisers and other supposedly superior new airplanes only to find that their capital cost, maintenance cost, devaluation and so on eat up every profit they have possibly made by selling a few hours of the “new” thing.

How many Cirrusses and so on are for rent? Next to none. Because they are way too expensive to make money. C 172’s? Even new ones? Sure thing.

We had one club loose a PA28-180 here to a stupid take off accident. The membership of that club pleaded with the powers that were to buy another one. They loved it, it can carry more load, is more short field capable and cheap to rent. The club refused so far. They are starting to think again.

FI friend of mine just bought out the plane he instructs on because the flightschool wanted to replace it with a shiny toy. Guess what all the students book? The new toy is in the hangar because nobody can afford training on it.

Love it or hate it, the newbies come to airplanes and to ownership via cheap, uncomplicated spamcans. Not via twin turboprops or single flying video games. Some may get to them later, others are quite happy to fly what they can master and pay for.

Very true KWLF!

My personal horrible dispatch rate comes from exactly that. My schedule is known months in advance and I need to be able to fly THAT DAY or MAYBE one day later / earlier. Add to that the horrible weather here in Europe north of the Alps and that is what comes out of it: 10-20% of your flights happen, the rest is cancelled. Add to that flight school planes which MUST be back or else the poor renter pilot faces the Wrath of Khan and you get them to pay 2000 Euros for a weather diversion once and they are GONE.

Add to that the horrible weather here in Europe north of the Alps…

LSZH must really be one of the worst spots in Europe, weather-wise. I often notice that on flights to Italy or Spain: At my homebase Stuttgart we have near-CAVOK conditions, at our destination the same, but the northern side of the Alps is covered by thick grey stratus which only starts to break up north of the lake of Constance.

The thing which needs to be overcome is exactly the flight school commercial mantra which youngsters are told: “You will N E V E R be able to afford a plane so you have to rent with us to the end of your flying days”. That is one of the main reasons people stop flying, because of the harass.

My school has exactly the opposite attitude. They only rent to their own students for hours building between PPL and CPL/IR (which most of the students will do somewhere else for half the cost anyway). Because there never has been any significant damage during training flights with an instructor, only on rental flights. This is also my personal experience from renting out the Piper Seminole that I once co-owned. In the beginning, we gave it to anybody with a twin rating, but the cost for the repairs was much higher than the income. Later we made a contract with a flying school and suddenly we were able to make a little profit. The only disadvantage that we had to join the queue when we wanted to fly it ourselves.

I submit, that while costs play a major deterrent for people to stick with flying, I think it’s the lack of purpose & utility that ultimately fails to keep people in the fold.

Let’s face it – depending on which part of the World you live in (US being great for utility – a high powered IFR cruiser can really get you somewhere & the airspace + infrastructure is a fantastic facilitator), GA flying is just incredibly impractical for actual transportation & a major hassle in many parts of the World.

We deal with it, because we all love flying. The unique experiences & challenges we get.

And people who love flying will ultimately fly themselves around in whatever is available & whatever matches their income level.

But if we didn’t love flying itself, none of us would submit ourselves to GA as a practical mode of transport. With modern global airline travel being so dirt cheap & abundant, we’d just book our tickets online instead.

People do buy expensive cars frivolously, but those cars still retain their utility value & don’t require specific training to operate. And they can flash them around town, while aircraft sits on some ramp in the middle of nowhere.

But if we didn’t love flying itself, none of us would submit ourselves to GA as a practical mode of transport. With modern global airline travel being so dirt cheap & abundant, we’d just book our tickets online instead

Agree – there was a time about a dozen years ago, or more, when flying yourself airways had costs quite similar to business class in Europe. But the old IFR standbys got older, some attracted airways charges, maintenance costs ballooned more than inflation, and avgas tripled. I remember booking a year of commuting on RYR for 0.01€ per flight plus taxes! That sort of put the end to using an MEP.

There are probably some sectors where an airways SEP (a simple one) makes economic sense, where there is no lo cost airline service – but then you are managing SEP IFR risks as well. The beefed up safety features on the Cirrus and new generation 172/182 have made these risks more acceptable. ie forced landings in poor visibility, low ceilings, ideally with a CAPS.

Some things are just not possible or practical on commercial flights and that’s why I fly… couple of examples…

Its a gorgeous weekend, the other half has never been to Guernsey (although its my second home), so I say ’ lets go to Guernsey on Sunday for Lunch and a scout round the island’ we jump in the plane at Sleap Sunday morning 1030, by 1200 we are on Guernsey, have arranged for a hire car to be delivered to ASG flight support, we go off, have lunch, tour the island , walk on the beach, back to the airfield and back at Sleap for 1900. Impossible commercially.

Also she has never been to Alderney, so on another occasion we booked a hotel, jumped in the aircraft,1hr 15m later we are on the island , have a great weekend, Fly back in another 1hr 15m. Its a major pain to get to Alderney commercially, expensive, and will take most of the day because you have to change at Guernsey or Jersey.Probably one of the only journeys where its actually cheaper for us to travel in the Commander.

We have a house near Carcassonne, only 2 flights a week from Liverpool most of the year and at some horrible times (0615 for example) so we drive to the airfield chuck all our stuff in the back of the plane, toiletries no problem , plane comes out of the hangar , car goes in, 4 hrs later we are in carcassonne, no security, no customs , no queues and we travel to our own agenda not Ryanairs.

All this of course subject to the weather..

I’ve noticed a youngish looking guy flying his mid-60s C150 almost every day recently and it’s great to see

Some of this is pragmatic. While I enjoy the purity of stick and rudder flying that I get with my aircraft (which is older than my father, having been built in 1945), many older aircraft are pretty economical to operate, and if it gets you out of the renting scene and into something you have more control and flexibility with it’s all good.

Make a stop at Gloucester and Ronaldsway your final destination, and you can go to the Isle of Man without needing 12 hours notice.