@RobertL18C my family instead bailed from Europe in the 70s, and with that immeasurably increased our opportunities in aviation. I’ll be in Europe in a couple of weeks enjoying what it does have to offer, as in your example its just a commercial flight away. It’s a big world out there and there’s no reason not to do what you can, where you can and adjust as time goes on. Part of my adjustment was to marry a European, and we are (literally) at home in either place.
I started flying myself in about 1979 (would have to check logbook) but notwithstanding ongoing 2020-on cost inflation my main period of involvement in US GA (from 2002 has to date) has put me in the most accessible time and place ever to own, maintain and fly a wide variety of light aircraft. By design and right now, the economics and hassles of my flying are completely manageable.
Silvaire wrote:
However I think that because that hadn’t been the case for a long time, GA had yet to capture the attention of those in Europe who pathologically (boosting their own narrow short term interests) over complicate and tax any activity, whether justified or not, unless there are really substantial mass politics to prevent it
I think it has more to do with services which used to be public, were being privatized. It was not only aviation, it was everywhere (more or less). GA simply got caught up in the usual cost/“efficiency” spiral without the economy to support it. A bit later, but still roughly at the same time came “security”, making public airports even less accessible. One of the worst examples of this is perhaps the AIP in Germany behind a pay-wall.
Yes, it is bit ironic that in the US it is the federal government that guarantees GA access to airspace and airports while in Europe the problem is precisely privatisation.
IFR light GA does not have the right economic, it won’t survive in “free market” as will get priced out by Bizjets/Airlines, it needs to be “subsidised” by the state and live on “infrastructure” for necessary traffic
In Europe, we don’t have those 4km Federal runways with free acess, however, the ideal places where light IFR GA could thrive are those with Air-Police, Air-Ambulance helicopters, parachutes and occasional non-schduled commercial flights with paved runways between 900m & 1800m
In big airports, you will get kicked out
In 400m grass, you need some b***s, skill and luck
LeSving wrote:
One of the worst examples of this is perhaps the AIP in Germany behind a pay-wall.
If security is really the justification given for putting the German AIP behind a pay-wall, then clearly the logic courses I took at university will need some updating…
while in Europe the problem is precisely privatisation.
Probably more corruption.
Much of Europe, especially as one goes south, has poor individual, corporate and govt transparency, and it is often hard to work out who is trying to grease whose palm. And airports are the best places for this since the magic word “safety” deflects unwanted attention.
it is bit ironic that in the US it is the federal government that guarantees GA access to airspace and airports while in Europe the problem is precisely privatisation
In the US the role of the Federal Government is at once explicitly defined and explicitly limited, it’s not random. That forces the Feds to e.g. do what is appropriate to promote the national economy but prevents them from taking over the economy or individual lives. The FAA thereby regulates and promotes aviation specifically as a subset of regulating interstate commerce, which is a Federal role.
derek wrote:
If security is really the justification given for putting the German AIP behind a pay-wall, then clearly the logic courses I took at university will need some updating…
He he, I was thinking about privatization (obviously, but wrote a bit confusing perhaps).
Mooney_Driver is perhaps not the most outspoken “half full” guy here on EuroGA (vs half empty 
), but I’m afraid in this particular issue he is very correct IMO. There simply is no detectable light at the end of the tunnel. Light private GA is pushed out of the mainstream aviation sphere. It doesn’t seem to be deliberately in any way, it’s just one small random needle poke after the other, endlessly. We are like an endangered species that is loosing it’s habitat inch by inch, until the habitat has become too small, too fragmented, too much inhospitable land, too much hostility, to support a viable species.
As an organism, we have 3 choices:
Number one is obviously no solution, just the inevitable result if things are left alone. This leaves us with 2 and 3.
Number 2 is a hard nut to crack. Mostly because it will be in direct opposition to why we are doing this in the first place. For some though, this is the obvious route, like for instance biz jets. But I mean biz jets is only a super tiny fraction, and in no way representative for 99.9% of private GA. They are part of the problem rather than part of the solution (in general, but there are examples of the opposite).
Number 3 is the only viable solution:
Is this bad? IMO – NO It’s not bad at all, not for light private GA. All experience have shown that this works just fine. Private individuals and groups have shown an amazing ability to make this work, and it keeps getting better.
For aviation as a whole, I don’t know. What has happened is a whole segment, the entire grass root and then some, has cut the ties to “traditional” aviation. EASA has become irrelevant. Irrelevant for licenses, irrelevant for airfields, irrelevant for aircraft, irrelevant for most of the operations. In lots of countries we are already there. In Norway, traditional GA is a club flight school here and there, and that’s basically it. A situation where 90% quits within 2-3 years, and the rest fly a token 2-3 h each year to “keep current” 90% of private activity, in terms of owning and flying planes, happens “out in the bush” with experimentals and ULs. To me this seems to be happening all over. At different rates for sure, but the path is very clear everywhere.
Silvaire wrote:
By design and right now, the economics and hassles of my flying are completely manageable.
So I sold the Bonanza. In part my life was changing and the thought of owning 2 certified aircraft made me shudder. I just could not justify it nor the expense. I also did not have time to fly two. Something had to give.
Left me with the Cub and back to my old ways of bush flying into fields and folks back gardens.
I recently thought about things GA.
I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer live with the 10’ high security fences, the video surveillance, the security checks, the PPR, the flight plans, the cost of Avgas, and on and on. I view the past decade as one of change from very open enjoyable flying to one of crushing personal infringement and restrictions.
A grass strip, and park the plane in a wooden shed. I believe it may well be the future. It is certainly mines.
Number 3 is the only viable solution:
A network of private fields, filled up with
UL’s, experimentals, aviation sports and “old classics”. Old classics meaning old certified aircraft that have showed an ability to live forever.
Well, the only fly in the ointment is that 75% (or more?) of the EuroGA pilots worshiping not only every rule and their instrument needles, but more so enjoy their genitals being squeezed by battling with Eurocontrol and slots, having to file ATC FPLs for every flight, being imprisoned whilst flying in SIDs, 10NM airways, STARs, and need for concrete, will have either to stop flying… or convert to freedom 
