Will the new rules allowing PPL instruction through Declared Training Organisations help? Ideally it might produce the sort of grass root flying school Richard Bach romanticised about (having received fast jet military training courtesy of the taxpayer :)).
The fleet might consist of a Cessna 140 and a Warrior, the 140 taking the student to solo, tailwheel differences, and the Warrior for Nav and test, followed by Night and IMC rating. An Aeronca Chief or 90HP Super Cub might also work for the flying skills part. A Pitts S-2A would complete the fleet, ideally set in a pristine grass strip.
I read today that EASA will soon forbid PPL training and renewal on non-EASA COfA aircraft. That will not reduce the cost of flying.
Can’t post the link, I’m using my phone.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529641/Hobbies-Wed-watch-television-One-four-lists-activity-favourite-pastime.html
Well, as ever the Daily Wail has a view, and it probably isnt that far wrong for a change.
Are disposable incomes less? I guess they probably are, especially amoung younger people, perhaps less so amoung older people.
Also as the DW suggests, I think to an extent it is not only money driven. There are other sports and past times which dont involve a high spend that are in decline, clubs struggling for members, participation significantly down.
I guess it must be true that there is far more entertainment in the home. The more elderly(!) of us will recall the days of TV with only a few channels, computers in their infancy, and dial up internet.
There are therefore a combination of factors which are changing the demographics of how we spend our leisure time, and aviation is possibly threatened even more than some other areas because of the cost, and the committment.
RobertL18C wrote:
A fair proportion of the zero to hero crowd regard general aviation as a stepping stone to a jet transport job, and when they reach their goal never want to fly an ‘unsafe’ SEP, let alone MEP, again.
In Europe at least, the fact that you need a class rating for SEPs also prevents many jet pilots from GA flying. I personally know two biz jet captains who would love to occasionally go fly a Cessna but had their SEP ratings lapse. This lead to the absurd situation that – while still living in Europe – I ended up taking one of them flying occasionally. This is someone I would rate as the best pilot I’ve ever flown with. Go figure.
172driver – it is a strange one, and of course they also cant excercise their instrument priviliges even if they have the SEP rating.
In my experience (and I do the same) the only problem is in the flair and having to work for navigation privilges when OCAS and not being spoon feed the whole way. 
Mind you, and I know it is a strange one, a good friend of mine who is an examiner, reckoned he had one fella recently and as he put it, on instruments it was like flying on rails, anything else and he had severe doubts about letting him lose – to be fair I have never seen that.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
Are disposable incomes less? I guess they probably are, especially amoung younger people, perhaps less so amoung older people.
I can’t speak for Europe, but disposable income in the US is up for plenty of people, by their own design and/or age and life circumstances. The issue is how they choose to spend the time and money.
The cost of owning and flying a plane in the US is lower now than it has ever been. What I think is ‘different’ (worldwide) is that many people have retracted into themselves and their immediate society, more often exploring the world electronically instead of physically. Too bad for them I guess, but it’s not my problem. Getting away is 100% mandatory for me and I tailor my flying into an exciting, independent way to do it. I’m the exact opposite of a trend follower, in many aspects of life I’ve consciously exploited the possibility of being a little contrarian to get more fun and excitement for less money. Flying in 2018 is no different, a $35K plane plus a $20K car is more fun than having a $55K car.
Jujupilote wrote:
I read today that EASA will soon forbid PPL training and renewal on non-EASA COfA aircraft.
If that’s true, what happened to the “proportionate, risk based approach to regulation”?
Interesting response everyone but I’m left feeling there must be more to this decline (In the USA) than cost or cell phones. In a flying friendly continent untouched by crazy bureaucracy, combative ATC, mad airspace, wild airport charges and a dozen other Euro malaises, the pilot population is still steadily aging and declining.
Is it possible that the real reason is cultural – we, the boomers, grew up with stories of WWII with a daily diet of Spitfires and Lancasters and of course most of all Apollo II. Could flying have been inculcated in our blood, even in a case like mine where no-one in my family had ever been in a plane, let alone flew? I spent my youth building model planes with hopeless home designed valve radios that at best made a short hop before either smashing themselves to bits or flying away, never to be seen again, and yet I kept on doing it and even made some sort of career out of it (electronics, that is).
Were we the children of adversity, who had to reach for personal freedom in the air? Was that the real reason for the peak in GA in the ’80’s, when we had the income and the time to go do what had driven us from childhood? Anyway, what a privilege it is to fly the empty skies now, in Europe or the US, where thousands of beautiful airports await us, sometimes the only visitor and certainly the only British pilot to land all day. My childhood dreams of freedom made more real than I could ever have imagined. And as another boomer said, “I can imagine quite a lot”.
172driver wrote:
I personally know two biz jet captains who would love to occasionally go fly a Cessna but had their SEP ratings lapse.
Rightfully so. I have trained more than one Jet-Jockey who needed to learn to land in an SEP again. Or to hold the trottle on takeoff. Or to operate the mixture. One 747-Captain was finished with his landing in 10 meters. Another Citation-driver was constantly much too fast in landing the 172 and it took him 10 circuits to not float along the half runway. OTOH the SEP is rather easy to revalidate, just some (often necessary) training and a flight with an FE.
On topic: IME there is a huge interest in the public. It’s just that nobody sells aviation. There is no AOPA/DAeC/DULV/DSV Marketing Campain to the general public and many Schools and Clubs act like they don’t want to be bothered with customers / members. Those who just are nice to people have more students that they can handle. We have currently 18 serious students, with four active instructors and two planes, the forth year in a row. Some will stop flying after obtaining the licence, but quite a few became owners and active pilots. Many young pilots among them.
As regards training in non-CofA aircraft, one thread is here. If there is an update on it, I am sure many would be most interested.
I totally agree that the AOPAs and really the whole business is crap at marketing itself. But when you look at some of the execs, they eat too much to have the energy 
Whereas US AOPA is out there the whole time banging its drum. Some will say they overcook it at times, which is true, and of course they have about 10x the membership of the whole of European GA so plenty of money. They pay a full time executive which prevents most of the dodgy individuals rising up which is what happens in Europe (the classic volunteer organisation problem). This aspect is one thing which European GA could fix, if they united and pooled the resources.
