We live in pretty depressing times, for all those who don’t have a load of money. Lots has happened all in one go – a “perfect storm” as the Americans call it. Covid, brexit, vaccines, Putin gone crazy → rapidly rising European nationalism, rapidly rising energy prices, all rich countries having to implement expensive programmes for supporting those who can’t afford heating, on top of expensive programmes for supporting people “working” at home and businesses trashed due to covid…Spending money on GA is a long way down the list. 2023 will be hard for most people.
I agree. Maybe it’s my older age as well, but I’ve never felt such doomsday vibes as now. I feel we’re entering into at the very least a deep depression (think the 30’s) and at worst, WWIII. I’m taking precautions by selling a lot of things – including the plane.
Sad to hear that you are selling your plane, Adam, albeit understandable.
Yes, Adam, don’t sell your plane, after all the money and time you have sunk into it.
Things can recover relatively fast. If the Russian stuff in Ukraine gets resolved (which could happen fast, or slow, but Russia will lose eventually) then things will start to improve. Yesterday, gas prices fell a bit because, reportedly, Germany has managed to fully stock up and has stopped buying gas for a bit.
The general investment advice is “never try to catch a falling knife” so don’t sell on the way down. Hang on in there 
A huge % of people in GA are only just hanging in there, in terms of time and money. It’s always been like that. No other hobby I know of is anything like this. I had a sad conversation with a friend a while ago, in which he told me his marriage is pure misery but he cannot leave because if he divorced he would never fly again. That’s how it is for many: right on the edge.
What concerns me much more is how many old-timers who used to go places have recently got out of it.
And I may be even older than you 
My club has just started a new crop of PPL/LAPL students. We had a surprising turnout of 20+ new students, which is noticeably more than last year. There are always some who will jump ship, of course. Also, surprisingly, we’ve seen only a minor decrease in non-training activity compared with last year, even though we have had to increase rental prices by €20-25/hr due to increased fuel costs.
I had rather bleak hopes for next year, but suddenly things look much brighter. As “aeroclub president” this is the kind of thing that could give me bad sleep at night.
But we’ll see….
As we run our own airfield (together with a gliding and aerobatics club) we have significant fixed costs. The increase in electricity costs doesn’t help, of course. We used to have electric engine heaters on H24 during the winter season, but this year we will hook up the heaters to our booking system so they are turned on by demand. We expect to save 11,000 kWh/year, give or take. When the price of electricity was about €0.05/kWh that didn’t matter, but now…
AdamFrisch wrote:
at worst, WWIII. I’m taking precautions by selling a lot of things – including the plane
Only half joking, I would view an aeroplane as insurance to escape the apocalypse
And then, on top of everything, you have idiots like this one
It’s not just the French. Here in Ireland a Sinn Fein senator (senators don’t really hold much power here) last week called for a €3K per flight tax on “the departure of private jets from the state”.
Sinn Féin Senator Proposes Taxes for Private Aviation
Sinn Fein don’t hold any power here, but opinion polls show them likely to top the poll in the next election if things don’t change.
This call probably comes about after some recent publicity about Tom Cruise’s private jet taking a short flight between two regional airports in Ireland and environmental concerns about it.
Having said that, nobody serious is calling for such measures here.
Given our dependence on American technology and pharma companies, I don’t see anyone implementing any crackdown on private jets here. No Silicon Valley CEO is going to invest in our country if we force them to fly here on commercial flights for their meetings. Though €3K per jet flight probably isn’t an issue for them.
Without that foreign investment, we’d be in deep trouble.
Sinn Fein don’t hold any power here, but opinion polls show them likely to top the poll in the next election if things don’t change.
With Sinn Fein = IRA in the past, I can see a 30 day PN on the GAR form to Ireland
Though €3K per jet flight probably isn’t an issue for them.
Unfortunately that is a huge reason for us losing a lot of previously accessible nice airports.
The general investment advice is “never try to catch a falling knife” so don’t sell on the way down. Hang on in there
My first thought upon reading Adam’s post was that after a period of it being a time to sell and put aside cash, the time to start buying things is coming. Not immediately but it’s coming into view on the horizon.
Airborne_Again wrote:
My club has just started a new crop of PPL/LAPL students. We had a surprising turnout of 20+ new students, which is noticeably more than last year.
Here, we have the same trend but I’m pretty sure that the numbers will get down within the next couple of months if the longterm economic prospects don’t improve. It is one thing to keep enjoying a hobby as long as possible but buying in into something when there is no hope to be able to afford at least a few years of flying after getting the license.
MedEwok wrote:
Woah? How do you heat your home? We pay 300€/month for gas alone, and our home is not insulated that badly (build in 1999).
Short answer to avoid thread-drift: The key is to not let the heat escape, therefore we have a ventilation system to reclaim the heat and insulation. Lots of. Solar for water and a cheap gas boiler to make up for the other expensive systems.
