This was posted on another thread today, after a gear collapse (in a Mooney)
They appear to be sufficiently traumatized (their words, not mine) about this relatively trivial event that they are in dire straits on how to continue flying, to me it appears the have totally lost confidence in the airplanes they might want to buy, and they have even decided not to repair theirs as they never want to fly it again after this. Totally inexplicable to me but that is what even small events can trigger.
I wonder to what extent these events (which are not uncommon) are linked to not having trustworthy maintenance options.
I know of a TB20 owner who got sufficiently p1ssed off with various landing gear issues for them to become a significant factor in selling the plane. But, to me, it is obvious that the problem was not having anybody around who have any intelligent troubleshooting capability. The TB2x gear system is really very simple, and even if you change everything that might possibly cause a problem it is still “only” about 2k (basically, the gear pump and the pressure switch; everything else is trivial to test).
in Bavarian dialect the saying goes : Derf der des ?? - Der derf des!! - Daß der des derf !!
Translated : Is he entitled to do this - He is !! - Unbelievable, he is ??!!
QuoteIn my hometown dialect, there was a very characteristic expression for this, translated in English it would mean “amazing that he’s allowed to do that???”.
If you could share the original phrase, I’d have something to discuss over lunch tomorrow with my Bernese colleagues. 
Hi Shorrick,
That plus personal ownership of anything was discouraged in Eastern Europe as it was viewed as a capitalistic trait. One could most certainly not own a plane!
That is still the attitude in many areas of Europe even today. Only it is no longer called communism but, what it was even then, envy. And envy is not rational, most people don’t even know what it is they are envious of, but the idea alone that one guy can do something more than them, even if they don’t even desire it, sometimes triggers this ugly reflex.
(In my hometown dialect, there was a very characteristic expression for this, translated in English it would mean “amazing that he’s allowed to do that???”. This gives you the general attitude very omnipresent in Switzerland, even though I have come across it in Germany as well. What is not explicitly allowed is forbidden, personal freedom is regarded as something everyone wants but nobody really has, at least not in their direct societies. If you want to test it, try hanging out your washing on Sunday in the catholic cantons or worse, on good friday in a reformed one.)
@ C210 Flyer
My limitations are a home airport that is Day-VFR only with a MEA that is ridiculously high 4000’ with no contact approaches allowed. My alternate has a 400Euro landing fee that is close by.
Could you fly an IAP at Budapest and then fly below say a 1500 ft ceiling to your base? That would at least allow you to beat the 4000’ MEA.
I’d be happy if there was an airfield like LHTL near where I live, my next alternative for a concrete runway with customs is 80 NM away, another is closer but reachable by in between 50 and 120 minutes by car as the way there is over a very busy part of the motorway system. But that one is VFR only as well.
Other than that, I can only agree to what you say, with maybe the exception that Germany is quite good particularly VFR. Airspaces are not excessive, lots of free flying space between the reserved airspaces and pretty decent prices on the smaller airports or airfields. There are other places like EDMA which have good infrastructure and are decently priced. Yes, Munich is a well known case and very unfortunate, even though it was more a political thing than airlines being involved, frankly with the number of passengers they’d “loose” they simply don’t care about GA as long as GA gets out of their way.
Im surprised that the railroads allowed road development for cars 80 yrs ago cause they didnt want competition. Maybe cause they were mostly state run affairs.
There are political parties who want just that, tax individual traffic (cars as well as planes) into obliviation and force you on the train. The same gang often enough would happily do away with airlines as well btw, the Cho Cho is quite enough for them. Thankfully, they are still a (vocal) minority though and in Germany especcially, where the car is a very well established means of transport, they’d bite on something even tougher than Angela Merkel when it comes to restricting car movement.
I’d think in Europe, you need to know where to go and what to do in order to get some decent flying. You’ve discovered Augsburg, there are other similar destinations. From Budapest, I’d think you’d find that places like Belgrade or the Croatian Adria airports are very nice destinations, equally Slovenian airports are nice and not very expensive. Austria is good as well, Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg (outside weekends) and Innsbruck are good places with IFR infrastructure and customs. I actually think that the former Yugoslavia is absolutely great for flying, cheap fuel, good infrastructure and not far from you.
I would personally say that others involved in aviation can often knock confidence far more than they would perhaps think through their actions.
Agree wholeheartedly.
There are many thoughtless, stupid people in aviation, especially general aviation – none on here, of course – and some of the banter and sniping that go on at club level is very off-putting. I suppose it’s just (hu)man nature, and will be found in any activity….
I find the biggest deterrent to be the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
If it’s a nice day and I want to fly to (say) Castle Kennedy – about 30 minutes flying time in the Auster, I just can’t do it on a whim. I have to fly down to Ronaldsway, then to Carlisle, then to Castle Kennedy – after filling out reams of forms. And then do the same for the way back, turning an easy and fun day trip that would be about 1 hr of flying time that doesn’t cost much to do into a 4 hour marathon with four additional and unnecessary landing fees. I didn’t learn to fly to fill out reams of forms. If I decide the day before I want to do it, then there’s still the reams of forms to fill in and then if the weather turns sour I then have to start phoning up Special branch in every county (sorry I exaggerate) to tell them I cancelled.
It’s become a little bit better with OnlineGAR, but the Manx lot still want a form even if you’re departing from Ronaldsway (the UK lot don’t need a form for a designated airfield) and don’t participate in OnlineGAR. Their PDF forms are not editable so it’s a complete pain in the backside to email them. (I ended up writing a program to generate the damned forms because of this).
If we got rid of these onerous reporting requirements within the CTA, I would probably fly five times as many trips away as I do now.
“You have to keep in mind that the golden days of GA were the 60s and especially the 70s. Eastern Europe (where you are based) had both very limited personal freedom rights and was relatively poor.”
That plus personal ownership of anything was discouraged in Eastern Europe as it was viewed as a capitalistic trait. One could most certainly not own a plane!
“Even though I’m a GA pilot, if I had to choose between our high speed train connections and the better GA infrastructure in the US, I would choose the train connections without hesitation”
I guess in the US 50es and 60es technology being bona fide viewed as a “transportation option” for 200NM trips just gives a fair idea what state the rest of the transport infrastructure is in… (though Germany could also improve on the “high speed trains must stop in any town regardless of size” rule…).
So Europe is unfriendly towards GA.
You have to keep in mind that the golden days of GA were the 60s and especially the 70s. Eastern Europe (where you are based) had both very limited personal freedom rights and was relatively poor. Therefore it didn’t participate in the GA boom. The Czech Republic somehow was an exception.
Every since the 70s, GA has been declining and that is true for both Europe and the US. We’re just a bit ahead of the curve
Even though I’m a GA pilot, if I had to choose between our high speed train connections and the better GA infrastructure in the US, I would choose the train connections without hesitation.
Now that I have Achims Gromet Im a little more comfortable.
Wallace and Gramet? Just make sure “I had Achim’s Gramet” (actually make that Thomas’ in this case) does not get engraved into your tombstone…
Achim states, “I have always been of the opinion that piston GA is virtually useless for travel and should not be seen as an alternative to airline travel. As I mentioned, my Tour de France went to Poland. That’s what I meant when I say “a bit of flexibility”. If you have that, GA can be great for leisure travel, if you don’t then take the airline and use your aircraft for traffic patterns and the occasional 100 CHF burger.”
That is true in Europe. But GA in the US can and was used by me for 200NM-500NM trips on a regular bases. With a 90% dispatch rate. The only time that was not the case was when we went skiing. Mostly because in the mountains there were VFR only fields. Also due to snow on the runway from the nights snowfall. We did day trips and getting Wx and airport information at 5AM was impossible. Occasionally we would fly IFR in IMC to airports that had a good instrument approach system. If we decided to go having an alternate that required a 2 hr drive to the mountain was not in the cards. Afterall it was a day trip. The only reason I am going on about these ski trips is because it actually reminds me of Europe. Lot of VFR airports with IFR fields for GA being inconveniently away from destinations. Yes so its much less practical.
The 90% dispatch rate was for family functions, business conferences and weekend trips away . There were delays at times; a few hrs. but most often not by much.
So now that Im here in Europe I am retired and I can go when I can. My limitations are a home airport that is Day-VFR only with a MEA that is ridiculously high 4000’ with no contact approaches allowed. My alternate has a 400Euro landing fee that is close by. The other affordable Alt is 1.5 hrs by car. Not being too bold due to unfamiliarity with systems I file IFR always when I leave Hungary. My usual trips are to EDMA. Great airport with a good Instrument system. The reason I have cancelled some flights going there has been to severe headwinds and severe icing conditions. Now that I have Achims Gromet Im a little more comfortable. But I need Alternates just in case along my route. (Plan B). Not being familiar I dont want to drop in and give them my banks swift code so they can make up their budget shortfalls.
So Europe is unfriendly towards GA. It dosent have to be that way but it is. Look at what happened around Munich. They closed or severely limited GA airports. The govt probably as in the US the airlines are backing limitations on airspace use by GA. Afterall do they want to loose business class customers to GA (flying oneself). Im surprised that the railroads allowed road development for cars 80 yrs ago cause they didnt want competition. Maybe cause they were mostly state run affairs.
Before the French jump down my throat I know in France its different. But my flying is mostly in and between Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Occasionally to France Greece Slovenia Czech and Croatia.
Thats what Ive observed.
