Have you managed to make some of those passengers take up the PPL after that?
Honestly, I haven’t. Even those that were excited and honestly enjoyed it, nowadays seem to think that actually getting the PPL is something totally outrageous extraordinary and “not for them”. I think that’s very bad. It seems that in earlier days, for many, flying was just “another hobby” among many, making it less outrageous take actually get the PPL. My father belongs to that category.
No idea how to reverse that trend…
I know for a fact that many (definitely dozens, possibly hundreds) of people took up flying after reading my website, which has been running for 13 years and gets about 100GB/month of traffic (I pay $25/month for the hosting). I have that confirmed by emails. When EuroGA was started, 3.5 years ago, I had ~3000 email addresses from 12 years of aviation correspondence.
But to say how many take up flying after a fun local flight… I can’t think of any who took it up straight after. But… maybe… one has sown a seed in some 10 year old who went on to fly years later. A lot of stuff happens like that.
Most people aren’t interested anyway. They will go up in a vintage biplane for about £300 for 30 mins, or do a “trial lesson” for somebody’s birthday. But almost nobody takes up flying after that. Young people are mostly into immediate gratification e.g. into Facebook (spending hours a day on it). Hobbies are not fashionable – they have an “anorak” image. Most people with time-consuming hobbies are obviously boys (there is an “obscessive” personality self-selection element there) and they soon learn that having a hobby (of any kind) is a very low yield party chat-up line 
How to reverse the trend?
Get a load more girls into flying! That absolutely implies a big improvement in the social side of it. Then everybody (boys and girls) will arrive.
A short hop from LGMT to LGHI last summer produced this approach and landing video.
Peter, I think your fabulous website has most leverage in turning new PPLs into firmly committed long-term flyers. My flying school at Wycombe told me when I asked, what the most common thing that new PPLs do once they have their licence – the answer surprised me. The most common thing was to stop flying! They had got their pilot’s licence, (ticked that box, marked it off on their bucket list perhaps, had their bragging rights secured perhaps) and that was that. Your website is a fantastic encouragement to new PPLs to keep flying and flying and flying. I know that your website encourages me to fly more and I think it’s wonderful. Thank you.
(I should perhaps add for new flyers that Skydemon is another great lever encouraging me to fly more – it makes planning so much quicker and easier than it was pre-Skydemon days.)
Anyway, here is a video of me flying my TB20 to Elstree (EGTR) where it is now based. Elstree is the busiest little airport that I know – only this busy at weekends apparently.
Let’s all keep flying.
Howard
Can’t help but think it’s weird how UK AFISOs play “Ground Control”…
That landing looked beautiful Howard. I like these uch better than those Mustang landings..
boscomantico wrote:
That landing looked beautiful Howard. I like these uch better than those Mustang landings..
Bosco, enough already! 
Coat, hat!
I’d love to have the training and experience to land that Mustang. What an incredibly cool plane JasonC has. There are so many lovely planes out there and not enough time or money to try them all!
UK AFISOs play “Ground Control”
Which bit?
In the UK, the man on the ground (A/G or FISO) does have the authority to control ground movements. They work on behalf of the landowner. Only an ATCO can control stuff in the air.
Here’s a video of the flight from Shoreham to Alderney which I posted in the Anderney thread.
It has been edited to cut out the boring bits but I left in most of the radio exchanges. It was done as a Eurocontrol IFR flight but I got dumped by London Control onto Solent Radar 120.225 because I was still below CAS, so it is only “half proper IFR”
