Comments on: EAA AirVenture 2012: First Impressions

By: Sabrina Hill

Sabrina Hill — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:24:38 +0000

To John Hawkins I say, Perhaps in your part of the country GA is dead, but here in far west Texas, while it is not as busy as it once was, I can go out to the closest airport, and there are eight or ten pilots there every weekend, and the majority of them will be flying the pattern in the morning with their LSA qualified Classic or antique aircraft, I paid 10.000 for my 1940 BC65 back in 2003, and I own three ultralights on top of that. If anything, what has happened, is that the baby boomers are shedding their Cherokees and 172′s for “Real” LSA, not plastic ones, at least here in west Texas, that is what’s happening. Those that are not fearing the next Medical are staying out of Spam cans for purely financial reasons. For THESE people, the journey IS the destination, and they fly hom built ultralights for a mere fraction of even a “classic” LSA. Out here in rural Texas, most of us, me included, just staked out a runway, and took our riding lawn mowers and mowed the range grass to only an inch and a half to two inches high and we have our OWN private airstrip for FREE, now shy high payments to A&P’s and IA’s, and we fly to each other’s airstrips on weekends for this constantly moving BBQ. NO. my friend, the face of aviation may have chanced, but it is NOT dead by ANY means out in Rural America.
Brie

By: ken johnson

ken johnson — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 02:13:05 +0000

Another great show! My favorite new thing was the Aerochia LT-1 composite single seat aircraft. $29K for a 150mph kit plane that uses a 2 cylinder Hirth engine and burns less than 5 gph. That aircraft drives the performance/cost ratio in the right direction.

By: john hawkins

john hawkins — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 01:57:35 +0000

except at Oshkosh. go out to your local GA airport. Listen hard. what do you hear? silence.
no bodys in the pattern, no body is washing their plane.
Ga is dying. Certainly those of us who flew for fun. Though I have instrument, multi-engine commercial ratings, I never intend to give up my day job. I and numerous others have given up flying as unaffordable. It was never cheap but it was affordable. The new world of turbines, glass cockpits, lawsuits and sky high insurance rates have killed the simple pleasures just as complexity, regulation, and lawsuits(fear of) have killed the ability of young fishermen to pool their pennies and rent a boat with 5 horse kicker for a day of fishing.

I’m glad that there are still some who can enjoy the sport.