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Today seemed like the perfect day for some flying, just for the fun of it.

Every flight I take these days, has an agenda, or time sensitive destination. But today was all mine. The weather was near perfect, but sunny enough to warn of a bumpy ride.

I decided to take a Warrior down to beautiful, hilly, southern Ohio. It also seemed like a good time to "try" to shoot a landing video for the flight-training section (I even worked up

I don't know if that sounds fun or not, but kudos to you for pulling it off (the last landing)

A nice story though Brett, an interesting insight into your day  :)

Sounds like fun.  It's good to get out and just go flying for the sake of flying every now and then, that's the whole point of it.

Wow, a polite King Air pilot, thats a novel idea to me!  I'm used to Beechcraft test pilots doing bonzai approaches into Beech Factory or Jabara.

Sounds like a fun day to be out!  Wish I could be up there

Looks like you had a fun day...!

The weather has been nice lately, which has me really tempted to go get current again. I even went to Felts Field to talk to the people at the FBO. But the cost of flying has gone up around here..... :-/

Wow, a polite King Air pilot, thats a novel idea to me!

A few weeks before I mobilized to go to Iraq, the top generals for the Idaho National Guard, and corps of engineers flew into Bonners Ferry, Idaho in their beechcraft 200 (or something like that) to look at some flooding issues. I Happened to be driving by the airport shortly after it landed, and after the generals, colonels, and other officials left, I went into the terminal and hung out with the pilots, a CWO5, and I think a CWO2 or 3. But anyway, he took me into the Beechcraft and let me sit in the left seat and program the flight computers. He even tried to talk me into joining the Idaho National Guard as a pilot, but then i told him I was already a combat engineer mobilizing for Iraq after a few weeks...lol

I think I even posted a picture of it....

The weather has been nice lately, which has me really tempted to go get current again. I even went to Felts Field to talk to the people at the FBO. But the cost of flying has gone up around here.....

I'm getting a tad nervous about the future of General Aviation. The costs are going up, but so are the costs of everything else; which leaves less money for flying on top of it. Instructors are sitting around all day.. planes aren't flying as much. And..(not wanting to get into politics), we're looking at a president/congress after this election, that won't hesitate to throw a bevy of taxes, fees and regulations at General Aviation. This feels eerily like the late 1970s - early 1980s when GA  got hammered to the point where Cessna and Piper stopped building small airplanes  :'(

ANYway... I forgtot to mention that the polite KingAir pilot enjoyed MSFS (FS9). I talked him into trying FSX, and into exploring the world of add-on aircraft. We're gonna keep in touch.  :)

The price of flying slowly creeps up, to keep up with the cost of everything else...

The cost of an hours flight in a Cessna 152 at my local Club now sucks  

I also worry about the future of General Aviation but it seems healthy enough in the UK at the moment despite the hefty increase in fuel prices.

This feels eerily like the late 1970s - early 1980s when GA  got hammered to the point where Cessna and Piper stopped building small airplanes  :'(

This had more to do with the litigation culture than politics. IIRC
Cessna stopped production of light piston engined aircraft in 1986 due to concerns over product liability. Piper Aircraft was forced into bankruptcy in 1991 for similar reasons. People were suing them over accidents caused by unauthorised modifications they had no control over. In 1992, Textron, Inc. acquired Cessna Aircraft and soon resumed producing light aircraft. Piper resumed production as New Piper Aircraft in 1995 following new legislation (the General Aviation Revitalization Act).

Yeah.. that was right after I got my license, and a big part of why new aircraft weren't being built..  But the dark-age of GA was just as much about inflation, fuel prices and  high-interest rates. Home mortgages were 12 % (or more)..  Auto loans were 16 % ...  borrowing money to purchase even existing planes was difficult.. and that drove the prices way down. It was just as much about not being able to sell airplanes (new or used), as it was litigation.

Whatever the reason it's very similar to what's happening now. This time I blame the greedy bankers & city speculators. According to the Governor of the Bank of England "The Nice decade is behind us". http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=441626&in_page_id=2

It is, indeed.  The compounding of energy prices reducing buying power AND increasing the cost of goods, is going to get a lot worse, before it turns around. Speculators and banks,  "Got while the getting was good", and that's coming back to hurt, too.

It's a complex thing. Speculation fueled an artificially good period of time, making it  "gooder" than it really was... and now the bill is coming due, and that same speculation will make the bad period,  "badder".

I know that my flying time will lessen (maybe stop all together), if this trend continues. Partly because it's taking a bigger chunk out of my budget... partly because the flock of well maintained planes available for rent, is thinning.  :'(

If there IS a bright side... airplanes prices will come down.. a lot  :-/