Comments

David, Great point. Partnership is the way to go to afford the ownership of an airplane and actually enjoy the utility one may provide (other than that trip to the EAA morning pancake breakfast otherwise pay overnight charges...). I think, though, that the problem is the general feel of the economy at any given time. If the average pilot wants to fly and experience the enjoyability of ownership, he has to put up $4,000 - $6,000 in a share of the aircraft (in my area, I don't know about the rest of the US). This is quite a chunk of money to put down in a down economy where an average person may wind up the next day without a job. Then they are out until they can sell this share away, all the time paying the monthly club membership fees, etc. So, I think there is some hesitation at this point for most people and the decision is either to rent or fly less than they have and enjoy the daily "missions" of $100-200 hamburgers and pancakes. I did my training in 2005 for roughly $5,000 - $6,000 so I would say that what Robert is right on target when we see the cost of flying increasing as everything else has, but not quite as much as we thought. But this is only the quantifiable figure that we are looking at. What is the value that you or I get out of a perfect sunset flight on a beautiful Saturday evening, or the ability to vacation at the coast? In other words, think about if the benefit you (an individual pilot) obtain out of this freedom to do what you love and compare that to the slightly rising costs of flying an aircraft and see if we aren't on par with where we were back in 1976? Last year, we did a flight to a small airport on the coast of South Carolina for less than the per seat cost of an airline ticket. Fun flying plus less expensive and more convenient than an airline... what could get any better! Keep flying and bring a friend out to the airport with you every chance you get. Someone you take along will get hooked and look into ownership (used or new). I think we all need to face the fact that costs are NOT going down in the near term (or the foreseeable future for that matter).